Things learned at the World Cup – Day 30: Uruguay-Germany; Suarez and Ozil maybe not ready for big time, but Schweinsteiger certainly is

Day 30 – the penultimate day of the World Cup – saw what you get out of third place games: lots of goals, some pretty good soccer, and a general lack of enthusiasm. But that doesn’t mean we couldn’t learn a few things from Germany and Uruguay:

1) Bastian Schweinsteiger deserved to be in the conversation for the world’s best players

Not to belabor a point I’ve made throughout this tournament, but because he doesn’t play in the English or Spanish leagues, Schweinsteiger sometimes goes unnoticed, but let’s put it this way – he’s probably better than Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard at this point. He wins more balls and is just physically stronger. With apologies to guys like Xavi Hernandez and Wesley Sneijder, both of whom are better pure technical players, he might be the best midfielder in the world.

2) Diego Perez might be due a spot on the tournament’s Best XI

I know many of you hate what defensive midfielders have done to the game, but Perez was everywhere when Uruguay was shutting teams down in the group stage, and making their way to the semifinals. He did what defensive midfielders do, make a menace of himself, and he did it very well, probably well enough that if it weren’t for his age (30), he might be looking at a good contact (he’s currently at Monaco).
(It will be interesting to see if anyone bites at his partner, Egidio Arevalo, who has also done well, still plays in the Uruguayan league, and is only 27.)

3) The third place game can be beneficial for the teams involved

Joachim Low gave a start to Dennis Aogo (?!) at right back, and Aogo should have been sent off in the game’s 5th minute with a horrific tackle. I also know that injury plays a factor in Cacau starting in place of Miroslav Klose and Low wanted to give a veteran like goalkeeper Hans-Jorg Butt an appearance at the World Cup. This gave him that chance in a game that he could afford to lose.
Meanwhile, Uruguay got one more chance to show off their skills and that they belonged with the world’s best, and Diego Forlan got to score another ridiculous goal (he should invest in Jabulani stock).
Win, win for everyone. Especially when no one gets hurt.

4) Luis Suarez and Mesut Ozil will soon have to deal with plenty of pressure

Both Suarez and Osil have been rumored to go to bigger clubs (Suarez is at Ajax, while Osil is at Werder Bremen) due to their performance at the World Cup. But Osil, especially, seemed to fade away as the games got bigger, and reports of him being extremely nervous is slightly worrying for a Champions League team that might want to pick up the 21-year-old.
Suarez, meanwhile, hasn’t really melted under the spotlight, but it remains to be seen how much the negative publicity he got from the Ghana handball incident will affect him in the next few months and years, and also where he ends up this summer.

5) Silly irony happens in third place games, too

When Sami Khedira got the winning goal off a corner kick (which seemed to be defended differently by Uruguay), who was the first one to pick the ball out of the net? Luis Suarez, of course.

Bonus) John Harkes needs to go

The third place game gave me a chance to fully listen to commentary like “the Germans will certainly want to get that goal back and tie the game” after Uruguay took a 2-1 lead, and how Marcell Jansen made an overlapping run on his equalizer even though he had been playing in the midfield for 60 minutes in the game previously. Oh, but he corrected himself, concluding, “Jansen usually does play in defense, though.”