Individual Awards at Confederations Cup 2009

Brazil got the big trophy yesterday, but there were plenty of smaller ones handed out too. There were Gold, Silver and Bronze Balls for individual players, Gold, Silver and Bronze shoes for goalscorers and a solitary Golden Glove to the best keeper.

For the Golden Ball (donated by David Beckham?) FIFA’s Technical Study Group drew up a shortlist of ten players before the third place playoff and final:

Clint Dempsey (USA)
Landon Donovan (USA)
Kaka (Brazil)
Luis Fabiano (Brazil)
Bernard Parker (South Africa)
Steven Pienaar (South Africa)
Robinho (Brazil)
Fernando Torres (Spain)
David Villa (Spain)
Xavi Hernandez (Spain)

(Because apparently the shortlist couldn’t wait until after the tournament was actually completed)

Members of the FIFA accredited media were each asked to pick a top three from that list, and then the points were tallied to come up with:

Golden Ball: Kaka
Silver Ball: Luis Fabiano
Bronze Ball: Clint Dempsey

Not sure I’m 100% on board with that. Kaka was excellent in the final (especially the second half) but probably wouldn’t claim to have had an outstanding tournament. Luis Fabiano has led the line solo for Brazil and finished as top scorer (including two massive goals in the final – the first of which was a gem). So maybe he deserved it more.

And Clint Dempsey as the third best player at the tournament? Sure he’s scored three goals, and got better as the tourney progressed. But for the first two and a half games he was worthless, and many US fans were calling for him to be benched. Who came in fourth? DaMarcus Beasley?

I’m also more than a little unhappy with how the precious metal shoes for top scorers were distributed.

Golden Shoe: Luis Fabiano – 5 goals
Silver Shoe: Fernando Torres – 3 goals
Bronze Shoe: David Villa – 3 goals

Clint Dempsey also got three goals. But apparently his bronze ball disqualifies him. And why does Torres get silver and Villa bronze? Torres scored all his goals against New Zealand. The summer 2008 version of Mario Gomez could have done that (maybe),

Last but not least…

Golden Glove: Tim Howard

No argument there, the man was incredible against both Spain and Brazil. But respect to Egypt’s Essam Al Hadary for his performance against Italy.

A few extra awards from WCB:

Most headed clearances: Oguchi Onyewu. If this tournament doesn’t earn him a move from Standard Liege to the Premier League then nothing will.

Best performance by someone playing out of position: Dani Alves. With the score at 0-0, the attacking rightback came on at lefback, and thundered home a late free-kick to send Brazil to the final.

Costliest error: Andrea Dossena, for the own goal vs Brazil which was ultimately what sent Italy home early.

Best redemption: Bernard Parker. Horrible moment for the South African striker where he cleared his teammate’s shot off the line in the opener vs Iraq, but Parker scored two in the next game vs New Zealand and all was forgiven.

Biggest impact form a player most people had never heard of: Charlie Davies. He plays for Hammarby in Sweden, in case you were wondering.

Any other individual awards? Hand them out in the comments.

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