Monday, July 5, 2010

The Final Four and the Tournament Select XI

Heading into the semi-finals, it seemed like a good time to pick my Tournament Select XI. A couple of notes on my selections:
1. As the title suggestions, I have based my Tournament Select XI solely on the performances at South Africa 2010, ignoring reputations coming into the tournament. Needless to say, there are no places for Wayne Rooney or Cristiano Ronaldo.
2. Inevitably, I have favored players who have gone deep into the tournament, giving weight to the extra games played.
3. In order to get "my 11 best players" on the field, I took the liberty of opting for a 4-3-3 formation, flouting the conventional tournament wisdom of 4-4-2.
Given the unpredictable nature of the tournament so far, I am sure that at least one of these selections will let me down in the remaining 4 matches of the tournament, but here goes:
Goalkeeper: Maarten Stekelenburg (Netherlands)
Right back: Maicon (Brazil)
Center back: Juan (Brazil)
Center back: Diego Lugano (Uruguay)
Left back: Fábio Coentrão (Portugal)
Right midfield: Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany)
Center midfield: Mesut Özil (Germany)
Left midfield: Jean Beausejour (Chile)
Right Forward: Asamoah Gyan (Ghana)
Center Forward: Diego Forlán (Uruguay)
Left Forward: David Villa (Spain)

No comments:

Post a Comment