All Tournment Team and Parting Words

I figured that with my last post on this blog, I would do what everyone else does and make a list of my picks for the all tournament team. I'm going to go with a standard 4-4-2 formation and try to pick based on specific positions (rather than four holding middies or something similar), but if I need to twist it a little to make sure a quality player is mentioned, I will. Anyway, let's get started.

Goalkeeper: Iker Casillas

I think this is a bit of a gimmie because he won the Golden Glove, but it's kind of hard to argue with his numbers and the championship. Five clean sheets including all four elimination games and only two goals allowed over the entire tournament. Wow. Of course his defense did a great job to help him in those matches, but he made several big saves when his team needed him. Spain would most likely not be world champions without the leg save he made on Arjen Robben's breakaway in the championship match and plenty of other key stops. Other possible choices were Maarten Stekelenberg, Richard Kingson and Manuel Neuer, but in the end you have to take the guy who won it all.

Defenders: Fabio Coentrao, Carles Puyol, Marcus Tulio Tanaka, Maicon

There are a couple of debatable choices here because Coentrao and Tanaka didn't make it out of the round of sixteen, but I would argue that that certainly wasn't because of their lack of skill or effort. Coentrao was a menace down the left side in every match he played and also played fantastic defense when faced with quick wingers such as Sergio Ramos in that round of sixteen match. The Blue Samurai held a special place in my heart during this tournament due to their gutty and surprisingly strong play and Tanaka was the anchor in the back that kept everything in place. He was magnificent in the air and cleared out anything that came his way. Puyol doesn't just make the list because he played on the winning team, but because he (along with Gerard Pique) did everything in their power to protect Casillas and were a large part of the fantastic clean sheet streak. The fact that Puyol put in the game-winning header against Germany certainly doesn't hurt either. Maicon makes this list because of his incredible pace coming down the right side and his absurd impossible angle, outside of the foot shot that somehow found its way in. More than that, he was a positive force in every game that Brazil played and it is certainly not his fault that they saw an early exit. Honorable mentions here are Philipp Lahm, Sergio Ramos, Per Mertesacker , and Giovanni Van Bronckhorst.

Midfielders: Wesley Sneijder, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Xavi, Thomas Muller

So many goals and so much creative playmaking. This list of middies had pretty much everything during the tournament and are major reasons for their teams' success. Sneijder almost quietly put up five goals in the tournament, most likely going by the wayside due to his teammate Robben's play and antics on the field. But make no mistake about Sneijder's worth as he scored and set up teammates time and time again. Schweinsteiger and Xavi played similar roles as midfield distributors and both did their job to near perfection. Schweinsteiger may even been a legitimate candidate to player of the tournament if it weren't for a lesser role in Germany's confrontation with Spain due to a different role in which he was forced to play much more defensively. Xavi was perhaps not as good as he has been, but his "pretty good" is still better than almost anyone's best. His quick passing and bountiful creativity were a major reason Spain is celebrating as they are now. Muller was the revelation of the tournament, along with many of his young teammates such as Mesut Ozil. He marauded up and down the right win making life difficult for any defender attempting to keep him under control. Even more than that, he played smart, never letting himself get too far forward and exposing the defense. His suspension for the semifinal match with Spain may have turned the tide all by itself. Honorable mentions here include Mark Van Bommel, Arjen Robben, Kevin-Prince Boateng, and Javier Mascherano.

Strikers: David Villa, Diego Forlan

For me, this was the easiest position to pick and I don't see how there could be much argument. Villa was the spark that Spain needed to get going in the group stage and his first goal against Honduras is a candidate for goal of the tournament. If anything, Villa was only held in check by tactics when he was forced to play the role of the lone striker once Spain left his normal partner Fernando Torres on the bench. Forlan is even the more obvious choice as he would be my pick for player of the tournament. Everything Uruguay needed Forlan to do, he did. He scored goals, he created wonderfully, and he did everything he could to beat the Dutch by himself in the semifinals though he fell just short. Most players can only dream to have the tournament that Forlan did and this should be remembered as the year of his brilliance. Honorable mentions here include Keisuke Honda and Robert Vittek.


There is my list and with that, there is my last post. I immensely enjoyed this whole process and loved watching every single one of these matches. I doubt many (if any) of you followed me this whole time, but thank you if you did and thank you if you only checked here once. I'm tossing around ideas in my head for a running sports blog, but admittedly don't have anything finalized yet. If I do, it will most likely have more snark than this recounting of my favorite sporting event, so be forewarned. When/If I set everything up, I will make sure everyone is informed as best I can. I hope anyone reading this enjoyed the 2010 World Cup as much as I did. Take care.