"Iron" Robben, the Golden Boy, and Messi the Messiah

This tournament has plenty of star players in it. So far some of the big names have really proved why they are so famous. Neymar, the golden boy, has played well in front of his home country, very well. I've always liked Neymar because he was one of those typical young players that had all the hype about them. Instead of following the trend and not being that good of a player, just being all hype, he actually proved that he could play very well. Plus he's entertaining to watch. I've been a fan of Arjen Robben for awhile ever since I started watching Bayern Munich play a few years ago. He looks like an old man but he's very pacey and has a magical left foot. A left foot that rivals that of Leo Messi. Messi, who as I've stated before is not my favorite player, really needed to have a great World Cup. So far, he has done that pretty well.

All three of those players has helped their country tremendously so far. They will be needed even more in the knockout stages of this tournament.

The Netherlands take on Mexico in the round of 16. I think the Dutch will handle them pretty well,
but Mexico did hold the Brazilians to a 0-0 draw. Arjen Robben has 3 goals and 1 assist so far in the World Cup. Two of his goals came in the dismantling of the former World Champion Spain. One of them was very important because it gave Holland the lead and the second one was a World Class goal as he stormed down the pitch with 99 pace (FIFA 14 reference), made Casillias fall to the ground, and hit a nice shot into the goal. He scored the first goal vs Australia and had the assist to Memphis Depay in the Chile game. Robben has looked very quick and he also got his mind set right for this tournament. He always knows where to be on the field, he's a pretty hard worker and he is a great compliment to Robin Van Persie and Wesley Sneijder. Robben could be up there for player of the tournament so far.

Neymar had all the pressure in the world on him at the beginning of this tournament. After getting down 1-0 to Croatia it had to be him to tie the game up 1-1. He went on to score a penalty in that game after Fred flopped like fish. Neymar also scored 2 very good goals against Cameroon. Brazil needs his pace and trickiness to succeed in this tournament. Although he hasn't bagged
an assist yet, he can pick out a great pass every now and then. After having all of Brazil's hopes placed on him through commercials, advertisements, etc, he has really proved how good he is.

When I have seen Messi play for Barcelona, which is not many times, I was never that impressed with him. I heard he could do some great things and that's why he's been FIFA player of the year so many times. Maybe I just always caught him on TV when he was having a bad game. So far this tournament he scored a great goal against Bosnia from outside of the box after running past a few players, he scored a cracker of a goal to give Argentina 3 points against Iran in stoppage time, and yesterday he scored 2 goals against Nigeria. Many people have Argentina going all the way and lifting the World Cup Trophy in Rio. They won't be able to do it without their star man.

It will be interesting to see how Robben, Neymar, and Messi play in the knock out rounds. All three of their countries have plenty of talent but just wouldn't be complete without them.