Nice little summary Dave. I've definitely been surprised by the names that have (and haven't) fired at this World Cup.

The players that have impressed me most at the tournament are mostly Germans, to be honest. Along with Muller and Lahm who you mentioned, I think Neuer has been by far the standout goalkeeper, Schweinsteiger has had an excellent tournament in a surprising defensive midfield role and Ozil has been probably the most impressive young player if not player of any age.

I've also liked the work of the Dutch players obviously that have fired Netherlands into the final - Sneijder, Robben, Heitinga and van Bommel particularly. I have been disappointed with van Persie however who has lacked his usual finesse in front of goal.

Other names that I think have greatly enhanced their profiles are Asamoah Gyan (despite his penalty miss and only scoring 1 goal from open play, he has actually been a decent forward), Annan and Mensah from Ghana, Suarez at Uruguay, Donovan for the US, Honda for Japan being played out-of-position and Fabio Coentrao the Portuguese left-back. Not necessarily the best players in the tournament but I think all have significantly enhanced their reputations world-wide.

On the other hand apart from the obvious flops (Rooney, Ronaldo, the entire French team, the entire Italian team and Torres) I have been a little disappointed with some of Mexico's young crop (I had dos Santos and Hernandez leading them through the path that Uruguay ended up taking all the way to the semis), Gekas at Greece who couldn't stop scoring in qualifying but made no impact in group B, Lampard who was almost as bad as Rooney at times, Stankovic and Zigic particularly for Serbia, Dani Alves for Brazil and Bendtner for Denmark. I thought all of them could've done more for their teams!


What do you think about the FourFourTwo blog Performance Anxiety?
The 2010 World Cup has been a funny one for the stars of world football. Some of the biggest names have flopped on the big stage, while other players have had their reputations significantly enhanced....

Have your say.

Yep... I was going to give a special mention to the Serbian centre backs, but decided to leave them in the end. Agreed with Gyan; he was impressive along with Boateng. Suarez and Forlan made for a pretty dangerous partnership, too.

Just on Rooney and Ronaldo. It's not really a surprise that they didn't fire. For Rooney apart from Euro 2004 as a 19 year old he has failed to impress at a major tournament and tbh has failed to impress outside of the EPL.

AQs for Ronaldo he was tipped for a big tournament last time round but failed to deliver.

The last two world cups have seen the big guns flatter to deceive. In 2006 it was Ronaldinho who came into the tournament as the best player in the world and was tipped to dominate but he had a shit tournament and wasn't even here this time.

Messi came into this tournament as the best player as the world and leaves with his reputation intact. Even though he didn't score he was still one of Argentina's best and if not for an offside Carlos Tevez, would have got his goal against Mexico.

Giovani Dos Santos surprised me simply because for a player who has failed everywhere at club level performed very well and was probably Mexico's shining light.

Drogba was disappointing but he came into it injured whereas Gervinho was very very impressive.

Johnathan Mensah(the young one) was very impressive for such a young guy and infact all of Ghana's youngdters impressed especially the son of Ghanaian legen Abedi Pele, Andre Ayew who was one of Ghana's best. Ruchard Kingson for me was one of the best keepers in the tournament and he doesn't even have a club which is quite hard to believe.

Forlan and Suarez really impressed and Squarez proved he's not just another player who scors a bunch of goals in Holland and fails on a bigger stage.

Landon Donovan proved he's not just good in the MLS, granted he proved that in his loan spell at Everton but just why he hasn't made it overseas is hard to say. Jozy Altidore on the other hand was dissapointing imo he just looks so clumsy.

Enough has been said about Germany's youngsters wo won't bother going there.

Sneijder has been by far Holland's best player and is proving to be one of the best players in Europe. Van Persie has struggled but it was always going to be hard when he's just coming back to full fitness tbh.

Fernando Torres has been nothing short of abysmal. Just looks out of touch and about 2 yards off the pace. David Villa on the other hand is proving why he was one of the most sought after strikers in the world.

All in all yeah the big guns haven't fired like they were supposed to but the amount of players really stepping up and making a name for themselves more than makes up for the big guns not performing.