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The 2018 FIFA World Cup is done and dusted, leaving us all with another four-year wait until the next instalment of the wonderful tournament takes place in Qatar.
With all the football done, it’s time to arbitrarily (and figuratively) hand out our end-of-tournament awards, from the regular ones like best goal, player, game and so on, to the slightly left-field ones.
Let’s get to it.
Can’t look past the official pick for this award. Modric was superb all tournament for Croatia, pulling the strings in midfield as he skippered his side all the way to the final. Scored an absolute worldie against Argentina, too.
Honourable mentions: N’Golo Kante, Paul Pogba, Eden Hazard.
(Photo by James Williamson – AMA/Getty Images)
Plenty of contenders here. Russia had everything; precise free-kicks (Ronaldo, Kolarov, Trippier), outside-of-the-foot stunners (Cheryshev, Quaresma), long-range bombs (Cheryshev again, Modric, Coutinho) and superb team goals (Chadli, Mbappe, Hazard).
But for sheer breathtaking brilliance and difficulty, it’s impossible to look past French right-back Benjamin Pavard and his swerving volley against Argentina. Spain’s Nacho Monreal also deserves a mention for his similar effort against Portugal.
Honourable mentions: Nacho Fernandez vs Portugal, Denis Cheryshev vs Croatia, Philippe Coutinho vs Switzerland.
Goodness, this was a superb way to get the tournament underway. Spain started off looking an awful lot like a team which had fired their coach two days earlier, allowing Cristiano Ronaldo to score from the spot.
From there, it had just about everything; superb individual goals from Diego Costa and the aforementioned Nacho, a goalkeeping howler from David de Gea and a stunning late free-kick from Ronaldo to tie things up (and give Ronnie a hat-trick).
Honourable mentions: France vs Argentina (Round of 16), Belgium vs Brazil (quarter-finals), Croatia vs Russia (quarter-finals).
Dalic’s tactics were a big reason why Croatia made the final. Yes, he had some superb talent at his disposal, but he also set his team up perfectly, particularly in the semi-final against England, and wasn’t out-coached all tournament. To see a smaller side succeed by playing attractive, attacking football was a real joy.
Honourable mentions: Gareth Southgate, Roberto Martinez, Stanislav Cherchesov.
It was criticised by absolutely everybody, but VAR’s debut at the World Cup was a success, in that it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
It was even, almost, good. It picked up a number of missed calls (Sweden’s penalty against South Korea in particular), made a few critical changes here and there, and its presence may well have contributed to the complete dearth of off-ball foul-play.
Yes, it still has a fair way to go (that penalty in the final was a bit rubbish). But it was certainly better than what we’ve seen in the A-League, so that’s something.
Honourable mention: Robbie Kruse.
(Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)
Is there a more dismissive back-hander in Australian slang than ‘champ’? Probably not. And the term perfectly fits Croatia striker Nikola Kalinic who, after reportedly refusing to come on as a substitute against Nigeria, was kicked from the squad by coach Dalic.
“During the Nigeria encounter, Kalinic was warming up and was supposed to come on in the second half,” Dalic said
“However, he then stated that he wasn’t ready to come on due to a back issue.
“The same thing happened during the Brazil friendly in England, as well as before the practice session on Sunday.
“I have calmly accepted that, and since I need my players fit and ready to play, I have made this decision.”
Missing your side’s fairytale run to the World Cup final?
Honourable mentions: No contest. Wasn’t even another contender for this one.
We’ll get to Neymar’s antics later, but it’s hard to look past Pepe’s appalling play-acting against Morocco for the worst single dive of the tournament. After being clapped on the shoulder by Medhi Benatia, Pepe did his best sack of potatoes impression, falling to the ground as if there was a sniper in the stands.
Funnily enough, there wasn’t.
Honourable mentions: Neymar vs Serbia, Kylian Mbappe vs Uruguay.
Impossible to go past the Brazilian superstar for this award. Neymar’s footballing prowess is outstanding. Of that there is no doubt. However, his constant diving is a blight on the game, and makes it just about impossible to get behind him.
To make matters worse, he wasn’t at his best in Russia, contributing but a couple of tap-ins as he constantly drifted to the wing and out of games. But at least he gave us some truly wonderful gifs to remember the tournament by.
Honourable mentions: Lucas Hernandez for that performance against the Socceroos (and being really, really good at the same time), that stupid fair play rule which knocked Senegal out of the group stage, that stupid yellow card rule which saw Casemiro and Thomas Meunier suspended for their sides’ knockout losses.
We’d ususally go for a minnow nation doing really well for this one, but it’s impossible to look past this photo of Kante after the final, and the story behind it.
The story goes that Kante, probably France’s best player all tournament, was too shy to ask his teammates for a moment with the trophy after France’s win over Croatia. However, Stephen N’Zonzi stepped in, grabbed the trophy and, before posing for some photos of his own, handed it to Kante to allow the diminutive midfielder to step in front of the waiting photographers.
(Photo by FRANCK FIFE / AFP)
Honourable mentions: Panama scoring their first World Cup goal.
We’d never encourage pitch invading. It’s pretty average to all the other fans and stops whatever game you’re watching dead in its tracks.
With that said, it’s pretty well accepted that you don’t mess around with Russia. As such, one has to admire the metaphorical stones of the four Pussy Riot members for running onto the field during the World Cup final on Monday morning.
Kudos, too, to Kylian Mbappe for dishing out a high-five (or high-ten, technically) to one of them. Old mate Vladimir can’t have been too happy about either.
Anyway, the four of them are off to the gulag for life jail for a couple of weeks for their troubles.
Honourable mentions: Andreas Granqvist for staying in Russia to play England and missing the birth of his second child. That can’t have gone down too well back at home.