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SIDEBAR: MAN OF THE MATCH

The Man of the Match is an award given to the player judged to have had the most significant positive impact on each match. This is most often a player on the winning side, and tends to be either a goalkeeper or a goal scorer. At theWorld Cup, the Man of the Match award has been given for each match of the tournament since the 2002 event in Japan and South Korea. Experts from FIFA picked the winners until 2010, when FIFA turned to online fan voting to determine the selections. Here are the top winners of the award in theirWorld Cup careers.

Player

Country

World Cup World Cup World Cup World Cup 2002 2006 2010 2014

Arjen Robben Lionel Messi Miroslav Klose Thomas Müller

Netherlands

2

1 1

3 4

Argentina Germany Germany

2

2

2 3 4

2 1

Cristiano Ronaldo Portugal Wesley Sneijder Netherlands

Argentina’s first match in the knockout stage came against Switzerland, during which Messi assisted the only goal and was named Man of the Match for the fourth consecutive time. The Albiceleste continued to play well behind their captain, beating Belgium 1–0 in the quarterfinal. The semifinal match against the Netherlands was 0–0 after 120 minutes, requiring a penalty kick shootout to determine a winner. Messi scored the first penalty for Argentina in winning the shootout 4–2.

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