World Cup Best XI

What a pity he was forced to miss the game vs Spain. If Germany had been a little more potent through midfield, Spain might have felt more pressed to attack rather than defend so much with possession. It’d have been fun to see these two contrasting styles go at full strength.

Okay, so maybe it’s hard to argue real hard against anyone in this XI. But I’d like to offer this about Messi: it seemed to me that Argentina wasted him, and that he was in form enough and mentally ready to earn a spot on a Best XI. Nigh unto every time an Argentine middie or forward got the ball, Messi would show in a position where he could receive it and either dish it effectively to keep the offense flowing or make a run of his own. Unfortunately, his teammates’ first thought consistently seemed to be, “Hmm, is this the time for me to dribble through the entire XX defense and score a fantastically glamorous, individual goal?” A second or so later, after they’d decided it was not, indeed, that time, they’d either dump the ball to Messi even though he was now carefully contained or dump it to a teammate who wasn’t, perhaps, quite as good. Well, they’d all do that except Tevez, who seemed more inclined to decide it was the perfect time to dribble more. In the WC, tenths of a second are the difference between a defense that’s off-balance and losing its shape…and one that’s recovering or recovered.

Truly, I’m shocked that a megomaniacal former great would fail to coach his team to maximize the contributions of the player some are touting as his emerging equal.

Okay, so I’ll confess to not being shocked by the absence of USMNT players on this list. I can’t even imagine that any US players were seriously considered. But Bradley and Donovan were probably the best US players in this WC, and I’m wondering how close they came to meriting consideration.

I’ve tried to think about how to present this question in a way that’s remotely answerable, but it’s difficult because changing a player means changing a team. I mean, all things being equal, Xavi would be a pretty nice upgrade over Bradley…but the US would probably play very differently if he were on the team. So, maybe the best way of thinking about this is to go with the same kind of seeding pots that FIFA uses to ruin stack seed brackets. There are 7 non-host seeds, so let’s go with seven as our magic number.

If you were building a WC team and could draw from any of the 32 initial WC rosters, would Donovan be considered among the top 7 wings? The second 7? Is he one of the best, among the 8th to 14th best, what level of wing is he? How about Bradley? Would he be considered among the top 7 central midfielders? The second 7, third 7, etc?

I guess what I’m trying to figure out is a way of opening a discussion of where Bradley and Donovan figure in comparison with the WC’s best at their positions. I enjoy looking at rating indexes, but I think they’re pretty much crap. I mean, Bradley and Donovan are rated ahead of Iniesta and Kaka in the Castrol Index, for Messi’s sake.

If anyone has a better way to frame the discussion, I’d love to hear it—and see people’s thoughts about it.

Okay, so we’re at the point where folks talk about a Bext XI, the Golden Boot and the Ballon d’Or. But what of the “men” who sulked, complained, and tantrumed so hard and well? For them, I propose The Sodden Rag. I suppose if you were going to go with a SR Best XI you’d have to just go with France and be done. But where’s the fun in that?

For outstanding individual petulance, I’d like to nominate Ronaldo, Rooney, and Robinho.

Robinho probably threw the best trantrums. I mean, some enterprising person should insert a braying sound over video of him shoving his mug into opponents’ faces and wide-mouth howling over slights real and imagined. Good stuff!

Rooney’s may have sulked the best. I mean you could practically see the negativity radiating off of him as he stomped around the field.

But my winner would have to be Ronaldo for infusing frequent and whiny complaints with truly elite narcissism and theatrics. And he provided such fantastic two-way petulance, one moment sitting splay-legged with hands upraised to protest a non-call, and the next moment standing splay-legged legs astride with hands akimbo as he prepared to simultaneously demonstrate both his grand power and immense frustration by sending a direct kick into the upper deck.

Did I forget anyone?

Maarten Stekelenburg

Gregory van der Wiel — Carlos Puyol — John Mensah — Fabio Contreao

Thomas Muller — Bastian Schweintsteiger — Andres Iniesta — Wesley Sneijder

David Villa — Diego Forlan

Sub bench: Fernando Muslera, Lucio, Maxi Pereira, Mesut Ózil, Xavi, Arjen Robben, Luis Suarez

I bet you wish you had swapped them now that the final is over! But agreed, it really was a coin toss and I would have picked Xavi or Iniesta before the final as well.