Golden Ball and other WC Awards

Players nominated:

Di Maria
Hummels
Kroos
Lahm
Mascherano
Messi
Muller
Neymar
Robben
James

James the only quarterfinalist

GK nominees are apparently Keylor Navas, Neuer and Romero.

Hyundai best young player nominees:

Spoiler:

Is this the first time they are doing outfield players and goalkeepers separate? Or was it like this last time? I can't recall.

Anyways I'm going for Neuer and Messi. German players will divide the votes between themselves, too many contenders.

Why is POgba in that shortlist? he was very underwhelming. Hype

The best players from that list imo
1-Robben
2-James
3-Muller
4-Hummels
5-Kroos
6-Masch
7-Messi
8-Neymar
9-Lham
10-Di Maria

Hames should win. Still the best performer in the tourney even after the semis. His too main contenders Messi and Robben were horribly underwhelming in the semis.

Depending on the final I feel that James is the favorite.

EDIT: Just remembered the Golden Ball is announced before the final. James it is then.

Kroos,Muller and Mascherano are easily the 3 best players for me.Robben and Messi shouldn't go near it.

Zealous wrote:Depending on the final I feel that James is the favorite.

EDIT: Just remembered the Golden Ball is announced before the final. James it is then.

It's going to be announced after the final, this year.

The winners of the adidas Golden Ball, Silver Ball and Bronze Ball will all be announced after Sunday’s Final.

www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2014/m=7/news=adidas-golden-ball-candidates-announced-2403393.html

Casciavit wrote:

Zealous wrote:Depending on the final I feel that James is the favorite.

EDIT: Just remembered the Golden Ball is announced before the final. James it is then.

It's going to be announced after the final, this year.

Oh, never mind then lol

If Argentina wins the final with Messi playing a large part he gets it by default, otherwise I see it being one of Muller, James, and Robben.

I'm not amused that Manuel Neuer didn't make the Golden Ball shortlist. He played as CB additionally to GK.

Casciavit wrote:

Zealous wrote:Depending on the final I feel that James is the favorite.

EDIT: Just remembered the Golden Ball is announced before the final. James it is then.

It's going to be announced after the final, this year.

The winners of the adidas Golden Ball, Silver Ball and Bronze Ball will all be announced after Sunday’s Final.

www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2014/m=7/news=adidas-golden-ball-candidates-announced-2403393.html

Does it mean performances in the final will be counted too?

junkyard wrote:Does it mean performances in the final will be counted too?

"Headed by Jean-Paul Brigger, the FIFA Technical Study Group assesses the football played in each of the 64 matches at the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™"

So yes, it seems.

messi if argentina win it.

otherwise my pick will be robben james kroos.

rwo power wrote:I'm not amused that Manuel Neuer didn't make the Golden Ball shortlist. He played as CB additionally to GK.

He probably played CB more than GK lol, anyway apart from the sweeping stuff i can't remember Neuer making that many saves.

To me Navas has been the best GK of the WC.

Hope Robben doesnt win it.Would be quite undeserved if he did.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

apart from the sweeping stuff i can't remember Neuer making that many saves.

To me Navas has been the best GK of the WC.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:He probably played CB more than GK lol, anyway apart from the sweeping stuff i can't remember Neuer making that many saves.

According to FIFA.com, Manuel Neuer made 25 saves in 6 games, while Keylor Navas made 21 saves in 5 games.

Here: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y=2014/m=7/news=finalists-in-contention-for-golden-glove-2403278.html

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Is this the first time they are doing outfield players and goalkeepers separate? Or was it like this last time? I can't recall.

Anyways I'm going for Neuer and Messi. German players will divide the votes between themselves,  too many contenders.

There is no official declaration saying goalkeepers are to be excluded as far as I know and if that happened I would be very against it. All players should compete for the big prizes except of course specific prizes. Neuer's exclusion is so baffling. Lahm and Di Maria's inclusions aren't very convincing.

Zealous wrote:Depending on the final I feel that James is the favorite.

EDIT: Just remembered the Golden Ball is announced before the final. James it is then.

I can't disagree with that.

I have to reluctantly admit that Messi so far hasn't done quite enough to win the golden ball. If he has an amazing final and wins the trophy then it could be him but otherwise James is probably still the best candidate. The likes of Muller and Kroos having a great final and winning the golden ball is also a possibility.

BTW golden ball is not announced before the final. The problem is that the voting opens before the final. Since some people vote before the final is completed at times performances in the final have less impact. It would be great if voting/discussions opened only after the final as happens at Euros.

rwo power wrote:I'm not amused that Manuel Neuer didn't make the Golden Ball shortlist. He played as CB additionally to GK.

Neither am I and would like an explanation. People still remember that Oliver Kahn won the prize in WC 2002. To exclude Neuer even from the possibility of winning it seems very unjust.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:To me Navas has been the best GK of the WC.

I think it's debatable. The fairest solution that I can think of is to have both Neuer and Navas in the golden ball shortlist instead of Lahm and Di Maria. Garay is also a possibility for inclusion.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

rwo power wrote:I'm not amused that Manuel Neuer didn't make the Golden Ball shortlist. He played as CB additionally to GK.

He probably played CB more than GK lol, anyway apart from the sweeping stuff i can't remember Neuer making that many saves.

To me Navas has been the best GK of the WC.

I'm not kidding, some of that lack in remembrance stems from the way Neuer makes his saves. The harder the save was, the more of an innocuous face he makes afterwards and the faster he  throws the ball back in play - "move on nothing to see here".

It's pretty hilarious actually.

Other keepers usually throw themselves on the ground with the ball and take a heavy breath, so people can reflect on what a save they made.

Also, I think it's pretty wrong thinking to not consider the sweeping interceptions as equivalent to 'saves', and he made some spectacular ones that no other gk would pull.

But, as we saw with the opta stuff, statistics don't understand and capture such complexities lol, and I guess statistics are influential for these kinds of lists and rankings.