Start backing up the brinks truck for Forlan

In every World Cup there are players and teams that come out of nowhere and provide countless thrills to you. For me, Uruguay midfielder Diego Forlan was the top revelation in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Formerly property of Manchester United, the Atletico Madrid man is about to get paid big time. He scored five goals in South Africa and nearly every one was vital to his team and spectacular in nature. Uruguay has some other fine players: Luis Suarez, Diego Perez, Martin Caceres to name a few but more than any other player in South Africa, Forlan carried this team to a fourth-place finish that nobody could have predicted.

Uruguay won Group A and won two absolute thrillers to get to the semifinals: 2-1 over South Korea and a penalty kick win over Ghana. They lost 3-2 to Netherlands and 3-2 to Germany but in both cases they went down swinging and never gave up until the last whistle against superior opponents.

Uruguay

Best Moment: Sebastian Abreu's cheeky PK which was the clincher against Ghana was one of the top moments of the 2010 World Cup. It's tough to quantify how big your balls have to be to take (and make) a shot like that with so much on the line.

Worst Moment: Giving up Arjen Robben's header which gave Netherlands a 3-1 lead at the time. Uruguay added a second goal in injury time but that was the one that sent them to the third place game and ultimately fourth place.

Best Result: This is going to sound way too ra ra for my liking but their 3-2 losses to Netherlands and Germany were proof that Uruguay is a legitimate team and weren't simply lucky to be where they were. Granted, their path to the semifinals (could have been you U.S.) was sugar-coated but you can't blame them for that.

Worst Result: Again no shame in losing to Netherlands but it doesn't take even a bobo like Alexi Lalas to figure out that's the match they'll be thinking about for the next four years.

Final Tally: 4 wins, 2 losses, 1 draw. 11 goals scored, 8 goals conceded

Best Player: I've written enough about him to be sent to therapy so I won't write another love letter to Forlan. He's my man.

Worst Player: Fernando Muslera. There is probably no bigger fraud in the 2010 World Cup in terms of goalkeepers. Yes that is harsh and Muslera is only 24 but talk about a front-runner. He started off the 2010 World Cup with three straight clean sheets. Incredible right? It was against decent teams too (France, South Africa, Mexico) for the most part, sorry French. Uruguay only gave up one goal to South Korea and Ghana and advanced past both but when the going got tough, namely by facing Netherlands and Germany, Muslera disappeared. Off the top of my head, I can't remember him giving up any real weak goals to the Dutch but today was a nightmare for him. The first two goals were directly his fault (giving up a cheap rebound right to Germany and whiffing on a cross) but there wasn't much he could do on the third.