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Forlan wins Golden Ball as awards are handed out

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Diego Forlan may not have won a medal at the World Cup, but that doesn't mean he's going home empty handed.

Forlan was awarded the Golden Ball for being the World Cup's best player as voted on by accredited media. Forlan helped lead Uruguay to a fourth-place finish, its best World Cup since 1970.

Germany's Thomas Muller won two awards. Muller claimed both the Young Player Award and the Golden Boot with five goals scored. David Villa, Wesley Sneijder and Forlan each scored five goals as well, but Muller won the award due to his three assists.

The Golden Glove award, given to the tournament's top goalkeeper, was won by Iker Casillas.

Think Forlan deserved the Golden Ball award? Should somebody else have won? Agree with Casillas getting the Golden Glove award? Surprised that Thomas Muller claimed both the Young Player Award and the Golden Boot?

Share your thoughts below. 

Comments

  1. well i think he did crap it should have been that german guy cause he got as same amounts as goals andddd more assists

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  2. I’m a US football fan [not hand egg ball]. Forlan was marvelous. No cards, no egregious fouls, just good solid football. His ball sense is fantastic.

    I couldn’t help but think, as I watched both Villa and Robbin fail to finish over and over again, that they both lacked the teamwork that Forlan demonstrated so often. Same for CR of Portugal. What makes a great player is the ability to capitalize on the other teams errors – and to know when to pass the ball off to a team mate in a better position.

    As for Suarez’s handball, what should he have done? let the winning goal score? He fouled and paid the penalty, Ghana should have made the penalty shot, rather than blaming Suarez for the loss [jmho].

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  3. nah, Ballon d’Merde works.
    It’s not technically correct grammar, but it’s an acceptable way to write how one would pronounce it in common French (kinda like writing “kinda” instead of “kind of”).

    and yes, Les Bleus were thoroughly deserving of such an award. They were truly the most embarrassing squad in a long, long time. Pathetic display by a bunch of no-class fools.

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  4. +1.. outside of 1 miss step on a free South Korean free kick he was near flawless and made some spectacular saves.

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  5. I love and watch soccer nearly every day… AND… I personally played in Europe as well… my reason for comment and concern is when I finally get all my mates from my tennis team to come over and watch matches and half the time players are falling down claiming bloody murder is sure does nothing to win fans over…

    Imagine how beautiful the game would be without all the hacking and tripping and then the embellishments after fouls… not to mention guys acting like the are hit or punched to win a card….

    Would the game not be that much better and would their not be more of the game to enjoy and love?

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  6. actually, fewer then you think care.

    If you look at world population, soccer is the third, sometimes forth sport in many countries outside the U.S. and Canada, like India (where racket sports rule) and China (where they care more for pingpong and olympic sports) and Pakistan. Those three countries alone, when combined with the U.S. and Canada make up half the worlds population.

    Furthermore, let’s not forget that in many countries that ‘care’ about soccer, it isn’t the first sport (Japan has baseball, S. Africa and Australia are rugby, S. Korea is Starcraft…and no, I’m not kidding). This response also neglects to include the middle east.

    In reality, Soccer’s fan base is highly concentrated in Europe and S. America, with pieces of Africa, Asia, and North/Central America caring as well. Part of Fifa’s problem in years to come is going to be figuring out a way to get a non-European/S. American team to win to create more interest elsewhere.

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  7. Technically, they were. 3 ties, no losses, but they didn’t qualify for the knockout round.

    Every other team lost at least once, including Spain.

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  8. Jong Tae-Se was not crying because of his love for his country – it was because he knew his entire team was going to be executed after North Korea lost to Brazil.

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  9. “Awards are fine but until FIFA fixes the problems in the game I am going to have to say the World Cup will not be a success in the US”

    im sorry andy but the rest of the WORLD love and watch soccer. we already know they are anti-american and that sentiment wont change anytime soon. im sure they can CARELESS about the sport catching on here and long as the rest of the world is Loving it. I mean seriously man. Ppl act like since we dont like it, the world cares lol. please, aside from the world cup we dont participate in any other tourney that a VAST amount of ppl care about.

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  10. Dude, your picks on offense are solid, but I am not sure about your defense picks. Not a single defender from Portugal on your list? Didn’t they surrender only one goal the whole tournament after playing the likes of Brazil, Spain and Ivory Coast? Nelsen and Alcaraz over Lucio? Maicon and Lahm are good choices though.

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  11. The best goaly in the tournament was knocked out in the first round.

    Nigeria’s Vincent Enyeama kept every single game they played close, and if you watched those games, if not for his amazing saves the Nigerian’s would have lost 7-0 in every game. He single handedly kept the Eagles in most of those games and it’s a shame his field players couldn’t repay the favor.

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  12. Of course, only one player wins the award. The question is whether it should be the best player from the fourth best team in the tournament? I have no problem with Forlan winning the award, but he was not a clear cut choice like Garrincha in 1962 or Maradona in 1986. This was a pretty average world cup in term of the quality of play and no single player clearly separated himself from the pack.

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  13. contrived? did you even see the footage? for whatever reason, it meant alot for him to represent the country he chose to play for. how can you possibly know what was going through his mind? and have you actually been to north korea to make such a statement about their day-to-day life?

    but i agree this thread shouldn’t be about politics. i just thought n.korea showed much class and respect for the game when they were on the field. 3 games, 2 yellow cards. no diving. no cynicism. played brazil toe-to-toe. got thrashed by portugal yet still played open, attacking soccer. kudos to the players and coaches.

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  14. Ha, I think it’s fair to say Rooney and Ronaldo contributed vastly more than Forlan did when he was at United. As mentioned, unfortunately Forlan did not work out at United, and was not even close to the player he is now. And yes, good thing he left the hellhole before he had the chance to win all those league titles and CL title. He really dodged a bullet there…

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  15. By that logic, which doesn’t make sense considering the ridiculous amount of talent Spain has, the award should go to a player who has awful teammates…

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  16. Well said Tony! I barely knew who Diego Forlan was before the tournament started and now I’m a huge fan of his. He’s well deserved of the award. Congrats Diego!

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  17. Awards are fine but until FIFA fixes the problems in the game I am going to have to say the World Cup will not be a success in the US… yesterdays game was appalling…the sniper syndrome was rampant… it is one thing to get fouled.. I played the game at a high enough level to understand that shin kicks and cleat stomps on the feet hurt but the writhing around on the ground is laughable, truly disgusting and until FIFA takes a hard line then it will always get worse… take a few pages from other sports… if a guy gets a yellow then he should have to run around the pitch once before entering again… if a player is injured and carried off he should have to wait 5 mins before entering…

    FIFA fix the game… goal line technology is a must, carding divers all the time is a must, faking injury is a yellow…

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  18. Forlan and Nelson proved how much one player makes a difference and makes the team better. They didnt seek headlines or criticize referees, they just played (injured as well)and set an example for how the game should be played.

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  19. Diego Forlan was an amazing player this world cup and he deserved an award for it. Muller was astounding so his awards are good enough for him this tournament and same with Iker even though some other goalkeepers stood out. Forlan is definitely one of the top players to remembered. I’m happy he won the golden ball.

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  20. I can’t really argue with any of the awards. I think Forlan was the MVP of the tournament. Without him Uruguay would have lost in the group stage. You can’t argue with Casillas winning best GK either. He was clutch.

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  21. Yeah Chase, totally agree that whole ‘how wonderful to see patriotic sentiments supporting a dictatorship’ is just too…by anyway we’re supposed to be talking about the award winners, who are all well-deserved.

    Though I would have loved it if Forlan had managed to knock that shot IN off the cross bar and earn himself the Golden Boot to go with his Ball.

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  22. Fully deserving by Forlan, fantastic performance.

    But….deserves mention that there’s no way he gets the Golden Ball if Uruguay loses in the QF round. Suarez handball, Gyan pen miss, etc, were all a big part of making this possible. Again, fully deserving, but amazing to think how narrow the margins are for who makes it to each stage

    And I like the recognition for Nelsen above, led NZ from out of nowhere to be the only undefeated team in the World Cup.

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  23. Wow, I would call it one of the worst moments of the tournament. Jong’s emotion was incredibly contrived. The man has only been to North Korea for WC qualifiers and has never actually experienced the terrible nature of day-to-day life in the North.

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  24. Congrats to Diego Forlan, aka “he who breaks Englands hearts again”. As a lifelong fan of the proud Atletico de Madrid I’m extremely happy that our star forward has received such accolades. Where are the limeys with their mediocre game, overrated press hype, and syphilistic women?

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  25. World Cup Best XI

    ———Forlan———

    Villa————-Mueller

    ——Xavi—Sneijder—–

    ——Schweinsteiger——

    Lahm-Nelsen(NZ)-Alcaraz(PAR)-Maicon

    ———-Casillas———-

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  26. Just to echo what just about everybody has said, great to hear this news. He really is the one very clear choice, he does pull his whole team forward, amazingly, and he does play with real class, as well. Hell, he even handles the Jabulani! A pleasure to watch him play and to see him duly recognized and rewarded for it.

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  27. Forlan played more like C. Ronaldo, than Ronaldo did himself. He carried his team deep in the knockout stages, recieved the ball in the midfield to create, and was a master of the Jabulani (scoring on free kicks and outside the 18 consistantly).

    He deserved the Golden Ball no questions asked.

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