the OTF golden ball
1. Schweinsteiger
2. Forlán
3. Xavi
1. Schweinsteiger
2. Forlán
3. Xavi
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The average height of Harrie's team is 5'6" ... which is not in itself necessarily a bad thing ...Comment
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the OTF golden ball
Howard
Lahm / Lucio / Carvalho / Fucile
Sneijder / Iniesta / Schweinsteiger
Robben / Forlan (c) / VillaComment
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the OTF golden ball
I flirted with the idea of Howard as keeper but I vaguely remembered thinking he was partially at fault for a couple of goals, perhaps both of Ghana's?
Speaking of which, Kingson was another contender as custodian, made the most saves of the tournament I think. I think I am going to have to do an A and a B Team of the Tournament after tonight.Comment
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the OTF golden ball
Xavi
Forlan
SchweinsteigerComment
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the OTF golden ball
Harrie van Timmerman wrote:
Yes, goalkeeper was tough, it was difficult to think of a goalkeeper who performed faultlessly. I thought Howard did very well in marshalling and motivating his defence, so that pushed him into the team for me.I flirted with the idea of Howard as keeper but I vaguely remembered thinking he was partially at fault for a couple of goals, perhaps both of Ghana's?Comment
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the OTF golden ball
Forlan has won it.
Deserved in my book.Comment
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the OTF golden ball
1. Iniesta
2. Forlan
3. SneijderComment
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the OTF golden ball
I agree with Forlan as the choice. I'd have put Xavi, myself, but it's XavIniesta, really.
My 11 would look something like:
Casillas
Lahm / Puyol / Friedrich / Ramos (I know, I know)
Schweinsteiger / Xavi
Mueller / Forlan / Iniesta
Villa
and I'd only feel sorry for Robben for a second (and van Bronkhorst for much longer - for a player considered the weakest link, he performed fantastically in the last games of his career).Comment
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the OTF golden ball
1) Villa
My favourite player at the moment
2) Messi
3) ForlanComment
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I was going to start a "team of the tournament" thread, but I see people have been putting their selections in here instead, so:
Stekelenburg*
Lahm
Pique
Freidrich
Salcido
Özil
Schweinsteiger
Iniesta
Forlán
Klose
Villa
Subs: Casillas, Victorino, Maicon, Annan, Sneijder, Müller, Podolski
*every goalkeeper made some sort of howler this time round, but Stekelenburg did the best work to redeem himself.Comment
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Point of order with anyone picking lahm at left back, how many (if any) minutes did he play there in the tournament?
That's cheating, do better.Comment
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Villar (Par)
Lahm (Ger), Pique (Spa), Marquez (Mex), Fucile (Uru)
Schweinsteiger (Ger), Alonso (Spa)
Sneijder (Ned), Xavi (Spa), Iniesta (Spa)
Forlan (Uru)
Honourable mentions to:
Samir Handanovic (Slovenia)
Ryan Nelsen (New Zealand)
John Mensah (Ghana)
Keisuke Honda (Japan)
Juraj Kucka (Slovakia)
Cristian Riveros (Paraguay)
Mark van Bommel (Netherlands)
Valter Birsa (Slovenia)
Park Chu-Young (South Korea)Comment
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Picking a left back was hard. I went for Salcido but I thought that the competition for the right back slot was considerably fiercer.
Keepers too, I picked Casillas who did not have the best tournament but he was essentially fine and his stats look pretty good at the end of the day.
Incidentally Daniel Finklestein does those detailed stats analysis in the time that have some official bearing as the Castrol FIFA Rankings and the results he came up with up to but not including the Final and Third Placed game were interesting.
The rankings rate every kick of the ball and achieve a mathematical measure of the quantity and quality of each player's contribution as a result. The top ten with scores as follows:
1) Sergio Ramos (9.79)
2) Carlos Puyol (9.74)
3) Gerard Pique (9.70)
4) Joan Capdevilla (9.66)
5) Phillipe Lahm (9.62)
6) David Villa (9.59)
7) Wesley Sneijder (9.56)
8) Juan (9.53)
9) Paulo Da Silva (9.50)
10) Luis Suarez (9.48)Comment
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I know these things don't tell the full story, but... so much for Spain having a terrible back four.Comment
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They were sliced apart twice by a simple ball over the top to Robben, and if it wasn't for Robben being King Choke we'd all have woken up this morning to images of Van Bommel holding the world cup aloft.
But you won't find that in the stats.Comment
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the OTF golden ball
1. Xavi
2. Scweinsteiger
3. Forlan
I cant really judge Sneijder as I only saw him in the semi's & final.
I personally thought Ghana's keeper and Portugal's left back were the stars of the show myself.Comment
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Gentlemen Biko Clock's XI will be playing 4-2-3-1.
Kingson
Lahm
Coetrao
Puyol
Lucio
Alonso
Schweinsteiger
Muller
Xavi
Villa
ForlanComment
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Bryaniesta wrote:
Yeah, this is true. Anyone playing against Spain (or Barcelona, for that matter) needs to get their fastest forward one-on-one with Puyol on the break. But then again, Puyol almost makes up for it by being good at that kind of grey-area, is it a foul or isn't it stuff, when he's huffing and puffing after someone. He was lucky to get away with it last night, true, but then a lot of people were lucky last night.They were sliced apart twice by a simple ball over the top to Robben, and if it wasn't for Robben being King Choke we'd all have woken up this morning to images of Van Bommel holding the world cup aloft.
But you won't find that in the stats.
But it's like I said on the other thread, Spain's back four don't operate like a regular back four. Because of how they play, you're going to get the odd horrible moment like that. But the number of clear chances for the opposition in an average match ends up being about the same as you'd expect any decent defence to give away. And they give you more going forward.
I've ended up cheerleading for them on here, but I'm not trying to suggest they're Tassotti-Baresi-Costacurta-Maldini mark II or anything like that. They could do with some full backs who can defend properly, for a start. I just think that in their way they're a perfectly effective back four (and Pique is a world class centre back whichever way you look at it). Their "goals against" tally in the knockout rounds is one stat which really does tell you something.Comment
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the OTF golden ball
Casillas
Lahm Pique Lugano Coentrăo
Robben Pérez Xavi Müller
Forlan VillaComment
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You know, there are always the occasional exceptions to the rule but the couple of chances the Dutch had were created by Robben and / or Sneijder who are two of the best players in the world just now.They were sliced apart twice by a simple ball over the top to Robben, and if it wasn't for Robben being King Choke we'd all have woken up this morning to images of Van Bommel holding the world cup aloft.
But you won't find that in the stats
I don't think it's a disgrace to yield the odd chance to this pair, there were not very many after all and the stats over the tournament show Spain conceded a single avoidable goal in their 7 games. Surely that bigger picture tells more than the odd incident here and there.
Their defence is excellent. They have certainly one of the best three keepers in the world. Puyol has miraculously recovered form over the past couple of years to once again be a powerful and determined stopper, a perfect complement to the elegant and brilliant Pique - who was it said he couldn't defend before the tournament TMK. Jeez.
Capdevilla is actually quite a traditional fullback, he does get forward but he is more a defender who attacks than a midfielder who defends sort of fullback. This works well, he stays and Sergio Ramos goes often. He is another player I have argued a number of times with people on here (TMK, Analogue, TG) and I hope those who were critical of him are seeing what an asset he is to his team. He is maturing and the mistakes are dropping out of his game leaving a powerful and skillful player who provides so many different elements in his game.
As well as their defensive capabilities, as Taylor was touching upon they are an object lesson in defenders comfortable on the ball who can function as the first line of attack as well as the last line of defence - Terry and co. should take note of how they play. As good as the midfield is, the ball has to arrive to them in the first place and it does reliably from the defence. They also have the intelligence and that comfort on the ball to be able to step up into midfield and wait for options to open up if their opponents are marking Xavi and Iniesta and co. There is none of this rigidity which characterised the England defence with Terry standing there, if he didn't see an option he would belt it up the field. The Spanish defence know what they have to do to make options open up plus they have the patience and assurance that goes with it.Comment
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dalliance wrote:
It's only got one 'L', in spite of how British commentators like to pronounce it.CapdevillaComment
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So how do you pronounce his name? Phonetically English?Comment
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Cap-de-VEE-la (with the appropriate softening of the 'v' towards a 'b' sound), as opposed to Cap-de-VEE-ya, which is what it would be if it was spelled the way Dalliance has written it.
British commentators have had an infuriating habit, since the last Euros, of pronouncing it the second way, even though during the same tournament some of the same commentators were also pronouncing David Villa's surname (which should be pronounced Vee-ya) as Vee-la (or simply Villa, as in Aston).Comment
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For light relief the quadrennial "Kevin Kilbane at left back?!" Bored starting 11, just made up of players I liked and I can remember the name of
Kingson
Maicon Puyol Pique Belhadj
Iniesta Xavi
Schweinsteiger
Jong Tae-Se Forlan
Manager Diego Maradona. Obviously. The only other man that would pick that 11 (although he would swap the positions around and put Forlan in goal)Comment
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