The Monday Miscellany Awards 2009

PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Holder: Lionel Messi

Honourable mentions must go to Lionel Messi, who has spearheaded Barcelona’s charge to six trophies in 2009; and Edin Dzeko, whose preposterous quantities of goals propelled Wolfsburg to an improbably German league title and and Bosnia-Herzegovina to the World Cup play-offs.

In the end, and on the basis that outstanding performance for both club and country is imperative for TMM’s Player award, it is a straight fight between Barça’s Spanish internationals Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta.  Both of them were integral parts to Barcelona’s success and Spain’s record-equalling unbeaten international run.  Iniesta missing the Confederations Cup through injury, though, means Xavi sneaks the title at the final post.

TEAM OF THE YEAR – Holder: Spain

Where to start?  Brazil won the FIFA Confederations Cup though were hardly outstanding throughout the tournament, needing a last minute penalty to stave off the magnificent Egyptians before having to come back from 2-0 down to defeat the United States in the Final at Ellis Park.

Club football has produced just one outstanding team in 2008, Barcelona, who have managed to marry an idealistic aesthetic approach to their game with a phenomenal ability to acquire silverware.  This will not go unrewarded on this page but now is not the time.

It would be remiss, though, to ignore World Cup qualification and the miracles worked by some of the more surprising sides who have booked their passage to South Africa next June.  New Zealand are disqualified on account of not having played any decent sides, while Slovakia’s qualified thanks to an own goal in a Polish snowstorm despite, as England proved in their one-sided Wembley friendly in March, being rubbish.

With a nod to runner-up Chile, who, under Marcelo Bielsa, have become a tactical fascination as well as one of the most watchable teams in international football, the winners are Slovenia.  Their qualification for any tournament is extraordinary, given their population of barely two million, lack of any real footballing pedigree and being placed in an ever-unpredictable qualifying group with the Czech Republic, Poland, Northern Ireland and Slovakia.  Then, in their final win over Russia, they were obliged to beat the strongest team in the UEFA play-off draw.

Slovenia made Euro 2000 and the World Cup in 2002 via play-off victories against Ukraine and Romania respectively but then they had Zlatko Zahovic, an internationally renowned player, to direct the show.  They have worked miracles in achieving qualification again, with an almost entirely new group of players of which none are household names.

Nor did they scrape through with good fortune; in 2009 they retrieved an awkward position in Group 3 by thrashing Poland 3-0 in Maribor; a brilliant, devastating performance.  They then had to win in Slovakia to keep their chance of winning the group alive and did, 2-0; a brave and affirming performance.

Though Slovakia saved themselves with that win on Chorzów’s snow, Slovenia fought back when 2-0 down to Russia in Moscow, bagging a late away goal and in fact should have drawn, with only a late Igor Akinfeev save keeping them out.  In the second leg in Maribor, they outplayed Guus Hiddink’s wards with an intelligent but positive game; Zlatko Dedic’s goal taking them to the finals.

CLUB OF THE YEAR – Holder: Hull City

Barcelona are the obvious winners, having just added the FIFA Club World Cup to their clean sweep in 2009, winning every competition in which they’ve competed.  La Liga, the Copa del Rey, the UEFA Champions League, the Supercopa de España and the UEFA Super Cup were already in the bag.

The club’s achievements and quality of football just about offsets their scandalous ‘victory’ (due solely to the confounded away goals rule) in the semi-final over Chelsea, in which they performed terribly and got away with murder in their own penalty area.  Their merciless victory over Manchester Utd in the Rome Final, though, confirmed their status as the world’s finest club team.

MANAGER OF THE YEAR – Holder: Fabio Capello

Guus Hiddink, for his resuscitation of Chelsea in the first half of the year, is an obvious candidate; he slips up on account of failing to take Russia’s most talented side since the fall of the iron curtain to the World Cup.

Pep Guardiola, the Barcelona coach, takes the award for being able so quickly to restore the footballing beauty of the better part of Frank Rijkaard’s reign at Camp Nou.  He got an extra year out of Samuel Eto’o, the devastating Cameroonian striker thought by most to be leaving along with Rijkaard in 2008; he is also now reaping rewards from his time as Barcelona’s ‘B’ team coach, bringing through young talents such as Sergi Busquets and Pedro Rodríguez, who has already scored in all six competitions the Catalan giants have played in this season.

GOAL OF THE YEAR – Holder: Ricardo Fuller

So many candidates this year, it’s worth a run-down.  Just missing out on the Goal award are Katlego Mphela, for his stunning free-kick for South Africa against Spain; Claudio Marchisio, for his brilliantly adept winning goal for Juventus against Inter; and the obvious long-range effort from Wigan Athletic’s left back Maynor Figueroa.

Who could forget Israel Castro’s thunderbolt for Mexico against the United States, or Didier Drogba capping a wonderful team move for Chelsea at Bolton?  Fernando Torres’s wonder-goal for Liverpool against Blackburn Rovers was poignant, coming as it did on the day they commemorated the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy.

The winner, though, is a goal of technical brilliance scored against opposition as imposing as they come.  I do not have to work very hard to defend myself against charges of bias when choosing Michael Essien’s outrageous volleyed goal against Barcelona, arguably the greatest goal Stamford Bridge has ever witnessed.

MATCH OF THE YEAR – Holder: Werder Bremen 5 – 4 Hoffenheim

An ‘Is this really happening?’ moment came during Egypt’s heroic comeback against Brazil during the Confederations Cup but that match just loses out.  The obvious candidate in this category is usually the right one: Liverpool 4 Arsenal 4: a magnificent match; a wonderful individual performance from Andrei Arshavin; and coming during a breathless title battle, as Liverpool slipped up in their chase of Manchester Utd at the Premier League summit.

Indeed, Liverpool also take second place in this award, their eight-goal thriller against Arsenal, coming as it did just a week after their 4-4 draw at Stamford Bridge in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter final.