The World’s greatest player often finds himself in the centre of the stage with all the pressure stacked up on him. The last probable chance for Argentina to equalize in the finals came off his boot in a free kick. At his level most would say that he should have at least troubled the keeper. Well he disappointed, and Germany went through to win the Cup to leave a dejected South American team. The tournament saw a good and not so good phase for the little Argentine and some would say others deserved the award more. Let’s see how the tournament panned out for the best player of the tournament.
The start:
With Argentina starting as favourites and Messi not having done well for country in the past, this was a golden chance for him to silence his critics. Their initial games saw them come out on top with Messi scoring both the goals that made the difference for Argentina to win their first two matches. The third group stage match saw a tough opposition in Nigeria and again Messi stepped up to the occasion and scored a brace to put his country on the top in the Group.
Performance fades:
The knockout stages saw Argentina play Switzerland first and then Belgium, both of whom marked the player with more than one man. Messi, squirmed and turned but was unable to shake off his markers and failed to make a big impact in the matches. Argentina had to rely on others to take them through. The semi-final against Netherlands also saw him closely marked and he did not make any game changing moves that would be expected of him, or that he does on a regular basis for club.
Deserved Winner?
Messi failed to score any goals after the group stages and his statistics read 4 goals and 1 assist. As opposed, Neymar, Muller and Rodriguez had better tallies to boast. Of course, statistics alone cannot decide who has played well, but the player seemed a little contained in the second half of the tournament and found it difficult to break defenses and create openings for his teammates. Muller on the other hand played a very good tournament throughout being a powerful force in the German attack. James Rodriguez probably was the reason his team reached as far ahead in the tournament as it did.
Take a look at the goals of some of the other contenders:
When we look at Messi there is always a raised bar of expectation and anticipation that something great will happen when he plays. It could be fogging our analysis of the man and his achievements when we say we expected more. He is expected to play big on every occasion which is unfair on him as he is human after all. The race for the award was no doubt close and there were other candidates who could argue that they deserved it more, but Messi has done well by leading his nation from the front and the next World Cup could be his!
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