FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Great XI Grant. I couldn't have done it any better. I think the Senturk pick is brilliant. Without him Turkey would have had trouble coming back all those times.

I was with you until you identified Iniesta as a runnerup. Spain has immediately gotten a lift everytime he has been subbed for Fabregas. Iniesta should not touch the field in the final. He has been a non-contributor.

haha you americans dont know beep about football...
1. ADRIAN Mutu
2. TORSTEN Frings
3. Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Ruud Van Nistelrooy INSTEAD of Semih Sent??rk
4. Zirkhov better than Lahm ( are you crazy fool???)

to dodgeherbert
i'm not american, but honestly, give the writer some credit.
On what basis do you put Mutu into the squad, sure, he scored against Italy, but then missed a penalty when it mattered, and was non-existent against a 2nd string Holland side.
not denying the fact that Ibrahimovic and Van Nistelrooy are good players, but once again, Ibrahimovic failed to play well when it mattered, against Russia, and while Van Nistelrooy may have kept Holland in the tournament for 30 more minutes, they wouldn't even be in that situation had van Nistelrooy taken earlier chances.

to dodgeherbert
i'm not american, but honestly, give the writer some credit.
On what basis do you put Mutu into the squad, sure, he scored against Italy, but then missed a penalty when it mattered, and was non-existent against a 2nd string Holland side.
not denying the fact that Ibrahimovic and Van Nistelrooy are good players, but once again, Ibrahimovic failed to play well when it mattered, against Russia, and while Van Nistelrooy may have kept Holland in the tournament for 30 more minutes, they wouldn't even be in that situation had van Nistelrooy taken earlier chances.

Senna has quietly been the best player in the tourney. The guy is a beast.

Last I seen Mutu was bottling a penalty and was invisible against the Dutch, who started their B team against Romania. Ibrahimovic proved once again that he's garbage when the team needed him against Russia. dodgeherbert doesn't know what the hell he's talking about.

Who is T??RSTEN Frings? Never heard of that guy. His name is TORSTEN Frings. Just because we do have Umlaute in German doesn't mean we use them every time.

That aside there are several positions where I disagree:

1. Zhirkov over Lahm? Lahm played a BRILLIANT tournament. Yes he had one bad play against Turkey but other than that he was near perfect. Zhirkov did play a good tourney as well but he wasn't nearly in Lahm's league.

2. Metzelder as runner-up for center back? Sorry, I am German and love my team but Metzelder was hardly that good. He was better than expected (given his injury troubles last season) but basically all other players you mentioned played better than Metzelder.

3. How does C. Ronaldo get an honorable mention at left midfield? 90% of the time he did NOTHING and he played well beyond his abilities tor the whole tournament.

ballack over luka modri??.. ccccc... on what bases? his name? reputation? certainly not his game..

Grant-- Very good best XI, much better than some other pundits' XI. 1-Your selection of Altintop as a right back is curious since he played mostly as a central midfielder in the tourney. 2- David Silva has to be in the starting lineup. 3-And Arshavin can't be included based on only 2 good games, when Fabregas has been outstanding in every game.

What are you people talking about, Zirkhov was one of the best players of EURO 2008. Outstanding choice from Grant.

fabregas??? did he even start one game?
agreed on altintop, hes no right back.. and zhirkov deserves his spot..

how can ppl say that this is a good XI?? i dont know where he gets his stats from. i get the feeling he just picks names out of a hat.

1) Seriously. Christoph Metzelder has your second choice? I mean, i agree with HADOR on this one. He is playing better than most would have expected but I always get nervous when he touches the ball. He has gotten very clumsy and he is nowhere as good as he can be.
2) whats with the retarded formation? What kind of a coach would play a 3-1-4-2 with 2 of the defenders being more of an attacking style? Seriously, where do you get this stuff from??
3) Zhrikov over Lahm? That is a joke right? Lahm has been germanys consistent player, and has played well defensivly and offensively. Sure he had some mistakes but Zhirkov has as well and overall, Lahm played much better.
4) Right Back with Hamit Altintop. Defensively he was a bust, and Terim noticed that so he put him back into midfield where he played his best soccer of the tournament. You have no data or evidence sugesting that he is the best right back of the tournament....
5) How can you have both Van der Vaart and Sneijder for central midfield when Van der Vaart was more of the left midfield player during the tournament. When they both played, they both werent central mid, only sneijder was.

And a couple of notes to other responses:

whateva: ballack over modric was a nobrainer. when it counted most, ballack was there to push his team forward and take over a game. He did it against both Austria and Portugal. Modric on the other hand played a decent tournament. His penalty against Turkey was a complete and utter joke. He didnt even hit the goal! He missed by like a foot!

rock119: How can you say that Zlatan more or less didnt play when his team needed him the most? He just came back from a long injury. How do you expect him to bring his best performance when he isnt even physically nowhere near 100%? You think that as soon as he gets back from his injury, that fitness has anything to do with his poor performance?

A mention of Chiellini would have been nice. Not saying he had a better tourney then the dudes here, but I feel that Italy's back line will be just fine once the "Berlin Wall" (aka - Cannavaro) hangs up his boots with Giorgio roaming about. See me in 2010 in South Africa.

PS - Buffon was left out to dry with the artist formerly known as the Matrix and Barzagli in the center against the Dutch. That being said, the Dutch goals were pretty top notch and Iker has had a great run.

i didnt mean to put Mutu into the squad. my first two points were only to correct their names because they were wrong, there is no Christian Mutu or T??rsten Frings. get it??

Grant, I agree with 10 of your 11 selections, but seriously disagree with the last one : I think Ballack has been given too much credit by the media (not just by you, but he's been given more credit than any other German player by the press here in France too). He had the poor game against Croatia, and the game winner against Portugal was facilitated by an obvious foul (his push in the back). I think either Schneider or Modric would have been a better choice here. I couldn't argue with Modric as the choice, and Schneider was certainly the shining light in Holland's big wins against Italy and France. I'm sure you've noticed that you only have players from semi-finalist teams in your starting 11. A bit too severe I think.

Thank god there are competent guys at ESPN for my football fix.

Casillas over Gigi because Italy (not Gigi) allowed 3 goals in one game?

That right there speaks to the heart of Americans' knowledge of football.

I would have to put Sneijder over Ballack. Sneijder may have been the most impressive in the entire tournament.

I love when foreigners come onto an American website to ridicule an American's knowledge of soccer because these SUBJECTIVE rankings don't correspond with their "expert" opinions. Of course, such rankings are always subjective and I have seen plenty of European articles which don't correspond with the opinions of the readers. The only difference is that their understanding of the game is not questioned. A double standard perhaps?

Maybe you plan to win (probably lose) games 8 to 7 with this team. Except the GK you have only two defensive players : Puyol and Senna. If you want to play with 3 defensive players you need 3 centerback especially with Altintop (not really a defender) and Zhirkov who are very offensive. Puyol would be alone on defense, Same thing for the midfield, except Senna they all are offensive midfielder or even forward (Podolski). Sneijder was better than Ballack but I can understand why you choose him. Absolutely no balance, it reminds me the Real Madrid (post-Makelele) with all the Galactics (what a joke). All the players deserve to be on this team but Casillas has to be amazing if you don't want to allow 5 goals a game.