This world cup is all about Messi and Ronaldo, and the fight for the Ballon D'or. We saw Ronaldo score a hat trick against Spain (it was a crap keeper after all) and Messi have a penalty saved against ICELAND (yeah it was saved not missed, it was a world class save, and after all Iceland knocked England out of the Euros....)

Whats your thoughts on these players, and who do you think will come out top this year.

Two pretty underwhelming performances from both of them, maybe we will see someone different winning the Ballon D'or this year........

Unlikely since no other player has had standout years... as of right now, Messi, Salah, Ronaldo, Kroos, Ramos, and Isco are all eliminated from the World Cup. Who that leaves is Neymar, Modric, and De Bruyne as players who have also had excellent club seasons.

I did not mean to up vote ManCityDude, because I was actually looking to down vote his initial comment. Calling De Gea crap is just showing his City colors and has no place in his attempted comparisons between CR7 and Messi.

CR7 surprised me against Spain, but did get a bit lucky with a mistake by De Gea. (Does not make him trash!) Portugal was not playing bad and was coming off the Euro title, but I was never impressed with their overall play. Ronaldo is still one of the top two, if not the top player, in the world, despite Portugal getting bounced.

Sadly, Messi can't play the same way he does with Barca when playing with Argentina. A team will talent all over the pitch and they can't seem to get any momentum or flow to show that they are a top team in the world. Barely qualifying, then barely getting out of the group, I just did not see a traditional power out there.

This cup is crazy. I am glad I did not have real money on any of these teams. haha