The 200 best players in the world: 61 - 56

I'm tempted to write some team reports with thoughts about various clubs for the upcoming season instead... but yes I should wait and I will until the transfer window is closed. Even if that means clubs will have played already. That should only improve the reports anyway.

So on with the list instead we go and this did get pretty long rather than my original intent of getting down the list maybe even in a hurry:


Introduction to the list

200 - 101 (and every writeup+honorary mentions)

100 - 95
100: Jose Bosingwa - Chelsea - Portugal
99: André-Pierre Gignac - Toulouse - France
98: Andrés Guardado - Deportivo La Coruna - Mexico
97: Ricardo Carvalho - Chelsea - Portugal and Rio Ferdinand - Manchester United - England
96: John Terry - Chelsea - England
95: Mark Van Bommel - Bayern München - The Netherlands
94-83
94: Alejandro "Chori" Dominguez - Valencia - Argentina
93: Claudio Marchisio - Juventus - Italy
92: Michael Carrick - Manchester United - England
91: Darren Fletcher - Manchester United - Scotland
90: Miralem Pjanic - Lyon - Bosnia-Herzegovina
89: Santi Cazorla - Villarreal - Spain
88: Samir Nasri - Arsenal - France
87: Luis Suarez - Ajax - Uruguay
86: Mario Balotelli - Inter - Italy
85: Alberto Gilardino - Fiorentina - Italy
84: James Milner - Aston Villa - England
83: Mikel Arteta - Everton - Spain
82-77
82: Thierry Henry - Barcelona - France
81: Thomas Müller - Bayern München - Germany
80: Ivica Olic - Bayern München - Croatia
79: Branislav Ivanovic - Chelsea - Serbia
78: Nemanja Vidić - Manchester United - Serbia
77: Giorgio Chiellini - Juventus - Italy
76-68
76: Marcos Senna - Villarreal - Spain
75: Lass Diarra - Real Madrid - France
74: Francesco Totti - Roma - Italy
73: Antonio Di Natale - Udinese - Italy
72: Emmanuel Adebayor - Manchester City - Togo
71: Mirko Vucinic - Roma - Montenegro
70: Antonio Valencia - Manchester United - Ecuador
69: David Pizarro - Roma - Chile
68: Dimitar Berbatov - Manchester United - Bulgaria
67-62
67: Juan Manuel Vargas - Fiorentina - Peru
66: Robinho - Manchester City - Brazil
65: Patrice Evra - Manchester United - France
64: Michel Bastos - Lyon - Brazil
63: Seydou Keita - Barcelona - Mali
62: Javier Zanetti - Inter - Argentina

61:

Ashley Cole

Chelsea

Left-back - England



Cashley to say the least isn't the most popular player but he is an excellent left-back nonetheless.

He has great fullback stamina. Times his forward runs very well and has the necessary skills to be comfortable in the opponent half when doing it. There are definitely even more talented fullbacks at attacking out there than Cole but he is effective (his crossing especially is good, as well as his control) and he has great physical tools.

He is fast and strong. Both characteristics put well to use when it comes to tackling, and I think generally when it comes to his significant completeness at the position, it's his defending that sets him apart from most others.

One on one which is always a common situation out wide, he is great and his team defending is very good as well. You don't find him caught out of position and his strength, pace and timing makes him good at participating in back-four play, marking and defending in the box (and whereever next cause he has great range) when opponent possession for an example is on the opposite wing.

At 29 he does have some injury history (but of course also seasons of not missing a single beat) and is definitely a player depending heavily on athleticism, so it will be interesting to see how long he can stay on top.
Generally for fullbacks on this list, the gaps between them aren't as large as all the players in other positions packed in would suggest.

There are even fullbacks outside the list that I don't think are that far off, and who should probably have been included, since after all this is an important position.

But while ignoring left and right, with just three rather obvious fullbacks left to go - let's take a look at their internal order using new order as well as the honorary mentions :

1.
2.
3.
4. Ashley Cole
5. Javier Zanetti (his midfield play a significant part of his ranking of course. While very good I don't think he is a better left-back than Evra for an example)

6. Patrice Evra
7. Branislav Ivanovic (his centre-back credentials also playing in but not as much as Zanetti's midfield play. He really impressed me at right-back)

8. Jose Bosingwa
9. Marcell Jansen (I haven't included Vargas, Marcelo and Bastos since their fullback play isn't that big part of their rankings. Jansen is trickier since it's clearly bigger but he is playing more and more wing instead it seems and that of course is a big part of his ranking)

10. Bacary Sagna
11. Domenico Criscito
12. Benoit Tremoulinas
13. Taye Taiwo
14. Rod Fanni
15. Aly Cissokho (actually I probably got carried away and overrated Cissokho overall here but then again the same can be said about at least the two above (or moreso even) so now I'd put him over those two)

16. Darijo Srna
17. Yuri Shirkov

Some notable omissions (where I'm sure I'm forgetting some people):


Fabio Coentrao
Joan Capdevilla
Alexandr Kolarov
Gareth Bale
Alvaro Arbeloa
Gael Clichy
Eric Abidal
Filipe Luis

Well all of those to various extents definitely belong on the list (making me look dumb) I think with perhaps the first real stumbling block for many of them, if we're talking the fullback position only, being Sagna at number 10.

Clichy I think still has the most upside if he'll defend reasonably. He is just pure speed and athleticism going forward.

Bale and Kolarov would have their rankings helped by their wing play but may just be the "worst" fullbacks. Very good players though.

Filipe Luis I'll reserve judgment on till I've seen him some more. I suspect he is very good though.

Coentrao to some extent the same, even if he had close to flawless periods for everyone to see during the World Cup.

Arbeloa I feel is underrated and would actually put him ahead of both Abidal and Capdevilla who could be on the down, meaning I'd probably put them at the bottom but ahead of Taiwo and Fanni at least. Abidal helped along by some versatility.

All in all then (and this is tough - more putting in order - just what I don't need):

Gael Clichy at 11 behind Sagna but with a good chance to surpass him in my book with an impressive season.

Kolarov who I'm a little skeptical about when it comes to playing in a back-four at 13 behind Tremoulinas

Coentrao just behind Kolarov

Then Bale who still has to prove some in the longterm and possibly not even at this position...

Then Arbeloa. Him also ahead of the Ligue 1 guys.

Filipe Luis the same and probably it will turn out that he is ranked too low.

And finally

Capdevilla
and Abidal


60:

Andrea Pirlo

Milan

Midfielder - Italy



One of the best and most valuable players of his generation, being the most important contributor to both Champions League triumphs as well of course a World Cup win.

I first remember seeing him for Inter (don't have any memories of him from even earlier than that for Brescia) when in a game as a young attacking midfielder he came off the bench to replace Roberto Baggio.

With his supreme technique in all actions with the ball he immediately stood out and I was convinced right from his very first touches that this was the next great Italian number 10.

He didn't look particularly fast back then either, a little fragile too, but his first touches standing out in a game even more back then than it would now and then his godsend passing seemed levels above everyone else.

I didn't quite understand why Inter sent him out on loan back then but it was a time where they had several highly paid star forwards in their squad making playing time a challenge for everyone.
Indeed an aging Baggio was soon forced out as well only to end up having several impressive seasons, being the (divine pony tail) man again, at Pirlo's former club Brescia.

But to name some of the rich Inter attacking talent at the time. They had:

Ronaldo, Vieri, Zamorano, Djorkaeff, Baggio, very promising at the time Nicola Ventola and the year(s) Pirlo was loaned out the likes of young stars Recoba, Seedorf and Mutu had joined as well.

I'm not exactly sure how Pirlo did in those loan spells at Reggiana and then back to Brescia again for the 2000/2001 season meeting up once more with the legend Baggio but it did make me remember and search for this in retrospect fascinating goal against Juventus where as a clear sign of things to come Pirlo number 5 on his shirt regista style from deep central midfield with a trademark deep through ball finds Baggio who with his usual elegance turns it into a goal behind a perplexed Van der Sar in the Juve goal.



Elsewhere in the year 2000, Pirlo lead the azzurrini to the European Championship picking up the player of the tournament award in the process.

However the real breakthrough came when AC Milan decided it was a good idea to invest in the obvious young talent (imagine that!) and secured him for maybe, maybe not €18 million in one of those not uncommon Serie A deals at the time involving many players back and forth at strange prices, maybe or maybe not, to create some nice false profit in the books...

He started out in the attacking midfielder role but at some point came the important change into a deep-lying playmaker. A historic change that helped pave the way for the major successes mentioned in the opening lines of this writeup. European Cups. The World Cup.

It was a move I have always hailed Ancelotti for making but I recently learned that he doesn't even (to his credit I guess! Most coaches I'm guessing would love that on their cv) take credit for it himself.

This is from his autobiography:

"Pirlo really helped me out. He approached me one day and suggested that he could play in a deep position, just in front of the back four. I was extremely sceptical. He was an attacking midfielder, his tendency was to run with the ball. And yet, it worked. He became one of the best in the world in that role. I stuck Seedorf out wide, with Rui Costa and Rivaldo behind the lone striker and - presto! - there was my 4-3-2-1, or Christmas Tree."

All the more reason to hail the great player then which suits me just fine.

Pirlo would probably have become a very good trequartista too. Even with the complications involved of being such in this era of football. And while he isn't fast or strong enough to be a great goal scoring threat up there, it's not like he didn't consistently with technique and vision do great things in the final third too, it's just that the one area where he is truly unique, and still best in the world, the accurate passing, through balls even from sometimes way deep would largely be taken out of his game. There are others with tremendous range of passing and its always valuable, but Pirlo combines it with great vision and superb ball control.

It was incredibly valuable to have a player who even from deep in midfield would be a threat in attack. A threat to create a chance or a dangerous situation out of , or from rather, nowhere almost.

For Italy in 2006 it meant the team could attack with pinpoint effectiveness and be dangerous with only few players coming forward. Many teams nowadays playing defensive will attack with only few players to keep their defensive shape and men behind the ball when possession is lost again, but even in transition it will often be difficult to be dangerous cause you're sitting deep a long way from goal and maybe doesn't have enough individual quality to erase that deficit so to speak and manage to be a threat with only so few people attacking.

The team we saw do it best last season was Inter in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final against Barcelona where sitting deep they made minimal possession extremely effective by as often and quickly as possible seeking out their one skilled passer, Sneijder who would then make excellent quick one touch passes of many ranges to one of only 2-3 players making runs forward ahead of him. The rest of the team behind could then comfortably concentrate on keeping their defensive shape. They were already managing to be dangerous attacking with only 3-4 players.

Pirlo at important times for Italy and Milan was in the unique position rarely matched by anyone else that the very next second after having created something in attack he would be in position to defend. Simply cause he hadn't moved! That simple. That true. He was back in or near his own half ready to defend having created from deep.
It's very hard to do effectively even remotely consistently and needs a unique player to pull it off but when realized I almost can't emphasize enough the value I think it has, or imagine even a greater risk reward scenario for your team.

This is also why I've struggled finding the right ranking for him and I'm still not sure. One thing is comparing him to the players he is just ahead of, Ashley Cole, Vargas or Zanetti. They're so different it's almost impossible, but also when looking at Pirlo isolated it is very tricky. Because in theory despite whatever athletic decline he has seen, and it can look serious at times, somewhere on some team, he could still have that value. Those skills are still there.

Is he by now just a specialist then needing the perfect conditions but then if that's in place can be the most valuable player putting the team over the top, on to glory?

And should that mean an even lower ranking then or how about much higher, since in some ways you could say that's also at least one mark of an elite impact player...

The 2009/10 season for Pirlo despite difficult conditions, that I shall touch upon soon, was actually better I thought than the previous one. Mainly he stayed healthy (well until it really mattered at the World Cup SIGH) and I found myself impressed with his work rate and durability game in and game out.

The surroundings weren't kind to him though.

Around him there was less defensive protection than ever. One Veteran Ambrosini did his best but other than that I don't think there were many teams in Europe defending with less players than Milan consistently found themselves doing.
Opponents often had a free pass to the Milan penalty area and I'm still surprised the consequences suffered, in the form of more embarrassing defeats, weren't worse.

In attack they had very little movement in front of Pirlo. Attacking fullbacks who he has always had radar-like connections with when coming forward, think prime Zambrotta, Cafu or Grosso, were a clear weakness for the team and there wasn't much there for him to work with.

Of the front three the only one with good movement and not least pace was Pato and he struggled with health, so for good and bad, Pirlo in many ways, as the rest of the team, was reduced to hand the ball over to Ronaldinho, permanently parked on the left-wing, no need (or conditions you could say) for Pirlo to make special passes at all, and then just see what the Brazilian's genius could create.

Quite a lot actually if you had people up there near him. Something Pirlo was also forced to at times, and while that did mean goals and a team usually dangerous, it resulted in a very unbalanced team and generally very bad conditions for Pirlo who is so good in a team attack that has pace and movement. But for Milan found himself on a team where it was much more about individuals. Either up front trying to create on their own or in the back among the unfortunate few (not uncommonly including Pirlo somewhere) forced to defend on their own.

There simply was no team for Pirlo to put over the top.

Current Andrea Pirlo is still an excellent passer, Short and long with vision. His first touch is great and his skills at times means he can still go past people without pace. I also think he has good stamina and he continues to be an expert on set pieces.

He is very slow though and at times to such an extent it's possible to mistake him for a zombie out there slowly wandering around with an empty stare just lusting for some ball.
This also has made him easier to mark and he is still very much a target for the opposition. Then with so little movement around him he can be made to look pretty bad at times losing the ball in costly areas.

Defensively like already talked about his greatest value has always been that he is there back in position behind the ball ready to defend his zone and that actually is more important than tackling anyway but by no means is he a good defensive player (especially not now) and he needs protection in the form of defensive midfielders around him as his slowness duly prevents him from having any kind of range to his defending and if he is forced to press will look completely out of place.

All in all I'm still not sure where to rank him but for Milan and Pirlo's sake I hope their coach Allegri (one of Italy's most promising) will find a way around Ronaldinho (and indirectly Berlusconi perhaps) and create a more balanced side than what we saw from Leonardo.

59:

Mario Gomez

Bayern München

Striker - Germany



Gomez needs to think of happier times:



Okay so it really hurt he claims, and that does make sense of course, but a goal is a goal and lately Gomez is in another harmful situation (possibly here hurting his behind in the process) sitting on the bench not able to score the goals he loves so much and which over his still young career he has netted at a fantastic rate.

A year ago it was 24 in 30 league starts (37 in all). Then 23 in 28 across all competitions. In 06/07 there was 14 in 22 and even when still finding his feet in the Bundesliga the year before that, amidst many substitution appearances, it was for what its worth 7 goals in 6 starts.

But here he is at Bayern, their best striker by some margin I still believe, on the bench.

For starters you can only have so many attackers in a lineup and Bayern have two excellent ones in the form of Ribery and Robben both somewhere higher up the list.

Then there were the impressive form of two of my favorites (and I can definitely see why any coach would feel similar!) Olic and Müller who both contribute, as talked about in their writeups of course, in different ways with different things than Gomez does. Then if the coach in connection with all the other players in the lineup, feels that's what makes the team better, then it doesn't really matter if another player isolated on his own is better individually ( not least if those other things are deemed less important on this particular team with their specific players).

Even Klose. Himself with a history sitting on the Bayern bench brings different movement and dynamics (in the form of his remaining pace) to the team than Gomez.
I would though, even if he returns to good form, have a harder time understanding him playing over Gomez than I would Olic or Müller.

Then again if as some reports on and off during the season suggested are correct, that Gomez (Luca Toni style? Maybe not quite but still) have practiced feuding with Van Gaal, then that's not something that will provide the greatest outlook for more starting time.

If he were to get the chance again what Gomez does brings of course is a very impactful around and inside the box presence. He is very strong, good in the air and while at times can look underwhelming still with good and definitely underrated technique. Both when it comes to control and finishing.
I still think a large part of the under appreciation or denial even of any Gomez skill at all come from his high profile failure at Euro 2008 where he just didn't put a foot right.

With great performances in the Bundesliga naturally getting much less attention internationally, those things can haunt a player.

But Gomez from the starts that he actually DID get last season (and in all competitions he did score 19 goals) I thought both when it came to movement other places than in the box (maybe even more pace) and general ball skills as well that he looked better even than at times for Stuttgart during his scoring goals for fun (even using penis) glory days of the previous seasons.

In many ways that's what this good (even if too good according to some) ranking is based on.

Rightly or wrongly I thought he looked very good when I saw him and while as the season progressed getting to see that less and less certainly hasn't boosted his ranking, I'm not willing to dismiss my impression totally on a 25 year old, at his club in competition with excellent players, when I have no reason to suspect he is suddenly a worse player than the free scoring one of a year ago or the one I was very impressed with this season while he was still getting the chance.

58:

Karim Benzema

Real Madrid

Striker - France



Benzema is one of the most naturally gifted strikers in the world. Strength combined with pace and considerable skills with upside.

So much so that I think he is someone who with a good next season under his belt could jump as much as 20 something places up the list. If not more.

However apart from very few exceptions (exceptions mostly having in common being universally recognized top 10-15 players in the world not long ago) almost everyone still to go on the list will be coming of either one outstanding season (in my eyes at least) or at least two very good ones playing at a very high level.

And for Benzema, despite all the tools being in place, last season did just abruptly put a stop sign to that.
Now I'm sure that's only in place temporarily and in just a matter of time with force he will run that sign over.

In many ways like with Gomez there is no shame either in losing playing time when the competition consists of other excellent players. One of them even, Higuain who with his finesse contra Benzema's physicality, had every condition in place for a great breakthrough season, both in terms of strength of teammates around him compared to the general opposition faced, and coach Manuel Pelligrini's tactics suiting finesse rather than power.

But who is to say that at some point that won't be reversed under new coach Mourinho?

They're definitely two completely different coaches and even if that reversal of fortunes doesn't materialize exactly, I will be very surprised if Benzema won't be much more of a factor this season under Mourinho than he was for Pelligrini.

57:

Zvjezdan Misimovic

Wolfsburg

Attacking midfielder - Bosnia and Herzegovina



Old school number 10 who's playmaking in the Bundesliga has just been too astounding to ignore.

Athletically speaking he is behind the large majority of players on this list but he makes up for it by being extremely gifted in everything that involves touching the football.

He was (and still is) the brains and conductor of the great Wolfsburg attack that took the Bundesliga by storm and won the league 2008/2009. That season he amassed an amazing 23 assists.

If the simple plan was to score plenty of goals by mixing a passing (and set piece) maestro like Misimovic with a couple of very good strikers then it certainly proved successful as Grafite and Dzeko finished one and two on the scoring charts with 28 and 26 apiece.

Helping their rankings Dzeko and Misimovic continued to shine last season where Wolfsburg both scoring less goals and letting in more stumbled to an 8th place finish.
Those two actually managed to more or less contribute at a similar impressive rate as in the glory year while Grafite on the other hand struggled to find consistency and in that kind of attack only netted what's a modest 11.

Don't blame it all on Grafite though because the real reason should probably be found with coach Felix Magath leaving the club.

Magath who, with a serious risk of entering into blasphemy, kind of like Alex Ferguson in England, just seems to somehow know exactly what it will take and how to execute it in order to do well in the Bundesliga.
Once again exemplified last season where it was Schalke's turn to feel his heavy handed magic touch impressively finishing second in the league behind much more talented Bayern.



Wolfsburg on the other hand without Magath just couldn't find the right balance and if you consider they're playing with two centre-forwards and then an old school "non factor defensively" (lazy) number 10 around them, it's really more remarkable that they ever did. Even in a league, especially that year it seemed, erupting into almost reckless emphasis on back and forth attacking football.

But he isn't called "Quälix Magath" for nothing of course (a mash of his first name Felix and the German verb “quälen”( to torture!) and through stern discipline and demands of hard work he made it all come together.

Looking to get back on track then, before the upcoming season, wealthy Wolfsburg has been one of the most frequent teams in the transfer headlines. Not least with constant rumors surrounding star striker Dzeko going or staying but also reinforcements coming in, not least in the form of a new good looking central defense with the signings of Simon Kjaer and Arne Friedrich.
They should improve things in the back definitely, but defensively just how much, if Wolfsburg under new coach Steve McClaren still plays that same attacking trio up front, is a good question and perhaps also an interesting little test on the (oh so much rambled about on this list) importance of central defenders.

Of course if Dzeko gets sold the whole picture changes completely but even if that doesn't happen (and for now it probably won't) some other interesting signings they've made could change the balance as well if those newcomers can steal playing time from Grafite.

I'm thinking of forward/winger Mario Mandzukic who I suspect is much more of a hard worker than Grafite and then interestingly, if he can break through already, young Swiss recent U-17 World Champion Nassim Ben Khalifa who at 18 years of age now isn't just already on the Swiss U-21 team but in contention for the senior team as well. No matter what happens he is definitely one from that team to at least keep an eye on.

56:

Rafael Van der Vaart

Real Madrid

Attacking midfielder - The Netherlands



It's possible that he is ranked too low.

The tricky thing is that just ahead of him on the list are some players I know that I want to have him behind, but then a little further up there is especially one young similar player you could say to Van der Vaart (who compared to this player in many ways is been there done that) that I feel uneasy about ranking quite a few places above him.

And of course as this list goes, I then have little doubt that I want to rank that same young playmaker (who I'm not sure should be above VdV!) ahead of the same people I think Van der Vaart should be behind. Go figure! I know I have spent many hours on this list trying myself.

Well, with VdV we have another playmaker type of player on our hands but overall a more complete one than Misimovic who's game looks more like he belongs in the late 80s/early 90s battling for playmaking duties with the likes of Dragan Stojkovic or Gheorge Hagi than in the current game where everyone works for the team. Including of course without the ball.

Van der Vaart as everyone knows has excellent technique. In tight space in the final third his skillful work especially can stand out among his peers. Like for an example in slick passing combinations creating for others or with his delicate footwork apply the finishing touches himself.

The 2009/10 season for VdV at Madrid started like the previous, his first one, had finished.
Not with good prospects at starting many games at all, and even though countryman Sneijder had left the building, the club had signed Kaka as the according to plan fantastic upgrade.

Cristiano Ronaldo of course had also come to town occupying another of the now more and more elusive attacking spots.

As Kaka struggled both with form and health though, suddenly things were looking brighter for Van der Vaart and filling in behind Higuain he easily had his best performances for the royal club both creating and scoring goals.

Of course as it turned out it still wasn't quite going to happen for VdV at Madrid and even with Kaka still out, as soon as club legend (legendary bad influence could be the more accurate assessment) Guti showed some flash, he too started eating minutes of VdV's playing time.

Including in my mind the perplexing decision to start him in the Champions League round of 16 second leg knockout game against Lyon:

"Guti and Granero are starting for Madrid in the absence of Marcelo and Alonso.

I can see almost no argument for Guti starting over Van der Vaart. He has played good recently but so has VdV all season. He is an excellent passer but so is VdV. And VdV is better at everything else plus he doesn't have Guti's history, perhaps especially in Europe in recent years, of utter failure and dragging the team down with him. I guess it's hierarchy at play."



That was before the game and while not really trying make this about Guti, but researching this writeup a bit however I came across it and perhaps (perhaps not) it's a nice little specific piece of perspective on many of these placings.

The Real Madrid - Lyon post game thoughts:

Real had an excellent first half against Lyon who defended deep which didn't give Real much trouble at all. They played circles around them and created many chances. Most noteworthy as I'm sure everyone saw to Higuain who had several.

Guti from mostly a deeper role did well when he wasn't under pressure and the combination of that and the excellent players making runs in front of him could have resulted in more than 1-0.

Then in the second half Lyon basically moved the whole team up starting at the back four now with Toulalan playing there.

Guti had less time on the ball and the whole Real Madrid midfield got outworked and failed to perform (literally) under pressure. This tactic worked even better for Lyon than in the first leg where there probably still was a small edge to Madrid, at worst, but here almost from the start Lyon battled their way to clearly getting the better of things.

It was obvious that for Madrid, Xabi Alonso was severely missed.

And not to make Guti a scapegoat, he isn't gonna change after all these years of being Guti, but while being heavily praised by the commentators he did do some very dumb things.

There had already been some mistimed back heels in places where you just cannot afford to lose the ball and just before the goal, maybe born out of frustration from Lyon's effective pressure preventing him playing, from his midfield role he started chasing the ball all the way back to Lloris. To no avail of course and while he was praised once again by the commentator all I could think was now it's going to be a 4 against 4 or similar the other way with people on their heels left vulnerable.
So many goals are either that or set pieces and of course it gave Lyon all the opportunity they needed and they (not least Pjanic) took advantage brilliantly and created a good goal.

I won't claim VdV would have been great in that role. The fact that he is better defensively than the likes of Misimovic or Guti far from means he is great. But him and the large majority of this list, the more common the higher we get, unless you have amazing talent, does team work.

If without the ball and opponents having possession:

Defend position/zone whether through back tracking or pressing and work hard.

Not fail to defend because of either bad stamina or bad mentality, and if great stamina or great mentality is indeed in place then don't ruin it with poor discipline and compromise the defensive shape with hopeless pressure in the final third or even the goalkeeper (especially not if a defensive midfielder like Guti was - for forwards it should be said that it's different and at times simply the defensive contribution that's right there and available) or make dumb sliding tackles in midfield that a good amount of the time will only cause holes in your team's shape.

Then without the ball and your team having possession:

Have good movement (of course a lot of that will be whatever movement in accordance to team tactics and ability of teammates) and be a passing option or create space so that it's that others get the improved conditions to be.

Guti I feel throughout his career has been bad at all of these and even in his prime, despite his skills with the ball, my suspicion of him hurting the team more than helping it would probably have prevented him from ever getting a decent ranking.
There are of course other players on the list who are bad without the ball. Quite a few only defensively which is (still!) just a natural part of the game but I think a general trend on this list has been the worse you are without the ball the better you have to be with it. And the other way around too of course.

Anyway that may or may not have been the first complete sidetrack in a while.

In the meantime Real Madrid was out of the Champions League once again and for VdV as the season rolled on (and Madrid rolling in La Liga) neither being able to secure games in the attacking midfielder role, the more central midfielder role or Marcelo's sort of left-central midfielder role, meant that when it was all said and done he had started (and played for that matter) less games than in his debut season.

We shall see if it's more of the same next season. So far Kaka has been ruled out for months and Guti has taken his act to Turkey.

Not a bad start.

World Cup 2010 Best of round 3: 1st team + notables

It was a dramatic last round of the group stages. One that had both very good and very bad games.

I watched on a couple of TVs simultaneously, which especially with some groups were very exciting but for the specific purposes of this particular exercise it wasn't all good since it resulted in some very divided or other times very one sided attention. Some matches I watched paying nearly 100 percent attention to over the other and in other cases it was more like 60-40 or 80-20.

Therefore this is definitely the entry where I have the least confidence in my choices and it is entirely unlikely that I haven't missed some worthy performances.

Group stage:

Round 1:

1st Team

2nd Team

Round 2:

1st and 2nd Teams

ROUND 3

1st Team:

Gk: Rais M'Bolhi - Algeria

Lb: Jorge Fucile - Uruguay
Cb: Bruno Alves - portugal
Cb: John Terry - England
Rb: Philipp Lahm - Germany

Mf: Bastian Schweinsteiger - Germany
Mf: Tim Cahill - Australia
Rw: Landon Donovan - USA
Am: Keisuke Honda - Japan

Fw: Chu-Young Park - South Korea
Striker: Robert Vittek - Slovakia

Notables: Fabio Coentrao, John Mensah, Rios/Perez, Alonso

Comments:

Goalkeeper:

Rais M'Bolhi - Algeria



The normal first choice Algeria keeper Faouzi Chaouchi was dropped after his costly error in the 1-0 defeat to Slovenia giving newcomer M'Bolhi playing only his third cap. the chance to shine at the biggest stage.

In the game against the U.S - M'Bolhi held on right until the very end making many good saves and interventions and afterwards the American (and best of round 1.) goalkeeper Tim Howard was nice enough (unlike what he is doing to his defenders, I'm really starting noticing, who he is abusing like he was Peter Schmeichel!) to pay compliments to M'Bolhi calling him exceptional:

“When you create so many chances, you expect to at least put one away. But their keeper was exceptional. Our finishing wasn’t the problem, it was the fact that M’Bolhi was in incredible form and managed to get his body in the way at crucial moments. It was really extraordinary.”

So, in a round where rightly or wrongly I didn't notice too many great goalkeeping displays, M'Bolhi beats the rest.

Left-back:

Jorge Fucile - Uruguay



Retains a spot on the team and this round at the position he has actually been playing.

In the game against Mexico we saw a little bit extra emphasis on defending from Fucile compared to against South Africa where Uruguay came out attacking, and definitely extra impressive this time that he was the first defender to keep Mexico's Dos Santos, who has been in great form, largely under control.

Centre back:

Bruno Alves - Portugal



Another defender from a team who is yet to concede a single goal.

His partner Carvalho also had a good game, as well as the whole team did of course, defending, but Carvalho unlike Alves I thought was caught gambling a few times.

Brazil box striker Fabiano made the "best of team" last round and I talked about how well he complemented the other attacking Brazilian players coming from behind moving close to him.

Kaka and Robinho in Fabiano have the skilled box presence they can combine with and the likes of Maicon, Bastos and Elano as well as having that, have a great athletic target for their quality deliveries.

Now before I call Portugal's or Alves defensive performances great it should be noted that quite a few of those names were missing in this game, giving Fabiano worse players to work with, affecting his effectiveness I'm sure, but credit to especially Alves, who it was my impression mostly was on Fabiano, for largely, or at least better than anyone so far, reducing that particular all important Brazil weapon.

We didn't, like many recent Brazil games, watch Fabiano being effective with deliveries from the wings and we didn't really see him being able to combine with the skillful attackers coming from behind. Bruno Alves (mostly I think) would always be in the way.

Now, stopping most of the Brazil attacking players is very much a team effort and not a question of one on one matchups, but this particular one is extremely important not to lose for the central defender closest to Fabiano in the box. The Ivory Coast defenders lost at times badly, which put their Eriksson midfield team defense pretty much to waste, they had done pretty well actually in the beginning preventing passing lanes for both Maicon and especially Kaka, stopping them getting the ball even or quickly taking it away, but the one player they couldn't stop neither getting the ball or giving it back again to other attacking players moving close to him taking advantage in the final third where it hurts the most, was Fabiano though, and with really bad consequences.

There is no doubt a lot of it was less quality around Fabiano. In this game there were only 4 passes exchanged between Fabiano and Julio Baptista and 3 of those was Fabiano finding the "beast" who then predictable was not able to do much with it.

With Kaka against the Ivory Coast on the other hand he exchanged 11 passes. Then in what I think you can also call a bad attacking game for Brazil, against North Korea, Kaka and Fabiano only combined 3 times!

Interestingly in both of those "bad games" Fabiano then saw increased passing from the wingers. Today again and again from Daniel Alves playing instead of Elano, but not to much effect at all and I don't think there is any doubt you'll rather deal with non-getting to the baseline-crosses (which is hard to concede if you sit deep like North Korea and Portugal) than Fabiano being close to the likes of Kaka, Robinho, Elano and Maicon combining around your penalty area.

Centre-back:

John Terry - England



On the field at least, quietly having a good World Cup where he as one of very few England players has played well in every game so far.

The highlight of that so far was the all important game against Slovenia where apart from being mistake-free he also had to save the team from danger on more than one occasion.

More than a bit worrying how the England centre-backs have had to do that against pretty ordinary attacking teams so far and the team/Capello will have to find a better balance against the first really good attacking team they'll meet, Germany of course in the round of 16. Otherwise neither Terry, or Matthew Upson for that matter who also had a good game, will make enough of a difference to prevent them getting knocked out.

Right-back:

Philipp Lahm - Germany



Not much to add really from when he made the first team in round 1. Other than like with Fucile earlier, I now have Lahm back at the position he is actually playing, and I'm also further realizing that there is no doubt, defensively, that he is more comfortable in the 1on1 situations that tends to find sidebacks, defending on the right rather than the left.

Germany will of course face England in the next round and with Lahm now fully installed on the right we should see an interesting clash of elite fullbacks between him and Ashley Cole.

It would be great for England if Cole could force Lahm to defend against an athletically superior opponent, giving him something to worry about, maybe even halting his forward progress, but I fear for England most of the worries go the other way, with either a Milner placed on the left, who struggled there (even) against the U.S, or perhaps worse, notoriously unreliable defender this season, Steven Gerrard with important defensive responsibilities on the left.

AT THE VERY LEAST it might force Ashley Cole to play yet another game where he is mostly staying back but can even he if he isn't getting enough support deal with what by far looks like German's strongest side to me, the dynamic Müller supported by Lahm and to some extent Ozil.
It will be interesting to see what Capello does there. I'm in no way ruling out a return for Emile Heskey with defensive duties on the left, like we've so many times over the years for his club teams. It would be an unpopular and controversial decision but one it's easy to see Capello make.


Midfielder:

Bastian Schweinsteiger - Germany



Schweinsteiger was possibly even better this game than in the first one against Australia.

Secure short passing with all the right decisions and with his impressive range he sprayed many good longer ones as well.

Defensively he also looked good with many well timed interventions.

All in all this was a game where he hardly put a foot wrong ruling the German midfield.

The only negative is that he picked up an injury and had to come off towards the end. Hopefully that's not something that will bother him the rest of the tournament. His team desperately needs him.

Midfielder:

Tim Cahill - Australia



I think my eyes in the beginning at least mostly were on the Germany - Ghana game but the other game between Serbia and Australia kept getting more and more interesting and towards the end there was a clear case of both teams having to chase the dream and push men forward in pursuit of goals.

Serbia of course ended up once again suffering World Cup heartbreak and are going home early while Australia with good performances in both of the last two games really, and by winning this one, at least has some to smile about.

Cahill as he has so many times before, I felt was the player mostly responsible for that, with a great box to box performance, working hard defensively and being dynamic in attack, making well timed run after well timed run threatening the opponent penalty area, and as he has also done so many times before, with a trademark header scoring a goal in the process.

Right-winger:

Landon Donovan - USA



Donovan has been good in every game so far being the one U.S player who can provide an extra bit of pace or skill and with that make a difference.

None bigger or more important than what he did this round scoring a crucial 90th minute winner against Algeria that put his country through, top of the group, to the knockout stages.

A great (or the greatest?) moment in U.S soccer history.


Attacking midfielder:

Keisuke Honda - Japan



Honda interestingly the most fouled player out of anyone in the group stage makes his first appearance on the team.

In beating Denmark 3-1 he showed once again that he is the Ferrari on Japan's workman like team.

Not that he doesn't put in the extra miles himself. He impressively does that. But his ability with the ball is what sets him apart and against Denmark he showed it plenty.

Usually most noteworthy is his kicking-technique and it was fitting that it was Honda who became the first player to score on a freekick this tournament. Definitely not one of his most impressive, and more the fault of keeper Sorenson than anything and his compatriot Endo's freekick goal later in the game was easily the better one, BUT STILL, it was Honda who broke the duck!

In this game he worked hard defensively and with gliding movement and overall skill he was Japan's main instigator when going forward. Not least exemplified when he brilliantly set up Okazaki's winner.

Forward:

Chu-Young Park - South Korea



In what was a wild fun back and forth game against Nigeria, Chu-Young Park was one of the few I think who actually played a really good game!

Worked very hard and with his quickness and skill he was a nightmare for the big Nigerian defenders all game long.

Striker:

Robert Vittek - Slovakia



As an avid Azzurri supporter this is still too soon to talk about (or even look at! Hence the above).

If I try start writing about the events in this game, Italy, Slovakia or even individual players there is no way I can avoid going into emo-rage-tilt mode ruining my whole day and possibly my sleep! Shock, anger and sadness not helped, to say the least, by my own country Denmark then also going out later that very same (fateful) day.

I'll just say congratulations to Slovakia. I had a great time myself in the very nice city of Bratislava once and met some cool people there, and of course (what this is supposed to be about!) also well done to Robert Vittek who with his good target-man display was a key factor in securing the win.





There is no 2nd team this round where like I mentioned in the beginning there were just a little bit too many of the games going on at the same time where my attention was either split or almost entirely focused on one instead of the other.

But I do at least have some NOTABLES:

Left-back: Fabio Coentrao - Portugal



The most notable of all perhaps, missing out once again only by the closest of margins. Had one bad decision on a pass that could have been costly but that's it really. Other than that he was very good and not faced at all by squaring up to the grueling double dose of Maicon and Daniel Alves.

Centre-back: John Mensah - Ghana

Isaac Vorsah the Ghana centre-back who made my first team after the opening games has unfortunately since been injured and the experienced journeyman defender and captain John Mensah (currently at Sunderland) now finds himself playing with another Mensah, the 19 year old Jonathan who was one of the stars for Ghana when they won the U-20 World Cup last year. My first impression though of Jonathan is that he is pretty raw still and make too many bad decisions, meaning more than ever it's the older Mensah who really has to hold it all together.

Against Germany I was surprised how easy Germany got through the Ghana midfield organization that has troubled other teams. Part of it I'm sure is just great German quality with Schweinsteiger, Ozil, Khedira plus Lahm rarely not present with excellent contributions and then there was the choice of Cacau as the striker who was very often dropping deep adding to the midfield numbers.

Still, Ghana themselves have everyone of their non defenders being cagey in midfield so it's not like they were outnumbered and it's not a good sign for them (it is for Germany though!) that they had to rely too this extent on good defending in their box.

There I thought Mensah out-muscled anyone in sight and how he lead the defense to mostly deal. with all those incoming German passes and runs without the ball from behind. was impressive.

Yes there were a few glitches but if you compare to how another midfield who also failed against Germany, the Aussies and how their defenders were then exposed, then I thought the Ghana back-four lead by John Mensah did admirably in not allowing (many) more clear goalscoring chances.

Defensive midfielders: Arevalo Rios and Diego Perez - Uruguay

The workhorses on the Uruguay midfield has defended well this tournament and when the time has been right for attacking they've also been capable of fulfilling their roles requiring them to pass the ball well enough on to the attacking outlets. Not least Forlan of course, but Cavani's movement and performance as a whole also really picked up this round, doing a good job in many places.

Midfielder - Xabi Alonso - Spain



Before the very anticipated match between Spain and Chile somewhere in the second half came to a truce almost, Xabi Alonso had been a very important player.

Chile did show some restraint in their normal high pressure but what we saw was still what we've never seen before, a team meeting Spain up high defending (literally) mano e mano almost all over the pitch.

On the surface perhaps, it looked like a decent success. They actually in many ways prevented Spain's usual fluid possession game through talisman Xavi. And you could say that's an achievement in itself and its a shame we didn't get that intriguing battle for a full 90 minutes because of the Chile sending off and then a full blown stalemate.

But a sending off I think that's also a clear symptom of Bielsa's tactics against a really good opponent.

Defending against, maybe even far more talented individuals - individually instead of "their space" zonal marking collectively as team, just comes with a prize. In this game not least tons of freekicks.

Very often when a Chile defender lost their individual matchup we saw a foul, either out of need cause in a man to man defending scheme there isn't automatically a man occupying space behind. Instead that teammate is likely marking some other man, allowing potentially tons of free space for the opponent winning the individual matchup!
Or other times it would just be a foul as a result of being late against quick technical opponents getting ahead through a nice pass or good first touch.
To put it simply, in their individual marking, too many of the Chile markers were outmatched individually.

Where Alonso then comes in is taking advantage of that as best as possible under the (not to Spain's liking normally) circumstances and with Chile actually largely succeeding in the Xavi individual matchup Spain were hitting more passes from deep, more direct, than you usually see. You could say they were forced to, but I see it more as the natural order of things.

The best at those passers is Alonso and with Spain players put under pressure and marked high up their own half it makes sense to get the ball quickly instead to where the Spain players are man marked in the Chile half, and where a won matchup means oceans of space behind the Chile defender and a lost one nothing serious at all.
Of course very unlike a Chile matchup won in the Spain half where it would be giving away a serious goalscoring chance (to Chile's credit there were actually examples of this).

But enter the goal where an under pressure Alonso in his own half hits a good long pass towards Torres (somewhat harsh but Alonso able to hit that is this sequence's individual matchup number 1 won by Spain) who is marked up high up by a Chile defender, they get into a one on one race into symptomatic non occupied Chilean space. where I'm guessing the Chile keeper then doesn't like his defender's chances (this actually looks like a miscalculation when watching it again) and he comes out trying to clear the ball (meaning individual matchup number 2 won by Spain - even if conceded by the Chile keeper is the more accurate).

It lands in the free space where David Villa using his pace has gotten away from his marker (individual matchup number 3 won by Spain) and he strikes it brilliantly for the goal.

World Cup 2010 Best of Round 2: First and second teams

Another round of fixtures gone and another "best of" team from me.

This time much harder selections to make with many more eye catching performances than in the opening games.

Round 1:

1st team

2nd team

Round 2:



First team:

Gk: Diego Benaglio - Switzerland

Rb: Jorge Fucile - Uruguay
Cb. Diego Lugano - Uruguay
Cb: Lucio - Brazil
Lb: Carlos Salcido - Mexico

Mf: Rafael Marquez - Mexico
Mf: Raul Meirelles - Portugal
Mf: Cristian Riveros - Paraguay

Rw: Dennis Rommedahl - Denmark
Fw: Diego Forlan - Uruguay
Fw: Lionel Messi - Argentina


Goalkeeper:

Diego Benaglio - Switzerland



It's very possible he was robbed the first time around and his performance in the first game, possibly being better as well.
But at least I'm making good on it by including him this round where I had more trouble finding (or remembering?) outstanding goalkeeper performances.

Bengalio was kept possibly even more busy by Chile than in the first game by Spain and he responded with another mistake free game where especially in one on one situations he proved to be the great wall that the small Chileans just couldn't get the ball past.

Right back:

Jorge Fucile - Uruguay



Another round where I have to cheat. This time my list of worthy left-backs completely dwarfs the right-backs so I'm putting Fucile who played excellent on the left for Uruguay against South Africa on the right where he has played before anyway.

Against South Africa this round Fucile played a very aggressive left-back role doing a great job of relentlessly going forward playing left midfield, making up numbers when his central pairing behind him Lugano and Godin, had South Africa's lone striker Mphela completely under control anyway. Then whenever it was needed and South Africa were pushing more people forward in the transition which they rely so heavily on, he would quickly be back at their side defending strong without much trouble at all.

While Uruguay doesn't quite go for the tactical fluidity of Mexico or Chile, when they're in attack mode like they were, especially early against South Africa, there is still quite a bit, and by attacking as a midfielder or left-wing and defending fullback and often central defender, as well as he did, Fucile certainly did his part to making it work.


Centre back:

Lucio - Brazil



Lucio's warrior aggression and fierce strength once again proved a very difficult matchup even for Didier Drogba and he hardly put a foot wrong in his side's impressive dismissal of the African pretenders.

We even saw him on those trademarks runs going forward spreading needed unbalance down the Eriksson rigid defensive lines.

He didn't even seem as slow as he has the last couple of years, but had a lightness almost to his movement (which I can't believe I'm saying. Maybe the opposition was just very slow?) and whenever close to the poor soul he is targeting with his marking, it's pretty much game over for the attacking player.

His partner Juan would also have been a worthy entry this round. He doesn't rely as much on athleticism anymore as Lucio still does with his power, but Juan defends extremely smart and reads the game incredibly well.

Centre back:

Diego Lugano - Uruguay



Him and his partner Godin is a good candidate for the strongest centre-back duo in the tournament so far.

Godin was probably a little better in the first game against France while this time around I thought Lugano was the best.

He completely dominated South Africa's striker Mphela and was flawless in all his actions even when stepping out or up expanding his command area.
As usual he was very aggressive and on top of all situations whether physically winning a tackle or reading the game making a timely intervention.

A flawless centre-back performance.

Left-back:

Carlos Salcido - Mexico



Not dissimilar to Fucile's performance for Uruguay but had more challenges and difficult conditions to overcome both when defending and going forward, yet as mostly a wing-back managed to do both very well, even causing a very good defender like France's Bacary Sagna problems along the way, contributing to a Mexico performance where great tactical fluidity easily beat France's not so good tactics at all and superior talent.

Midfielder:

Raul Meirelles - Portugal



As usual he was showing range of passing in the Portugal midfield but what was more key this time around against a very organized North Korea team that had frustrated even Brazil was his runs forward, something the Brazil central midfielders rarely did (if ever), and if it had not been for those causing unrest, and generally with new partner Tiago doing more good forward passing (compared to Deco's good sideways passing) who knows if the game would have broken open the way it ultimately did, forcing a trailing North Korea to go forward and really allow the much more skilled Portuguese players to rain in one important goal after another. Very likely securing their advancement.


Midfielder:

Cristian Riveros - Paraguay



Like rarely seen this World Cup Paraguay completely neutralized Slovakia in their 2-0 win over them this round.

A significant part of that was already done by the three very hard working forwards. Santa Cruz, Valdez and Barrios meeting the technically weak Slovakian defenders up high, forcing them to make clearances going nowhere or passing it back to their keeper, but further back dealing with what could have been Slovakia's passing savior Marek Hamsik, Cristian Riveros was commanding midfield guarding passing lanes and helping out teammates seemingly everywhere, whether it was being the backup defender or a passing option left or central when the team was in possession.

Also in possession, he wasn't bad himself at all and showed good range of passing effortlessly finding the three forwards who would then give the Slovakian defenders all kinds of trouble.

Just a great all round midfield performance which he even crowned by scoring a goal.

Midfielder:

Rafael Marquez - Mexico



Torrado on the Mexico midfield is the more consistent performer and would have been a worthy inclusion as well but against France, Marquez had one of those very good looking games where he was just conducting play with his passing.

In that game he was found mostly just ahead of the defense where he is clearly better these days than being a liability in a four back line and especially his ability to find Dos Santos on the right created all sorts of trouble for France.

Still guilty sometimes of holding on to the ball a little bit too long risking losing it in dangerous positions but when that isn't the case his overall technical ability, exquisite passing and reading of the game is a pleasure to watch.

Right wing:

Dennis Rommedahl - Denmark



The most criticized player on the Danish national team for the last 10 years was definitely not someone I expected to ever make these teams, but in the win against Cameroon, his perhaps best ever performance in a Denmark shirt does the job.

Cameroon was pressing up high with several players. Something that could have resulted in a lot more goals for them, but with the nearest to the left Cameroon midfielder always moving central making room for Tottenham left-back Ekotto to storm forward, then often himself coming forward in support, it left acres of space the other way for Rommedahl who at 31 still has his clear strengths in the speed and stamina departments allowing him to take advantage all game long.

That's not really anything new however. Danish coach Morten Olsen's lineups (especially in the past) with classic wings has often had that effect, but where Rommedahl time and time again has failed to execute. His technique letting down what his pace had created, this time, this game, it all came together and his ball control, deliveries and finishing were nothing to complain about at all.

Forward:

Lionel Messi



Pretty much a repeat performance from the first round so look for the finer points in last week's writeup.

Argentina again with two other forwards had the scenario where Messi was extremely dangerous throughout creating numerous threatening situations both for himself and for teammates.

South Korea until they fell far behind defended better than Nigeria and with Veron missing we saw less passing quality on what was an unbalanced Argentina midfield, forcing Messi to spend a little bit too much time further back, but again, it was the kind of game that for anyone else would have been extraordinary.

Forward:

Diego Forlan - Uruguay



Simply in a league of his own for most of the game against South Africa.

Extremely intelligent play with all the right runs and passes plus of course the technical ability to execute to perfection.

Two goals doesn't hurt but for Uruguay Forlan is much more than that and is the one player in attacking midfield (especially when both Suarez and Cavani are in the lineup) and the final third that all the others can look to, who will make them better. The talisman of the team.

My only worry is his stamina where it seems he has to take some longish breaks sometimes but in all other periods he definitely works at high intensity.

Coach:

Rabaah Sadane - Algeria



A coach I know very little about. What his tactical philosophy or tendencies are I have no idea so I can't offer much insight, but credit to him for making England, a team usually very threatening, even against teams defending in numbers, look very toothless.

Most eye catching was that through their advantage in numbers in midfield, Algeria didn't just manage to obstruct England play with defending, but with the ball they passed and moved with it well enough using the available space and most attempts of England ball-pressure were made to look hopeless with little effect.
There were never any panic at all and that they actually ended up having the ball more (even if only slightly) than a team that was supposed to put them under great pressure speak volumes and they held on to a shockingly comfortable 0-0 draw.


Second Team:

Gk: Mark Paston - New Zealand

Lb: Fabio Coentrao - Portugal
Cb: Diego Godin - Uruguay
Cb: Tulio - Japan
Rb: Sergio Ramos - Spain

Mf: Sami Khedira - Germany
Mf: Enrique Vera - Paraguay

Rw: Elano - Brazil
Am: Roque Santa Cruz - Paraguay

Lf: David Villa - Spain

Striker: Luis Fabiano - Brazil

Coach: Gerardo Martino - Paraguay


Goalkeeper:

Mark Paston - New Zealand



I don't know if he really was the second best keeper this round. Stojkovic from Serbia had to make some really good saves and Thomas Sorensen from Denmark as well. Sorensen did however, indirectly at least, contribute to what was the farcical passing in the Denmark defense, so he couldn't really be included.

Most importantly Paston just didn't make any mistakes in what was a situation where he saw plenty of crosses and shots from the outside. By flooding space deep central in their own half with a great collective effort against Italy, New Zealand was definitely counting on Paston to deal with outside efforts as well as all deliveries that entered goalkeeper territory. He did all of those things very well and New Zealand held on to a great 1-1 draw against the defending champions from Italy.

Left-Back

Fabio Coentrao - Portugal



In Portugal's first game we saw him defend well under what was considerable pressure from a physical Ivory Coast team that had won the midfield battle.

That alone almost won him a place on one of my teams but in the end he just missed out.

This round we really saw what he could do going forward as well and that he is a former or sometimes winger definitely makes sense.

There were signs of a very good understanding with Cristiano Ronaldo and if Ronaldo doesn't neglect his fullback but take advantage of both their talents, instead of just his own, then Portugal will have a very dangerous combination coming from the left.

Centre back:

Diego Godin - Uruguay



With his partner Lugano, he was responsible for the most dominant central defender display this round. Simple as that!

Heitinga, Juan and New Zealand hero Nielsen were other impressive centre-backs this round but all just miss out.

Centre back:

Tulio - Japan



Good looking defender with a very impressive performance against the Netherlands where he was reading the game well and winning duels against the Dutch attackers throughout.

Most impressive to me was the range he commanded. He made great interventions out left especially and as Japan later in the game pushed up playing a higher line he was comfortable even there as well.

Right back:

Sergio Ramos - Spain



I had trouble finding good right-back candidates this round and even though the Ivory Coast put a lot of effort into blocking his forward progress, I was looking at a repeat Maicon inclusion. Ramos though with his persistent attacking display against Honduras, steals the spot in the last minute.

Midfielder:

Sami Khedira



Khedira's midfield partner Schweinsteiger had another really good game but I'm going with Khedira this time who throughout the game against Serbia showed splendid two-way play.

Even when Germany was reduced to 10 men and playing without a striker he managed to take on him coming from behind Özil, who was put on top, and make run after run forward without the ball keeping the Serbian defenders very busy and under pressure - creating space for both the passers like Schweinsteiger and Ozil to exploit as well as other runners like Müller and especially Podolski who unfortunately just couldn't find the net on the very good amount of chances Germany created while being one man down.

Overall Khedira was an everywhere man in this game for Germany with all the right movement and good solid passing whatever his position on the field.

Noteworthy midfield performances that didn't make it this round (mainly to make room for strikers where even a hattrick wasn't enough) were: various Algerian midfielders frustrating England, Yebda, Lacin and Ziani on the wing being a passing option always and showing ability with the ball.

Birsa the Slovenian number 10 played a great first half against the U.S where he hardly put a foot wrong, but then faded badly in the second half. For team USA Landon Donovan had another good game and up front in the second half Jozy Altidore was causing havoc in the Slovenian back four with his athleticism and aggression.

For Brazil, Melo had one of those good games he rarely had for Juventus all season and for the Oranje Mark Van Bommel showed signs of life with a very controlling midfield display not least featuring his impressive passing range. Personally I look forward, when like at Bayern, he can get some real wingers to pass it diagonal to, and I'm sure I'm not alone...

Finally these three (deeper) central midfielders also played very well, Carmona for Chile and for Spain Alonso and Busquets. You can question if they should both be there playing at the same time but at least they're having no trouble playing together and don't step on the eachother's toes.

Also for Spain, Xavi was being Xavi, and if Spain make it out of the group, I'm sure that sooner rather than later, that will be more than enough for a place on the team.


Midfielder:

Enrique Vera - Paraguay



Another great performer from Paraguay's very dominant display against Slovakia.

Vera worked extremely hard in what was mostly right-central midfield but this was another everywhere man performance where as the picture above shows he was also up there applying that key high pressure which completely neutralized the Slovaks.

Good defensively by putting on pressure always and a threat going forward with fast running, supporting the front three, even earning him a goal. Very good.

Attacking midfield/Forward:

Roque Santa Cruz - Paraguay



Santa Cruz looks to have hit form just at the right time and really surprised me with this performance.

The other Paraguay forwards, the Dortmund boys, Lucas Barrios and Nelson Valdez also had very good games but it was Santa Cruz with the best all round performance I thought.

Especially his movement often behind the other two, just ahead of the midfielders, I didn't expect and throughout he was able to keep up the hard work putting on similar pressure on the defenders as the younger lighter guys, and then in possession he was even more of a presence in more places than they were, leading the way for his team in the final third.
In some ways similar to what Forlan is doing when playing with both of Suarez and Cavani for Uruguay.

Right wing:

Elano - Brazil



Really close between a number of players this time around.

Dos Santos from Mexico has a good case for a second inclusion after another spectacular game. To a lesser extent the same could be said of Sanchez from Chile, who if certain teammates would have just passed to him when he was open towards the end against Switzerland could have scored some goals as well.

And then there is Krasic who absolutely terrorized German left-back Badstuber but in the end I'm going with Elano who until he was carried out injured after a bad challenge was Brazil's best attacking threat of the stars behind striker Fabiano.

Good pace and dribbling. Great shooting and excellent deliveries when on the ball, and without it very hard working managing to support the midfield a lot better than his partner in crime on the other wing, Robinho.

An impressive performance, really making me regret (I did have a feeling it would happen) that I cut him late from my 200 best players in the world list. He did at least get an honorary mention...

Left-Forward:

David Villa



I did consider if him making the stupid mistake of lashing out against a Honduras defender should cost him and put one of the other good forward candidates this round ahead of him. Unlike the first round of games, there were many excellent performances this round.

Higuain might not even be up there among the very best, he had an inconsistent game I thought, but he still scored a hattrick taking advantage of his teammates great play.

Then there was Bendtner and especially Eto'o in the crazy wild attacking Denmark - Cameroon game.

Barrios, Valdez and Altidore I have already mentioned and what about Ozil for Germany continuing with quality playmaking even when reduced to 10 man and put out of position on top after Klose was gone.
Unfortunately coach Löw decided to mess with a good thing and substituted him too early, costing both of them really, a place on the team.

I should also mention Carlos Tevez who had a really good game against South Korea.

Overall though, Villa when he was good, was better than all of them. For Valencia towards the end of the season he started struggling and had games where he was looking a shadow of himself.
Then to have a game like this, looking like his usual deadly self, has to be a massive boost for Spain. Especially when their other star striker Fernando Torres is still battling back from an injury, layoff looking not at his best yet.

Striker:

Luis Fabiano - Brazil



Despite what replay showed was great hands on one of his goals, an overall excellent box striker performance from Luis Fabiano who just complements the rest of the Brazil attacking players formidably.

He is an effective target for quality deliveries from Elano or Maicon on the right and central or lefthe can be the centerpiece in quick passing combinations with Kaka, Robinho or Bastos coming from behind. You couldn't ask for more and he is an absolute key to Brazil looking as dangerous as they do in the final third.

Coach:

Gerardo Martino - Paraguay



Close call between a number of coaches. Tabarez - Uruguay for his tactical timing switching between attack and defense not just between games but in them and of course New Zealand coach Ricki Herbert organizing a team far behind in talent well enough to frustrate their opponents.

I'm gonna go with Paraguay coach Martino though for masterminding the complete neutralization of an opponent to an extent which you rarely see.

In a turnaround from the game against Italy where they sat deep, but from what I understand not unusual for Paraguay, he played 3 players up front with clear instructions of putting as much pressure without the ball on the Slovak defenders.

That created countless of 2 on 2 or even 2 on 3 situations for the Slovak defenders who were just nowhere nearly good enough technically to handle it, resulting in one desperate clearance or backpass to the goalkeeper after another, completely preventing the whole team from ever getting any rhythm.

With plenty of strong forwards at his disposal (especially now after Barrios has joined) it also looks like a good move playing Santa Cruz in more of a Forlan role. One I didn't think he would be capable of but against the Slovaks at least he did very well.

Everywhere in the Paraguay formation there is hard work and defensive discipline and when attacking the decisions are good and the movement quick. There is even fluidity across midfield and from the forwards.

It just looks like a very well coached team.