Off The Crossbar's World Cup 2006 awards

Every tournament brings it surprises, and the official FIFA awards included a few. Here are our less well known awards.

Everywhere Man Award: Franz Beckenbauer, head of the German organizing committee. He attended every single match and even found time to get married. A model of German organization and drive.

First Lady of European Theatre Award: Cristiano Ronaldo. His moves are like meringue: pretty and delicate, but in the end, there’s not much there. He seems to think that it’s always somebody else’s fault when he loses the ball, making him a player who is very easy to dislike.

Overall Red Card Award: Once again FIFA introduced a new ball and new rule interpretations before a major tournament. A bad idea. Blame FIFA for the over-refereeing -- the refs were only doing what they were told. A few of them realized it would be better not to be so zealous in awarding cards.

The WTF ? Award: Zid Vicious. I mean, how many billions watch this thing on TV? What did you expect to happen after that head butt? Runner-up: To ABC-ESPN, for their broadcast teams, which were very poor, and for disgusing a black, mid-game-obscuring ad for T-Mobile as a ‘Man of the Match’ texting request. They probbaly think it’s just an “ethnic thing “ that gives Univision better ratings. Get real, ABC.

Where’s Waldo Award: Youri Djorkaeff, for showing up in the stands to watch France’s pasting of Brazil, when you told your club, The NY Red Bulls, that you had a family emergency back home.

Biggest Disappointment: Lots of competition from this one. England as a whole, with the United States not far behind. Everyone, including Brazil, appeared to have believed their own hype about how far those two teams would go. Two who didn’t read the papers and played like it counted: Owen Hargreaves and Clint Dempsey.

The Try Your Luck in Vegas Award: English referee Graham Poll, with so many yellow cards pulled out on the same player in one match, he’d be sure-fire hit on Celebrity Texas Hold ‘Em.