For continuous World Cup coverage, check out Mashable’s 2010 World Cup Hub, which will be updated throughout the games.
It seems that throughout the World Cup tournament, the most vocal tweeters have been from South America. Many of the top trending phrases, like Gano Hollanda and Alemania, have been in Portuguese and Spanish, and rarely have these languages been absent from the trends since the Cup began.
Those vocal Brazilian and Argentinian fans love to talk about their individual players, but tend to refer to the opposition by country name only. So a wave of Brazilian lamentations over the team that defeated them and a surge of U.S. support for Holland has sent The Netherlands to the top of this week’s team chart.
Below is the full breakdown, graciously compiled by Liz Pullen of What The Trend.
Remember, these rankings are not about team and player abilities, but reflect a “trend point” aggregation of hotly discussed topics related to them.
Most-Tweeted World Cup Teams
Rank | National Team | Points |
1 | Netherlands | 5,672 |
2 | Brazil | 4,203 |
3 | Spain | 2,233 |
4 | Germany | 1,860 |
5 | Uruguay | 1,848 |
6 | Argentina | 762 |
7 | Paraguay | 381 |
8 | Ghana | 315 |
Most-Tweeted World Cup Players
We only included players on teams that actually played in the past week, which means that football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, who continues to garner plenty of chatter from fans, has been removed from the stats below (his team — Portugal — was eliminated from the competition in the Round of 16). He would have ranked at number two on this chart.
Rank | Player | Team | Points |
1 | Felipe Melo | Brazil | 3,656 |
2 | Luis Suarez | Uruguay | 486 |
3 | Iker Casillas | Spain | 363 |
4 | Xabi Alonso | Spain | 318 |
5 | Miroslav Klose | Germany | 279 |
6 | Wesley Sneijder | Netherlands | 276 |
7 | Carles Puyol | Spain | 252 |
8 | Lionel Messi | Argentina | 264 |
9 | Fernando Torres | Spain | 234 |
10 | Diego Forlan | Uruguay | 195 |
Need more social media World Cup coverage? Of course you do! Head on over to Mashable’s World Cup headquarters, where you’ll find real-time data on match scores, social mentions, and links to all our previous news and resources.
More World Cup resources from Mashable:
- World Cup 2010: Mashable’s Complete Coverage
- The World Cup’s Social Media Evolution
- 5 Free Must-Have World Cup Android Apps
- HOW TO: Follow the 2010 World Cup on Twitter
- Top 6 Free World Cup iPhone Apps
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Jezperklauzen
Reviews: Facebook, Mashable, Twitter, World Cup, iStockphoto
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