World Cup 2014 team
#1
So now that the world cup is over I thought it would be good to see what people's team of the tournament is. No real restrictions, whatever system you want and whoever you feel deserves a place.

I will post mine later when I get a little more time.
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#2
A Teutonic oriented Big Grin

-----------------------Neuer-----------------------
--Lahm-----Boateng-------Hummels-----Blind--
--------Schweiny--------------Kroos-------------
-----------------------James----------------------
--Robben-----------------------------Schuerrle--
-----------------------Muller-----------------------

Many new faces emerged in the World Cup, and this is my first 11, consisted of the people I didn't know before:

------------------------Navas/Ospina------------------------
--Debuchy-------Gonzalez--------Halliche----------Rojo---
--Cuadrado-------Green-----------Perez-----------Musa--
-----------------Bryan Ruiz-----Enner Valencia------------

I mistook Juan Cuadrado of Colombia/Fiorentina for Andrés Guardado of Mexico/???. Didn't know Fio have such player Big Grin
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#3
So my team of the tournament is:

GK: Neuer - There were numerous goalkeepers who could have taken this spot, including Howard, Navas, Enyeama and Ochoa. However, none of them showed the well rounded game that Neuer did, who acted as a leader at the back, made some outstanding saves and was equally competent with his feet acting as sweeper. His decision making was impeccable, as he took risks that could have gone very wrong.

RB: Lahm - The German captain imo is the only one deserving of this spot. He's been outstanding for years and simply continued in the same vain in this tournament.

CB: Thiago Silva - As the Brazilian defence was all over the place against Germany and Netherlands, Thiago Silva was important to offer cover to literally his whole team at the back. He did well to organise the defence as much as he did, where those alongside him and in front lacked any discipline. The biggest clue to his value is that Brazil had statiscally one of the better defences until the Germany match, where without him they fell apart to concede 7.

CB: Hummels - His importance to Germany was particularly felt against France, but overall he was an important figure at the back. He wasn't perfect by any means and made mistakes, but generally did well to recover and offer the German backline real solidity.

LB: Blind - This was a close call between Blind and Rojo, as both have made themselves known this tournament. Blind impressed me a little more, particularly going forward. This was arguably the most difficult position to choose for imo, as there's not been many great LBs in this tournament.

RW: Robben - There's not much to say about Robben that's not already been said. He was key in bringing the Dutch as far as he did and offered qualities that made the difference at key stages of the tournament.

CM: Mascherano - An outstanding tournament in front of his backline, Mascherano showed why he's been a world class player for years. His passing and ability on the ball is commendable, but it's his ability to win the ball back that has stood out.

CM: Schweinsteiger - A superb tournament on the whole where he grew as the bigger matches came and showed his qualities both on and off the ball. In the final, he stepped up another gear to arguably be the difference between winning and losing the world cup.

LW: Neymar - Literally dragged the Brazil attack through the tournament, his loss was massive for the side. With the pressure on him coming into this tournament and his response to be the talisman in his team shows why he's an exceptional player.

AM: James Rodriguez - If one player announced themselves in this World Cup, it's James Rodriguez. As the playmaker for Colombia, he was outstanding in a side built around him. In addition, he's also ended top scorer and scored probably the goal of the tournament.

CF: Messi - While never quite managing the devastating form he shows for Barca, Messi had an excellent tournament when considering he scored 4 outstanding goals and vital ones too that were the difference between winning matches and reaching the final, to not winning and potentially going out in the group stage.

Lineup:

----------------------Neuer-------------------------
Lahm---------Thiago Silva-----Hummels----------Blind
----------Schweinsteiger--Mascherano----------------
Robben-------------James Rodriguez-------------Neymar
-----------------------Messi------------------------

Edit: Aficio I notice outside of James, you've gone for a completely European side, which I think is interesting given the American (North and South) sides generally did really well in the World cup. It's kind of a shame they were put in a position to effectively knock each other out (Argentina aside).
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#4
Neuer
Lahm - Hummels - Yepes - Blind
Schweinsteiger - Mascherano
Neymar - James - Robben
Messi

Subs: Navas, Vertonghen, Varane, Cuadrado, Rojo, Pogba, Khedira, Depay, Kroos, Di Maria, Muller
(07-14-2014, 01:28 PM)ACMILAN1983 Wrote: So my team of the tournament is:

Lineup:

----------------------Neuer-------------------------
Lahm---------Thiago Silva-----Hummels----------Blind
----------Schweinsteiger--Mascherano----------------
Robben-------------James Rodriguez-------------Neymar
-----------------------Messi------------------------

Hey, we have almost same team... and for the position which differentiates our line-up, both were Milan CBs Sagrin
MILAN! MILAN! SOLO CON TE!
MILAN! MILAN! SEMPRE PER TE!
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#5
Instead of my best 11, i think I'll post several things that caught my attention during this World Cup.

Goals Galore
Even at early group stage you got the feeling that this tournament was gonna be exciting, and With 136 goals scored in 48 group games (that is 2,83 goals per game) who's gonna disagree? But it's not just the number. Several games were just fantastic, sometimes when you didn't expect it like Germany vs Ghana or Belgium vs USA. That is until we reached the knockout stages where the risk increased and the teams were, as expected, much more cautious. Still we're treated to 7-1 mauling of the host and with a total of 171 goals in 64 games, Brazil 2014 sits with France 1998 as the most prolific World Cup with 32 contestants.

Goalkeeper Saves The Day
Guardian reported a rather weird statistics in that despite average goal plummeted, total shots on target per game in 16-round games were actually higher than the group phase. To many extent this can be attributed to the quality of the goalkeepers, and boy there's a lot who deserve to be mentioned. Few realy knew Keylor Navas before despite being awarded the best goalie in Primera League last season; then there's Ochoa who wasn't deemed good enough by Ligue 1 minnows yet whose body acted like magnet for the ball; Neuer who played almost as sweeper against Algeria, touched the ball 59 times (more often than, it's said, five of his outfield teammates) 21 of them outside the penalty box; Howard whose 16 saves against Belgium is the highest in a World Cup game ever; and of course Krul who swaggered around like he's the best goalkeeper at penalties ever despite his record indicates otherwise, and succeded in making the opponents think that was the case.

Referee Leniency
FIFA probably didn't want the flow of the game to be disrupted every now and then but the level of referee's leniency in this tournament is comical to the point that you could chop an opponent's leg and got away with it as long as you committed the foul inside the first 15 minutes or so. 51 fouls in Brazil-Chile was soon usurped by 54 fouls in Brazil-Colombia, the highest in history, and the first yellow card was shown long after James and Neymar reduced to hobbling lumps of meat on the field.

Zeekay is Pele?
I don't know if it's the profligacy of Higuain and Palacio, Sabella's fault for not being Maradona, the Argentina/Colombia/Italy/insert country here female fans' boobies are not big enough, or the whole deities in heaven conspired against him, but at the end of day, Zeekay was proved wrong. Again.
per l'amaro e il dolce
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#6
Ah Nalx, I actually asked people's opinion in the World Cup 2014 thread Big Grin Thanks for sharing though, very interesting read.

(07-14-2014, 01:38 PM)ZvonimirBoban Wrote: Neuer
Lahm - Hummels - Yepes - Blind
Schweinsteiger - Mascherano
Neymar - James - Robben
Messi

Subs: Navas, Vertonghen, Varane, Cuadrado, Rojo, Pogba, Khedira, Depay, Kroos, Di Maria, Muller
(07-14-2014, 01:28 PM)ACMILAN1983 Wrote: So my team of the tournament is:

Lineup:

----------------------Neuer-------------------------
Lahm---------Thiago Silva-----Hummels----------Blind
----------Schweinsteiger--Mascherano----------------
Robben-------------James Rodriguez-------------Neymar
-----------------------Messi------------------------

Hey, we have almost same team... and for the position which differentiates our line-up, both were Milan CBs Sagrin

Great minds think alike. Big Grin Nesta also gave his best 4 defenders in the world cup and it was:

Lahm---------T.Silva------Hummels------Rojo

As mentioned in my post, Rojo literally just missed out to Blind in my side, otherwise I'd have the same backline as Nesta. That said, there were others who perhaps deserve recognition like Yepes (as you said) or Vlaar.
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#7
---------------------Neuer---------------------(Navas)
--Lahm--------Vlaar-----Demichelis--Blind-- (Kuyt - Silva - Hummels - Rojo)
------Schweinsteiger - Mascherano------ (Herrera - De Jong)
---------------------James------------------ (Kroos)
------------Robben--------Messi------------ (Guardado - Feghouli)
--------------------Muller------------------ (Neymar)

I know...it's a weird formation. Big Grin

It's a close call between Blind and Rojo, but Blind did much better going forward, assisted a couple and scored. He was good defensively also, so I think he deserves to be in there.

Robben, Messi and Muller are a given for me. Their teams did better then Neymar's, although Neymar was hurt for 2 games. I am REALLY surprised that more people here don't have Muller in their team. He was exceptional throughout the tournament. This was a close call between the front 3, but I don't see how Neymar can be ahead of any of the other 3, now that the tournament is over and it finished the way it did.

I added Guardado and Feghouli there because even though they were on teams that didn't make it THAT far, they were both fundamental in securing their country's passage to the last 16. For Algeria this was obviously a much bigger thing then Mexico, but nonetheless I think both these players were among the top performers in their squads...if not the best performers.

I chose Kuyt as a RB in that second line up....mainly because he has been such a professional. He did great for the Dutch and did everything that was asked of him. A great tournament for this forgotten player. And he is not even a right back or wingback.....but he was arguably the best in that spot after Lahm. If it wasn't for Lahm, there is no doubt in my mind that Kuyt deserves that spot.

I thought Schweinsteiger and Mascherano did a great job. One marked Robben out of the game and was a huge reason why Argentina played in the final...the other was the running engine for the champions. Herrera and De Jong were however so important for their respective teams and had a great tournament.

It was a close call for me between James and Kroos. James scored the goals but kind of disappointed me as soon as Colombia met a "good" team in Brazil. Kroos on the other hand was standardly great throughout although with less flashy moments than James. I gave James the nod because it's hard not to after the goals he scored.

My starting CBs are different then everyone else's. In a normal setting, I would never choose Vlaar or Demichelis over the likes of Silva for example. BUT, judging from this World Cup alone.....I thought both Vlaar and Demichelis were absolutely great. Vlaar had the tournament of his life. I don't think he can ever replicate these performances again. I never thought he had it in him, but he showed up in these 7 games and he made a very weak Dutch defense on paper, look very solid throughout this tournament.
Demichelis is a similar story. I gotta say, Yepes was a close call here too. I thought he had a great tournament and was a great leader for Colombia.
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#8
nefremo, as mentioned above I think CBs are very hard to choose, as there were many who played at high quality, even if none were outstanding and of the defenders of years past.

As for Muller, he was really close to being on my team, but I just couldn't think of a player I would put him in for.
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#9
FIFA Castrol Index for the 11. Best in term of statistics, IMO.

[Image: anh-2.jpg]


(07-14-2014, 10:02 PM)ACMILAN1983 Wrote: As for Muller, he was really close to being on my team, but I just couldn't think of a player I would put him in for.

My problem was Messi. I don't know where is his position. He started as number 10, then moved deeper to DM Big Grin
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#10
Yes, it was purely based on statistics, but it is still quite strange (and ironic) that Messi the Golden Ball winner couldn't even make it to the best XI.

In the past, I believe that FIFA would have a group of experts (real people, not a computer Big Grin) meeting and voting on an official lineup of best XI. I wonder if they will still do that?
aka xudong
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