Of Dream teams and the FIFA worldcup

The first post should have been a cricket post. Didnt get any time to write abt cricket. Football fever has caught up with me too. So couldnt resist writing a post abt it. I was recently going through an edition of TIMES OF INDIA when I saw this news item titled ‘Beckham’s dream eleven’ . It was too biased in the first place with most of the players being his ol pals or real madrid teammates. Some were ManU giants. Some were German greats (beckham is in germany btw :P) The team wasnt balanced , there were two right-sided mids in the eleven. Leave that , lets move on to another topic

I thought it would be nice if I could select my dream team. After some thinking I came up with a 23-man squad (will list the squad later in this post ). I like offensive formations. So why not start with my favourite 3-4-1-2 . Has all my fav. players. Ronaldinho is obv. the playmaker. Henry picks himself. Ruud the deadly finisher gets a chance. Arjen Robben occupies the left wing. Cristiano resides on the right. No wingbacks in this formation. GERRARD captains the team. click on the pic to zoom

I thought abt other formations too. The next one is the 4-3-1-2 (the formation with which AC MILAN plays). And since Kaka is in the 23-man squad , he is the playmaker since he is used to playing in this formation. Mascherano plays the holding role. Sergio Ramos and Carles Puyol are versatile enough to switch between RB and CB. Shevchenko gets a chance to impress. Buffon gets the goalie’s job ahead of Cech due to his experience. GERRARD captains the team. In the other positions I selected some of the reserves in my 23-man squad. click on the pic

There is one more formation , which is essentially a 4-4-2 , but with one of the mid’s taking up a more advanced role(i.e the CAM). No particular bias towards Ronaldinho. Would have named Kaka in this. Just changed my mind in the last moment. Messi gets a chance in this formation as winger. (i cant afford to play him as CAM , doesnt hav the experience :P) Joaquin occupies the right win. Cech gets the keeper’s job. Del Horno rocks at left-back. didnt choose GERRARD as holding midfielder , he dislikes the role. Ronaldinho is captain.clic on the pic

The following one is more of a defensive formation. Henry is the lone-striker. He can play this role comfortably as seen in the UEFA Champions league. Ballack partners GERRARD. GERRARD is captain. Puyol plays at right-back. Iker Casillas gets back his job. clic on this

I would appreciate any comments on these squads. Lets have a discussion (:D)

Anyways here is my 23-man squad

GK’s -: Iker Casillas(ESP), Gianluigi Buffon(ITA), Peter Cech(CZE)

LB’s -: Asier Del Horno(ESP) , Fabricio Coloccini(ARG)

RB’s -: Sergio Ramos(ESP) , Carles Puyol(ESP) ( both are versatile enough to play CB too)

CB’s -: Alessandro Nesta(ITA), John Terry(ENG), Lucio(BRA)

DM’s -: Javier Mascherano(ARG)

CM’s -: Steven Gerrard(ENG), Michael Ballack(GER), Xabi Alonso(ESP)

LWM’s -: Arjen Robben(NED)(can switch wings) , Lionel Messi(ARG)

RWM’s -: Cristiano Ronaldo(POR)(versatile enought to play LWM too) , Joaquin Sanchez(ESP)

ST’s -: Thierry Henry(FRA), Ruud Van Nistelrooy(NED), Andriy Shevchenko(UKR)

I would have selected Rooney , but his match-fitness is in doubt.

As many as 6 spaniards in my team :O. I didnt expect that. I am not a spanish fan btw. Does this tell you spain has good prospects in this worldcup. I dont think so. Especially when they have a coach who reprimands the captain for coming to training in a yellow jersey. Wonder what would he do if ESP were to face the samba boys. Vomit ? =))

I am vouching for the Samba Boys. If a team can play to world-class CAM’s in the same match then it has got some meat.

Would have ended this post like this , but there is this new fashion of writing PS’s. So why defy the majority , lets indulge in some PSing

PS 1 -: Waiting for 12th June (thats when brazil starts its campaign)

PS 2 -: I desperately wanna write a post on cricket

PS 3 -: Federer please make Nadal eat clay , err…. mud

PS 4 -: Indians are faring OK in the westindies , Sreesanth is out of the second match

PS 5 -: Simon Jones injured yet AGAIN , and is now out of the ASHES. The world’s most devastating reverse swinger cannot now be seen in the ASHES.

PS 6 -: I am waiting for Ponting to unleash his VISWA ROOPAM(this word borrowed from the GITA , means universal form in english).

PS 7 -: It took a lot of time to prepare these formations in GIMP , got the fooball field from FIFA Manager. And then a lot of searching in google-images.

PS 8 -: This post written using emacs

PS 9 -: Pirates of the Caribbean on July 7th (thts when the worldcup is over) . Someone told me it was on June 7th and I got excited :((

PS 10 -: The City of Destiny awaits

PS 11 -: Found an illustration of the dutch-team’s tactics , looked good , so I am posting it. click on the pic

PS 12 -: So far Harsha Bhogle has done a commendable job analysing the FIFA Worldcup. If it were anyone else , say like the bitch who presented the last cricket worldcup it would have been terrible :((

PS 13 -: There were two commentaries running yesterday – both english and hindi . it was a mess. cudnt hear anything. problem got corrected later in the match.

PS 14 -: This is kinda my first blog

Bye Bye

CyA

–Sleeper