Ballon D'Or nominees - no Frenchies or Brits and only 3 from EPL

The list for the Ballon D'Or award, award to the best European footballer, meaning the player who plays in Europe....main reason why Donovan has not won three or four of these awards....has been announced. The list:

Xabi Alonso (Spain)		Dani Alves (Brazil)
Iker Casillas (Spain)		Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast)		Samuel Eto'o (Cameroon)
Cesc Fabregas (Spain)		Asamoah Gyan (Ghana)
Julio Cesar (Brazil)		Miroslav Klose (Germany)
Philipp Lahm (Germany)		Maicon (Brazil)
Thomas Mueller (Germany)		Arjen Robben (Netherlands)
Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany)		David Villa (Spain)
Xavi (Spain)		Carles Puyol (Spain)
Andres Iniesta (Spain)		Diego Forlan (Uruguay)
Lionel Messi (Argentina)		Mesut Oezil (Germany)
Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands)

Clubs represented: Chelsea, Arsenal, Sunderland, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich (funny seeing Sunderland in this company!)

Not entirely surprising that Spain dominates the list with 7 players after winning the World Cup. Germany's surprise run boosted some of their players while runner up Holland only have 2 nominees, but then again those are the only 2 that did not try to hack their way to a title! What is striking is the traditional soccer nations - England, Italy and France have no representation! Then again when you start looking at who could have been on the list it is difficult to find a player worthy of a nomination:

England - Rooney? did not do anything at the World Cup and his start of the EPL season casts a dark shadow over last season's personal success in the EPL. Gerrard and Lampard? Again did not distinguish themselves at the World Cup. Who else? Cannot think of anyone that is even in the conversation....maybe Ashley Cole? Interesting reflection on English footballers and the EPL.

Italy and France - their players both suffer from horrendous performances at the World Cup. The only player that might have had a chance to at least make the list was Malouda, based on how he has played with Chelsea could have warranted inclusion, but he would be the 23rd best on the list...at best.

Also what is interesting is only 3 players are currently in the EPL - Drogba, Gyan and Cesc - a telling story for what is thought of as the best league in the world. The majority are in La Liga, but concentrated in 2 clubs - Barcelona and Real Madrid, only Forlan is not part of this mix playing at Atletico Madrid.

So who wins this award?

One goal = Ballon D'Or

Iniesta - Partial due success over the past few seasons with Barcelona and Spain. The fact he scored the winning goal for his country will account for a lot of the sentiment to have him win the award. Zizou won the award in 1998, in my opinion, purely based on his brace in the finals. It is hard to separate Iniesta from Xavi when it comes to their Barcelona success so that might take away some of the shine, but scoring the winning goal for a nation long associated with World Cup failure coupled with all the success at club level and you get the award.

Sneijder and Forlan - tie for second. Both will get a lot of votes for what they did in South Africa as well as for their clubs, both winning European club trophies. The Dutchman will get much deserved credit for carrying his national team to the World Cup finals, he really was the main creative catalyst for Oranje. Winning the treble with Inter Milan was no small feat. Had Holland won the World Cup he would have been the clear cut favorite for the Ballon D'Or. Forlan won the UEFA Cup (I am still going to call it that...) for Atletico Madrid, led Uruguay to a 4th place finish, netted 5 goals and picked up the Golden Ball award as best player at the World Cup. All which make him level with Sneijder in second place.

Gyan - third place for the Ghanaian. Were it not for a missed penalty kick, Gyan might be higher on this list. He almost single-handily carried his nation to a first ever World Cup semi final. For Rennes he was pivotal in allowing the club to find success in Ligue 1. To me it was his sheer will that carried Ghana over the summer and for that he should be rewarded.

Other players that could finish on the podium - Muller, Xavi and Villa.

See you on January 10th in Zurich to learn the name of the winners!

Uruguay - the "hand of god" part II

There has been much made about Suarez's hand on the goal line that "saved" Uruguay and sent the game to penalty kicks where the South Americans progressed to the semi finals. There has been much written and spoken about the injustice suffered by Ghana. The main complaint was that due to Suarez's actions and the subsequent penalty miss allowed Uruguay another chance which they took and now they are heading to the semi finals. However the bottom line is the official followed the rules - he red carded Suarez and awarded a penalty kick.

Percentages are in the favor of the penalty kicker - 80% success rate. Therefore, Ghana had the odds in their favor that they would score and win the match. Unfortunately, Gyan after logging back to back 120 minute games smashed his shot on the cross bar. Had the indiscretion occurred in the first 5 minutes of extra time and the result been the same, would there be so much outrage? No. Because it happened in the last minute of extra time the impact of the miss is magnified. Should football adopt the "penalty try" rule from rugby - where if a try was prevented due to an egregious foul the official can still award the try. I would say no as well...Ghana had a similar situation when they played Australia. A Ghanaian shot was saved off the line by a Kewell hand ball. As in the 1/4 game, the official showed the former Liverpool player a straight red card and Ghana were awarded the penalty kick, which this time Gyan converted. Australia had to play the remainder of the match with 10 players, Ghana could not take advantage of this situation and ended drawing with Australia. However there was no outcry that the goal should have been given and there not needing to have a penalty taken. The situation in the 1/4 final match magnified the situation but overall the rule is just - red card & penalty kick.

Now should FIFA have come down with a more severe post game penalty for Suarez? Rather than a one game suspension as the rules dictate...maybe. That will not change the fact that Uruguay have made it to the semifinals and Ghana has to go home when they should be getting ready for a match up with Holland.