Success Stories of 2010 World Cup Players
Having won the World Cup, it was expected that Spain would sweep away all the individual prizes as well, but only their skipper Iker Casillas got one of the three awards up for grabs. The Spanish goalkeeper won the Golden Glove for getting six clean sheets in the seven matches in South Africa while letting in only a single goal during the loss in their opener against Switzerland.
South America got a consolation prize as Uruguay’s Diego Forlan was voted the best player of the 2010 World Cup and awarded the Golden Ball. He edged past finalists Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben and gold medalists David Villa, Xavi and Andrea Iniesta in the vote casted by the international media in South Africa.
The find of the World Cup was no doubt in the German camp in the shape of Mesut Ozil. He was pivotal to Germany’s run in the tournament and filled up the vacant place left by their talismanic skipper Michael Ballack. There is no doubt that talent was always present but Ozil has seen an exceptional rise in recognition over the last 18 months.
In addition to the world cup he was a major component of the Under-21 German team which won the 2009 Under-21 European Championships, defeating England 4-0 in the final.
Ozil introduced himself on the bigger stage in South Africa with an inspirational performance in their opening against Australia which Germany won by 4-0. Germany suffered defeat in the second group match against Serbia and needed to win the third one against Ghana to ensure their progress to the next stage. In a tight affair, Ozil stepped up with a winner from outside the 18-yard box with his stronger left foot.
Another German player in the World Cup with a similar international career as Ozil's was Thomas Muller. He was part of the 2009 Under-21 European Championship winning German squad, and wore the number 13 shirt in the 2010 World Cup. Which in itself was huge for a 20 year old player,as this number was famously synonymous with the legendary Gerd Muller and Michael Ballack.
Muller earned his only the third international cap in the campaign opener against Australia and grabbed his first goal at this stage, scoring third in the 4-0 win.
Germany faced their old foes England in the Round of 16 in which Germany’s performance in general and Muller’s in particular was overshadowed by a controversial refereeing decision which could have made the scoreline 2-2 at half time.
But after the interval, Muller scored two goals to shrug off any doubts of their winning capability. Then it took Muller only three minutes of the quarter-final match against Argentina to open a goal fiesta for Germany which ended in a deserving 4-0 loss for the fancied Diego Maradona’s side.
The sad part of this victory was that Muller had received a booking which would force him out of the semi-final loss to the eventual champions, Spain. It was very evident that Muller’s suspension was greatly missed by the German team as they had to change their playing system and reduce their attacking threat as well. Muller returned in the third place play-off match against Uruguay to score the opener in the 3-2 win, to get Germany their second consecutive bronze medal.
Diego Forlan, Wesley Sneijder and David Villa were tied at five goals along with Thomas Muller, but the 20 year old German won the Golden Boot for contributing with the most assists among these players which stood at three.
Muller was also voted the Best Young Player of the 2010 World Cup, ahead of Ghana’s Andre Ayew and Mexico’s Giovani dos Santos, following in the footsteps of Pele and compatriot Franz Beckenbauer.
This also meant that Muller had succeeded two German players in winning these awards which were previously with Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski, respectively, for the 2006 World Cup.
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