Battle of the World Cup stars

[grecian]

Just looked over this thread, how the **** did Bobby Moore beat Cryuff?

How very Scottish of you

 

[BoyBrumby]

A 13-2 cakewalk for ZZ & Der Kaiser soundly thrashes the dirty, cheating Argy cad 5-4. Trust the Germans to get the job done.

Last two battles of the round see an all-time great pitted against a tragic curio and an all-modern era affair between (arguably) the two most talented strikers of the last twenty years:

Round 3, Battle 7

Garrincha (Brazil)
World Cups: 3 (1958, 1962, 1966)
Apps: 12
Goals: 5
Best: Winner in 1958 & 1962.
Noteable for: Being arguably the best dribbler to ever grace the highest stage and inspiring Brazil to the 62 title in Pele's absence.

v

Andres Escobar (Colombia)
World Cups: 2 (1990, 1994)
Apps: 7
Goals: 0
Best: Second Round in 1990.
Noteable for: An own goal against The US in 1994 with tragic consequences.

Round 3, Battle 8

Roberto Baggio (Italy)
World Cups: 3 (1990, 1994, 1998)
Apps: 13
Goals: 9
Best: Runner-Up in 1994
Noteable for: Inspiring the Azzuri to the final in 1994 & a tragic inability to take penalties.

V

Ronaldo (Brazil)
World Cups: 4 (1994*, 1998, 2002, 2006)
Apps: 19
Goals: 15
Best: Winner in 1994 & 2002
Noteable for: Being the top goalscorer in 2002 with 8 (including both in the final) & scoring more finals goals than anyone else.
*Unused squad member

 

[Jarquis]

Garrincha
Ronaldo

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Think it's 5-4. Bit bizarre that Beckenbauer gets fewer positives than the winner, but there you go.

Garrincha, Ronaldo.

 

[biased indian]

Garrincha
Baggio

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

Escobar
Baggio

Think I may be in a different battle to everyone else. I thought we were voting for World Cup stars. Think that's a different thing to 'the best' or 'most popular' player.

 

[BoyBrumby]

Think it's 5-4. Bit bizarre that Beckenbauer gets fewer positives than the winner, but there you go.

Garrincha, Ronaldo.

Yeah, had counted you as voting for Beckenbauer. As I'm sure you actually meant to.

 

[GIMH]

It's funny though because one of the reasons you cited against Ronaldo was him bottling the 98 final and then you go vote for Roberto Baggio...at least Ronaldo made amends in the next WC

Garrincha
Ronaldo

Was gonna vote for Baggio tbh but don't like being told who I should vote for

 

[grecian]

Garrincha
Baggio

Oh and well done Cricketweb, a vote for decency

 

[fredfertang]

Garrincha and Ronaldo

 

[HeathDavisSpeed]

It's funny though because one of the reasons you cited against Ronaldo was him bottling the 98 final and then you go vote for Roberto Baggio...at least Ronaldo made amends in the next WC.

Baggio bottled it in style. There's not much that's more iconic than a major failure. Ronaldo just kinda didn't turn up to the '98 final.

 

[marc71178]

Garrincha
Ronaldo

 

[Somerset]

Garrincha and Ronaldo.

 

[Pothas]

Garrincha
Ronaldo

 

[Cevno]

Garrincha
Ronaldo

 

[BoyBrumby]

The Brazilians have their day as Garrincha wins by 10-1 & Ronaldo by 8-3.

That concludes the third round and ending with it are also Italian, Dutch, Argentinian & Colombian interests. We're left with 3 Brazilians (Pele, Garrincha & Ronaldo), 2 Germans (Muller & Beckenbauer), 2 Frenchman (Zidane & Fontaine) and a single Englishman in Bobby Moore.

Onto the quarters then. One battle per day now the end approaches. The randomiser has dictated the top two scorers in world cup history go head-to-head:

1st Quarter-Final

Gerd Muller (West Germany)
World Cups: 2 (1970, 1974)
Apps: 13
Goals: 14
Record: Semi-Finalist in 1970, Winner in 1974
Win-Draw-Loss: W11-D0-L2
Noteable for: Being the 1970 top scorer with 10, including the extra-time winner in the quarter-final to break English hearts and for scoring the winner in the 1974 final.

V

Ronaldo (Brazil)
World Cups: 4 (1994*, 1998, 2002, 2006)
Apps: 19
Goals: 15
Record: Winner in 1994, Runner-Up in 1998, Winner in 2002, Quarter-Finalist in 2006
Win-Draw-Loss: W16**-D0-L3
Noteable for: Being the top goalscorer in 2002 with 8 (including both in the final) & scoring more finals goals than anyone else.
*Unused squad member
**includes one win on penalties

 

[GIMH]

Ronaldo. He was magic in 98 except for the final and then made amends four years later.

 

[fredfertang]

Ronaldo - I actually quite liked Muller but at the end of the day his nationality is decisive

 

[Magrat Garlick]

Müller

 

[Cevno]

Abstain here.

Really hard to split these two. Both were excellent/very good at two world cups ,won one each scoring in the finals and lost one world cup each in which they almost singlhandedly carried their teams.