The Crowd’s Hero at Azteca

The crowd sent cheers on 7 July when their man of the hour star midfielder Julio Gomez continued to play for Mexico in their semi-final match against Germany despite a bloody head-injury. The pachucha man drew admiring imitations from the crowd who wore bandages on their heads in his honor. He was subsequently voted the adidas Golden Ball winner as the top player of the tournament with a wide margin.”So many people shouting out my name—that’s something I’ll never forget,” said the Mexican standout.

Ivorian striker Souleymane Coulibaly was held the top finisher clinching the adidas Golden Shoe with nine out of ten goals scored by his team during the tournament. The Siena based scorer tied in this record equaling feat with Florent Sinama Pongolle another player who had reached the milestone with three more games ten years ago. Incredibly, Coulibaly scored all four of his team’s winning goals his team’s 4-2 win against Denmark. Another Mexcian Jorge Espericueta (Mexico) won the Silver Ball for his solid performance in the midfield enabling his team to cruise towards their victorious final. Meanwhile the adidas Golden Glove went to Jonathan Cubero (Uruguay) who was awarded the prize by the FIFA Technical Study Group (TSG) for best goal keeper of the tournament. The tall Cerro man let only five goals pass in his team’s seven games. The bronze ball went to energetic Mexico goalie Carlos Fierro. The adidas Silver Shoe went to German scorer Samed Yesil who stood out as his team scored an amazing 24 goals in the space of seven games.

The adidas Bronze Shoe went to Adryan of the Brazilian squad who collaborated with teammate Ademilson to hit two goals against Germany earlier in the tournament. And last but not least is the FIFA fair play award which was given to Japan who gave some stylish performances on their way to the quarter- finals with consistent regard to the principles of fair play.

FIFA U-17 World Cup – a perfect finale

Mexico was crowned champion of FIFA U-17 World Cup on Sunday when they defeated Uruguay 0-2 in the final attended by 100,000 fans at the Estadio Azteca, the same turf where football legends, Diego Maradona and Pele had revealed their finest moments. Giovani Casillas scored the winning goal in the 90th minute supported by a pass from Arturo Gonzalez as rivals; Uruguay struggled in search of a late equalizer. The goal drew immense cheer from their legion of fans in the Mexican capital.
Germany, frequent trophy winners at FIFA Championships stayed true to their reputation with a dazzling 4-3 win against Brazil securing third place overall behind winners Mexico and runners up Uruguay. The Germany team drew fervent support from the Latino dominated crowd at the stadium as Samed Yesil and co. completed their impressive track of 24 goals scored in seven matches during the tournament. The Mexican crowd threw Sombreros down to their German idols as the team made a victory lap blowing whistles and kisses in ardent displays of support.

Coach Steffen Freund even used hispanic phrases “adios” and “muchos gracias” and a giant sombrero on his head with a wide smile to express appreciation at the ensuring press conference. The attendance stats at the Azteca from Sunday’s final were amazing with 98,943 fans present. This broke the record for the largest final-day crowd in the tournament’s 26 year history, keeping in mind that attendance for Mexico’s 2011’s 52 games was 19,275 on average.