Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

A World Cup of All-Time Xis

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    A World Cup of All-Time Xis

    Let's say 32 teams. Apologies if I miss anyone who should be in (you can suggest substitutions). The squads would have a year of training with modern coaching and friendlies against top clubs to get up to current levels of fitness:

    Group A:

    Germany
    Africa (combined XI)
    Hungary
    Scotland

    Group B

    Brazil
    Asia & Oceania
    Yugoslavia (combined XI)(excluding Croatia, who have their own team)
    Belgium

    Group C

    Italy
    Romania
    N Ireland
    Denmark

    Group D

    Netherlands
    CONCACAF (combined XI)(excluding Mexico, who have their own team)
    Sweden
    Peru

    Group E

    Uruguay
    Portugal
    USSR (Russia from the 90s onwards)
    Bulgaria

    Group F

    France
    England
    Republic of Ireland
    Mexico

    Group G

    Spain
    Austria
    Poland
    Chile

    Group H

    Argentina
    Wales
    Croatia
    Czechia

    Brackets for last 16 are A1 v B2, B1 v A2, etc
    Last edited by Satchmo Distel; 22-05-2022, 12:58.

    #2
    I'm reminded of Romania gurning about their failure to qualify for Mexico 1986

    "We shouldn't have to play against these non-sovereign countries who fix their games with each other"

    "Aye, especially if ye lose to us home and away "

    Comment


      #3
      Mrs. Cauecescu running the FA was definitely a mistake. I imagine Hagi and the lads cracking some beers at her demise.

      Comment


        #4
        Wasn't Nico more of an eggchaser?

        Comment


          #5
          Who's Di Stefano playing for?

          Comment


            #6
            Bit harsh to leave out Hungary who were universally seen as the best team in the world for over 5 years

            Comment


              #7
              Competition for place #33 might be keen

              Or Keane

              Comment


                #8
                I'll maintain to my last day that a united Ireland side would have won the World Cup in 1982. An all-time World Cup, no, but that one, yes.
                Last edited by Rogin the Armchair fan; 22-05-2022, 08:53.

                Comment


                  #9
                  Excellent. Time to revisit the bent referee conspiracy that stopped the South qualifying

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
                    Bit harsh to leave out Hungary who were universally seen as the best team in the world for over 5 years
                    My error. Have edited.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by Rogin the Armchair fan View Post
                      Who's Di Stefano playing for?
                      Argentina, who might therefore be favourites (Di Stefano, Messi, Maradona; Kempes and Batistuta on the bench).

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Giving Croatia their own side strikes me as unnecessarily weakening Yugoslavia.

                        One could say the same for Mexico and CONCACAF.

                        Africa could reach the last four if allowed to field all the players who are eligible, starting with Eusebio and Zidane.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Great to see Scotland in there, so that we can make our customary early exit and lament over yet another glorious failure?

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                            Giving Croatia their own side strikes me as unnecessarily weakening Yugoslavia.

                            One could say the same for Mexico and CONCACAF.

                            Africa could reach the last four if allowed to field all the players who are eligible, starting with Eusebio and Zidane.
                            The US has a higher high watermark than Mexico, too.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Though with a squad almost half of whom were born in Scotland

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Intriguing prospect this..... impossible even to choose 32 participants, never mind the squads but I admire SD's bravura attempt to kick off a mega-megathread.

                                Wales (qualified once, won 1 game!), NI (3 times, 3 wins) RoI (3 times, 2 wins), Bulgaria (3 wins), Scotland (zero knockout games) among the more generous invitees

                                I'm invoking the granny rule to bolster Ireland's squad with DiStefano, Rooney, Rice, Grealish, Greaves and Kane, and dual citizenship to smuggle away Best, Blanchflower, Whiteside, Jennings
                                Last edited by seand; 23-05-2022, 10:04.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Saw someone on another forum assessing the South's standing in the game historically

                                  Short-term: improved steadily during WC 2022 qualifying to...just pip Luxembourg on goal difference

                                  Mid-range: four tournaments over eight years, overall record almost identical to Northern Ireland

                                  Long-grass: over 20 years, the WC record is equivalent to Estonia or Latvia, slightly behind Bosnia or Slovakia

                                  So by all means, call up a couple of dead guys. It won't make you the new Denmark or Croatia

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Africa combined X1 wins, I reckon. Even if they don't call on their players who won fame representing European countries, they still win.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Originally posted by Duncan Gardner View Post
                                      Saw someone on another forum assessing the South's standing in the game historically

                                      Short-term: improved steadily during WC 2022 qualifying to...just pip Luxembourg on goal difference

                                      Mid-range: four tournaments over eight years, overall record almost identical to Northern Ireland

                                      Long-grass: over 20 years, the WC record is equivalent to Estonia or Latvia, slightly behind Bosnia or Slovakia

                                      So by all means, call up a couple of dead guys. It won't make you the new Denmark or Croatia
                                      In fairness I think most all-time squads are going to include a number of dead guys. Given the "strength" of our Championship/League One level squad a couple of dead guys would not significantly weaken us. At least we have a manager and a system worth getting behind, and almost incredibly the great Irish sporting public are getting behind Kenny even though he never played for or managed anyone as impossibly glamorous as Sunderland or Norwich.

                                      20 years is a suspiciously convenient "long term" timeframe for assessing a team that made 3 WCs out of 4 just before that ;-)

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        Before the 2014 World Cup final ESPN asked me to put together an all-time Argentina XI. They presented it on the site as an all-time Argentina World Cup XI, but hadn't included the words 'World Cup' in my brief, so I went rather deeper into the historical nerd banks than needed and included a few players from the 1940s glory era. A quick google suggests, not entirely surprisingly given how often they totally change up their website, that the article in question isn't online any more, but later on I'll dig it out of my old laptop and post the team up here.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          seand however inconvenient, it's hardly unfair to suggest WC 2002 was a long time ago

                                          Ditto 1958, I look forward to Sam analysis

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            What about splitting Africa into Maghreb (plus Egypt) and Sub-Saharan.



                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              Eccentric to combine all of Africa but not all of Ireland

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                I'd been thinking of starting a thread along these lines to while away the idle hours too, but it's very hard to come up with a definitive list of 16, or 32 nations. One of the biggest issues is how to to accommodate some of the former Soviet bloc nations, if you accept the convention that USSR = Russia, Yugoslavia = Serbia and so on. A combined USSR/Russia team would feature a number of Ukrainians and Georgians- Blokhin? Chivadze?- but post-USSR players from these countries are ineligible? Similarly, a Yugoslavia/Serbia XI will include several Croats, maybe the odd Slovenian or Macedonian. The inclusion of Czechia in the list (one WC appearance, eliminated at first group stage) presumably encompasses the far more deserving Czechoslovakia? My solution would have been to select a team from each federal nation, then a separate team for any of the subsequently independent nations where appropriate. Probably the only cases where this would have led to two teams would be Yugoslavia (1930-1990) / Croatia, and West Germany (1954-1990) / Germany. Where a player represented more than one nation I'd allow him to be selected for either, or both.

                                                As noted above, the inclusion of the two Irish teams and Wales, while maintaining a strong British Isles presence, seems generous in the absence of, say, Switzerland, South Korea and USA who are all in double figures for tournament appearances. Teofilo Cubillas seems to have earned Peru a place ahead of both Colombia and Paraguay, each with more tournament appearances?
                                                Last edited by 1974ddr; 24-05-2022, 08:46.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Anyway, it occurs to me that the point of the OP was to invite selection of squads- are we talking 23 players, or just a starting eleven? Once the 32 competitors have been finalised (see what I did there?) I'll give it some thought...

                                                  Comment

                                                  Working...
                                                  X