The World Cup Awards: June 24th, 2010.

June 24th, 2010 | by: chris | View Comments

Team of the Day: Japan. How impressive has this team been over the course of this World Cup? Just an alarmingly organized and well-drilled side which is maximizing the very most of its talents – and today, the offensive talents were finally put on show when Keisuke Honda and Yasuhito Endo were handed a set piece.

The world shall stop revolving, some six billion people stop breathing when those two stand over a free kick against Paraguay. Justo Villar best get some adult diapers ready.

Team of the Day II: New Zealand. Excuse me – undefeated New Zealand.

Soak that in.

Player of the Day: See above. A lot of the European big boys chased after Honda while still at VVV, but he surprised everyone when he moved to CSKA Moscow.

I’d be willing to bet a good many of those big boys were wishing they’d gone after him now. Rapidly turning into Asia’s best player, and he’s just turned 24 last week.

Player of the Day II: I’ve always had something of a love-hate relationship with Fabio Quagliarella. Mostly in that I force myself to love his abilities when he’s linked to my beloved team and hate him the rest of the time, particularly on the Azzurri. I was wrong. I was very, very wrong. He and Andrea Pirlo – bless his hair – brought the only quality to Italy’s lacking campaign, if just for 45 minutes. To see him bawling on the pitch afterwards was enough to win me over. Fabio Quagliarella Fan Club: 1 (+ Napoli).

His absurd pallonetto was also quite nice.

Moment of the Day: Near the end of the first half in Slovakia-Italy Zdeno Strba had a nasty gash on his knee opened up – easily worthy of stitches and a sub, with a teammate standing over and made the universal sign. So Vladimir Weiss got the sub ready as Strba was hobbling over to the sidelines to get his treatment. And then, as the sub (Kapunek?) was about to enter, Strba stood up and motioned back in only to notice the impending switch. Perplexed, he shook his finger at Weiss a few times and the sub was motioned back to the bench with a smile as Strba limped back on to play another 40+ minutes.

Worst Honeymoon Ever Award: Clearly Antonio Cassano had the right idea for an Italian honeymoon – nowhere near South Africa.

This loving couple wasn’t quite as smart.

Sweet Pose Award: Oh, Germany…

Also: Phil needs an eyebrow wax. That Bosingwa between his eyes is growing back.

The Most Infuriating Award of the Day: You’ve got +/- six seconds to figure out what’s going on with this girl’s face.

(Pick a @#$%ing side!)

Fan of the Day: A day late, but that’s no reason not to fill your night terrors with flashbacks of this guy.

Matchup of the Day: Paraguay takes on Italy in a 2v1 situation.

v.