The World Cup offered its share of heroes, villains, glorious moments and disgraceful ones. totalSoccer.ca hands out its own awards.

Best team- Italy

The country has been crowned World Champions four times now, making it the most successful European nation in football history. The Azzurri played brilliant football, mixing defensive solidity with attacking bite.
This was truly a team effort. Twelve of Italy’s goals were scored by ten different players!

Best coach- Marcello Lippi (Italy)

How the man managed to keep his squad together despite miserable tidings from Italy is beyond many. A match-fixing scandal and much more did not deter Lippi’s charge. A fantastic coach who found the perfect balance between pragmatism and flair, defensive stoutness and attacking ambition.

Best player- Fabio Cannavaro (Italy)

Fabio Cannavaro deserved the player of the tournament award, not Zinedine Zidane. The winning captain was a rock, who kept quiet the likes of Andriy Shevchenko and Thierry Henry during the tournament.

Best game- Germany vs Italy (semi-final)

An unbelievably exciting game crowned by two world-class Italian goals. Fantastic end-to-end stuff.

Best goal- Esteban Cambiasso vs Serbia & Montenegro (after 24 passes)

This goal was a true team effort. Simply stunning.

Hero of the tournament- Fabio Grosso (Italy)

The full-back was immense. He won the penalty against Australia in injury time, scored the winning goal against Germany and converted the winning penalty for Italy in the Final.
Defining image of the tournament- Grosso’s Tardelli-esque celebrations
When Grosso scored the winning goal against Germany in the semi-final, he wept with euphoria. His face bore the expression of Marco Tardelli twenty-four years earlier in the World Cup Final against Germany. History came full circle.

And now for the not-so-hot…

Worst team- Serbia & Montenegro

An embarrassing effort. The players opted for mutiny after the opening defeat to the Netherlands. The coach, Ilija Petkovic, was roasted and hung out to dry but much of the blame also has to fall on the players. The team conceded an amazing 10 goals in the first group stage!

Worst player- Frank Lampard (England)

I am sure there are many players who did worse than Lampard, but when it comes to high-profile disappointments he takes the cake. Looked like a headless chicken in midfield. No vision, no creativity and no goals.

Worst coach- Sven Goran Eriksson (England)

The Swede has no charisma and after this World Cup it appears that he has no tactical ideas either. At Lazio Eriksson seemed a brilliant coach. At the World Cup he was quite simply a mess.

Worst game- France vs Switzerland

This was an atrocious one folks.

Most over-rated team- England

We heard so much about this generation of players being the best there has been for a long time. The truth is they may be in an English context but when it comes to the world stage they looked distinctly mediocre.
True, Eriksson could not make a team play to its talents but it is also true that technically English players are very inferior to their continental counterparts.

Villain of the tournament

Zinedine Zidane ruined a glorious career with a head-butt on Italian defender Marco Materazzi. Shameful.

-Hasan Saiyid
For more insight, opinion and anything to do with Italy check out Hasan Saiyid’s Italia focus section on his site: http://www.totalsoccer.ca