World cup 2010 news

Though Gonzalo Higuain may protest, two names dominated the scoreboards this weekend: Lionel Messi & Wayne Rooney. Why? It’s simple: both are currently in blistering form, scoring goals at dizzying pace (Wayne a brace, Leo a hat trick) and thus breaking away from the pack in the dash (slow, consequential dash) for the ESM European Golden Shoe. Standings (games remaining in parenthesis):

1. Wayne Rooney 25 x 2.0 = 50 (8)
2. Lionel Messi 22 x 2.0 = 44 (12)
3. Didier Drogba 21 x 2.0 = 42 (9)

While mere goals don’t mean one nab the Ballon d’Or, they’re both two of the best in the world going into the final stretches of the domestic and continental seasons. They both also seem to have this aura about them, an inexplicable cloud of inevitable success no matter the opposition, and that does make you a Ballon d’Or candidate.

Most years.

There are two competitions which tickle the fancy of Ballon d’Or voters above all: the World Cup & the Champions League, and in that order. The Euros do matter, but not quite to the degree of either the club or country behemoth.

Which means normally we’d be now entering the stage of the season where Ballon d’Or whispers start to gain legitimacy. The first round Champions League knockouts are half over, Man Utd are through while Barcelona have a slight advantage going into tomorrow’s Nou Camp return leg, and this is when Ballon d’Or winners are made – some almost entirely (see: Kaka, 2007).

Yet this is a World Cup year, and if recent history tells us anything, you can almost forget the rest of the year. The final World Cup spot of the winners’ team tells the story starting from the last page:

‘06: Cannavaro – Winner
‘02: Ronaldo – Winner
‘98: Zidane – Winner

‘94: Stoichkov – 4th*
‘90: Matthaus – Winner
‘86: Belanov – 1st KO*
‘82: Rossi – Winner
‘78: Keegan – DNP*
‘74: Cruijff – 2nd
‘70: Muller – 3rd*

(England was not involved with World Cup 1978 for sporting reasons.)

The reason for the break in 1995 is a Ballon d’Or rule change which made non-Europeans eligible for the award, changing the entire scope of the honor, in the process also earning it a whole new sense of legitimacy. Thus the asterisk.

The asterisk indicates a World Cup won by a non-European side, meaning once in the last 10 World Cups has a European World Cup winner not featured the Ballon d’Or winner. And since the award was expanded in 1995, every Ballon d’Or winner in a World Cup year came from the winner. Which isn’t, of course, to discredit any of their awards, as leading your country to a World Cup is eclipsed by absolutely nothing in the sport, thus should be – and was – rewarded as such. But it means if you’re a professional footballer and individual awards are your bag, it may behoove you to put it on cruise control ’til June 10th or so.

And if you happen to be Lionel Messi or Wayne Rooney (hi, love your work), all you need to do to cap a brilliant season with football’s highest individual honor is shepherd your team to football’s highest team honor. No pressure.

A Washington double lifted Sao Paulo to a Copa Libertadores win over Nacional but fellow Brazilian clubs Internacional and Cruzeiro could only draw.