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Originally Posted by !@#$%!
probably. for my taste, james or muller or robben or neuer or mascherano were the stars of the world cup in retrospective.
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to answer demonyo's previous comments about robben's schtick, yes maybe if you look at him that way he always does the same thing, but what impresses me the most is the effect he gets to have on games, the way defenses melt down before him, and even if they all know what he's going to do they can't stop him.
i see this in bayern week in and week out, and i think it was the same with the netherlands in the world cup--he carried them as far as they could go. and this year he's been unstoppable. of course he won't win, he might get a place though (3rd?), but i think he's gotten better with age and he's underrated right now. (of course he didn't score 51 goals in a season. holy shit, who does that. insane.)
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Can't argue with any of that. I don't see enough of Robben to really comment but you seem totally right about his impact on games. And yeah, Ronaldo's goal tally is absurd. I read somewhere recently that at one point this season he'd scored 3 hat-tricks in 4 games. 3 goals in 4 games is impressive but
hat-tricks?!? As you say about Robben improving with age, you could say the same about Ronaldo. He was superb at Man U but there were always doubts about him. His time at Real though has meant that any arguments now about whether he's as good or even better than Messi at his best probably come down to personal taste. So far this season, in La Liga alone, he's scored 18 goals in 10 matches played. Whichever way you look at it, that's an absurd stat.
James had the best wc from a, 'who the fuck
is this guy?' pov (unless you followed the French league, which I don't). But overall I'd have given it either to Robben or Muller. Neuer too but I think a goalkeeper will always be a special case.
Mascherano was probably my favourite player of the tournament but that had more to do with his attitude and sheer heroics. He played last night against Croatia and was brilliant again, without doing anything remotely spectacular. But playing that role will always make you under-appreciated compared with those in more superstar-friendly roles.
Hard to believe he was once a West Ham player, and barely even got a game
