Thoughts on the FIFA Awards Gala

Every year while movie and television stars are getting fitted for tuxedos and ball gowns in preparation for the "award season," another awards ceremony takes place. Equally or perhaps more glitzy and glamorous, but definitely not nearly as well known in the United States, the FIFA Awards Gala invites the year's very best performers from the beautiful game to celebrate the best the previous year had to offer. Here are some of my thoughts on this year's winner:

The FIFPro World XI
Allow me a moment to make one thing very clear: BRAZIL DOES NOT ALWAYS HAVE A GOOD TEAM!! There is a disease of thought that plagues mostly the American nation, but also many other soccer fans around the world, and I have to assume is to blame for David Luiz and Thiago Silva being voted into the World XI. Many mistakenly assume that because Brazil has the most successful history in the World Cup, they will be good enough to win every World Cup they play in. THIS IS FALSE. Again, THIS IS FALSE. Anyone who tells you otherwise either doesn't know anything about soccer, or is Brazilian (which is the only circumstance under which it is excusable to think this every 4 years).

Yes, they have had incredible teams and ridiculously talented players down the years. But especially these last two World Cups they have had average squads. And average teams don't win the World Cup. Before the World Cup in both 2010 and 2014, the majority of people I talked to reassured me that Brazil was in fact going to win the tournament. When I asked them why they would think such a thing I received such responses as: "have you seen Neymar?" or "because it's Brazil bro, what else needs to be said?" Hmmm... Good question. How about the fact that they are relying on an MLS caliber keeper? Or that 90% of the World Cup audience had no idea who their first choice striker, Fred, was. (here's some info for those of you who still don't know. Don't worry, neither did I). Or that, other than Neymar, their squad was terribly average. The only reason they even made it out of the group stages was because of some awful decisions by the referee. That's it. Finally, a 7-1 clobbering at the hands of Die Mannschaft revealed their true colors.

I appreciate any who made it through that rant, but it was necessary to expose the wrong decision it was to include Luiz and Silva (a better case can be made for Silva, but he still doesn't deserve to be there) in the World XI, and to try and understand why those who voted them in did so. Voters, take note. Luiz played half the year as a third string center back at Chelsea, and has won 0 trophies. What about Diego Godin, who was the driving force behind Atletico Madrid's breathtaking run to the Champions League final and La Liga trophy and, in fact, scored the goals to secure La Liga and take the lead in the Champions League final?

I can agree mostly with the remainder of the squad, although I'm having trouble remembering what Iniesta accomplished this past year to deserve a spot. In fact, someone needs to check if Robben is aging like the rest of the human population; the guy continues to be a phenomenol player year after year.

The Puskas Award
This is my absolute favorite award. If you'd like to know why, kindly view the following video:

Am I right?! I could watch that over and over all da..... oh I have been. The best thing about it is that a case could be made for every one of those goals to win the Puskas. The Flying Dutchman was as extraordinary as it was unexpected. The MLS contribution from our friends in Vancouver is testament to how far Major League Soccer has come. I'm afraid Zlatan Ibrahimovich is undone by his own achievements. His goal undoubtedly had us (and him for that matter) saying: "That's just Zlatan being Zlatan." Stephanie Ro.... hold on.

Stephanie Roche deserves a paragraph all her own. To be in a small league as she is and to juggle the ball over her head not once but TWICE and subsequently full volley it in from outside the 18 yard box is UNHEARD OF. Let us not be mistakenly pulled into the thought that her goal took any less technical skill than the Rodriguez goal that won the award required. Stephanie received 1.1 million votes. That's almost ONE THIRD of the votes that were cast. Hats off to Ms. Roche.

The prodigious James Rodriguez had circumstance on his side. Not taking anything away from the enormous amount of skill it takes to pick a ball out of the air like that with as much power and placement as he did, the fact that it was scored in the largest tournament in the world pushed it into the winners circle.

The Ballon D'Or
Was there ever any question? Yes, Neuer is slave to history (a keeper hasn't won the award since Lev Yashin won it in 1963), but Ronaldo was head and shoulders above the competition. What can be said about this guy?! He defies superlative. Perhaps this video begins to tell the tale:

There are innumerable articles detailing the statistics, the best one (and probably the most fun to read) is here, so I won't go into that. I will highlight that he scored 9 of his 61 goals last year with his weaker foot. NINE! Also, that he averaged over a goal a game in both La Liga and the Champions League. Think about how many goals you usually see in a soccer match. Now let the realization sink in that for ONE PLAYER to average over a goal a game is pretty special. He also led the charge to the Champions League trophy. One thing you'll soon realize as you look at previous winners is that most often the winner led his team to a major trophy. Messi is exquisitely  talented, but his numbers don't stack up, and Barcelona didn't win anything last year.


In closing, I'm hoping to get back to posting fairly regularly again. I realize that all my readers (Mom and Dad) have probably missed my mindless drabble on this wonderful sport, but mostly I just really miss writing about it.

As always, Joga Bonito.

-Dallin