Draft of Drafts

[Twenty26Six]

How much consideration has anyone given the advancing technologies of the football itself? I'm concvinced that a football today is much more "live" than it was ten years ago. Imagine the differnce between now and 40 years ago. I understand we are trying to be fair to all eras, but I feel the keeper position in the modern eras should get credit for having to deal with a much lighter, livelier, faster ball.

Based on this I would have favored a guy like Zoff over others, and I think it gives some extra credibility to Peter Schmeichel.

[skipshady]

How much consideration has anyone given the advancing technologies of the football itself? I'm concvinced that a football today is much more "live" than it was ten years ago. Imagine the differnce between now and 40 years ago. I understand we are trying to be fair to all eras, but I feel the keeper position in the modern eras should get credit for having to deal with a much lighter, livelier, faster ball.

Based on this I would have favored a guy like Zoff over others, and I think it gives some extra credibility to Peter Schmeichel.
Of course, the technology works for the keeper as well. Better protection, particularly gloves, have helped keepers perform better and last longer. And while modern balls are livelier, the flights are truer.

[Dark Savante]

Team D - Dark Savante(c), Real Ray, Mobile, Spartak

Selection 1

Matthias Sammer The Red Hothead/Grouser

Born:5th September 1967, Dresden, Tyskland, East Germany
Nationality: German
Position: Libero, CB, DM, CM, SM
Caps/Goals: 74(23 of which were for East Germany)14goals

Clubs:
Dynamo Dresden(East Germany), VFB STuttgart, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmand

Major Honours:
3x German Bundesliga winner
1x European Championship winner
1x Champions League winner
1x European Player of the Year, 1996
2x German Super Cup winner
2x East German League winner
1x East German Cup
2x German Footballer of the year, 1995 & 1996


Profile

Matthias Sammer is probably the best player to ever come out of the former GDR. If it weren't for constant injury problems, he probably would be the heir to the Kaiser Franz Beckenbauer's crown. He screamed at his coaches and teammates and berated opponents with the fire and intensity of so many great leaders from the past.

A true believer in the ethics of team play and hard work for an entire match, Sammer could often be seen running from the sweeper position into the oppositions penalty area well into 2nd half extra time. His tireless running and ability to read a game made him a problem in which ever position he was playing as he would not only dispossess an opposing player, but would open up the entire field for his team mates and force defensive midfielders way out of position to confront his latest surging run.

Sammer's reading of the game and instinctive actions meant he rarely made a bad descision on the pitch. If he ran forward from libero he would do so at just the right time do so, and even with his bright orange hair would often manage to ghost into the oppositions penalty area unnoticed.

Whilst not being the best in any one area of his game Sammer was a complete player who was above average at everything and was never left wanting. Ever aware of his own ability, his decision making would more often then not be on point, Sammer wouldn't make a play that could jeopordize those around him unless it was absolutely neccessary.

Sammer's endorsement by coach Berti Vogts hastened to end the international career of Lothar Matthaeus, a celebrated but aging star who expected to lead Germany into the Euro 96 tournament in England.
"My libero is Matthias Sammer," Vogts said. "I have no reason to change.
"He makes for a perfect example, not only on the field."

Sammer was one of Vogts' key players. He is the perfect professional, driven by an immense desire to win, a player who gives his best every game.
"Personal destinies do not count for me," Sammer says. "I am not important.
"The team is always foremost on my mind. I see myself as a midfielder, but I have no problems playing at the back. Either behind the line of defenders, among them, or in front, makes no difference to me."

Mathias's playing career began as a six-year-old schoolboy with the East German side, Dynamo Dresden. At 13 he attended a school of excellence which honed and rounded his game to cater for a number of positions on the field. His development was consistent as he claimed a European Youth Championship in 1986 and was instantly promoted to the senior team. In 1990 he became the first East German to play for the now united Germany in the 4-0 win over Switzerland.

Sammer is now coaching in Germany, having recently left Dortmund to take the healm at VFB Stuttgart.

[Dark Savante]

selection 2

Tom Finney
Preston North End (1946-1960)
187 goals in 433 league appearances
England 30 Goals/76 Caps
Football Writers Player of the Year: 1955, 58

In the supposed Golden Age of English football during the Forties and Fifties, Tom Finney stood above them all and is still considered by many today to have been the most complete British footballer of all time.

A versatile player, who could play all the orthodox five forward positions of the day for Preston and England. Of his 76 England appearances, 40 were made at outside-right, and because he was truly two-footed, though naturally left footed, another 33 internationals were played on the opposite flank. Tom played three times at center-forward and once at inside- forward. He was a genuine two-footed player, packing an explosive shot in either his right or his left. He had speed, balance, was a pin-point passer and, for a man of no great height, could head with awesome power.

His 30 goals in 76 England appearances ranks him number 4 on the list of all-time England scorers behind, Greaves, Lineker, and Charlton.

Because his career was spent with Preston North End, Finney never enjoyed the rewards of great domestic success. In 1952, Palermo actually offered him the then staggering signing-on fee of £10,000 to sign for them. His weekly wage would have been £100, not bad considering his wage at the time was £14. Unfortunately for Tom, but fortunately for England, Preston rejected Palermo`s move and he had to settle for a mere £6 pay-rise.

In a career that spanned nearly a quarter of a century and over 600 senior games Tom Finney was never booked. In 1961 he was awarded the OBE and in 1992 the CBE. In 1998 he was knighted. In an often quoted line, Finney's greatness was summed up by Bill Shankly who famously said, "Tom Finney would have been great in any team, in any match and in any age. . . even if he had been wearing an overcoat."

[Dark Savante]

selection 3 is due shortly.

[lanman]

In an often quoted line, Finney's greatness was summed up by Bill Shankly who famously said, "Tom Finney would have been great in any team, in any match and in any age. . . even if he had been wearing an overcoat."

Great quote - Finney is someone I view like Charles, he would have been a suitable pick in the first 55 but his versatility makes him an excellent choice for the bench.

[Dark Savante]

selection 3

Gunnar Nordahl was the most effective striker that ever played for AC Milan. His style of play was based on his enormous strength. Nordahl had another four brothers who also played football in the Swedish first division. He played in the Swedish first division at Degerfors and IFK Norkopping. His career landmarks during his time in the Swedish championship are the four championships titles won during the time he played for Norkopping and the seven goals scored against Landskrona in a championship match. He was first called to the Swedish national team in 1945. In 1948 he became the top scorer of the Olympic Games football tournament with seven goals, where he helped Sweden to win the Olymipic gold medal. It seemed that his value was too big for the Swedish championship and so it was. After he scored in the Swedish first league 149 goals in 172 matches played, he took the way of Italy, signing a contract with AC Milan. This contract is the beggining of a great era for AC Milan because Nordahl will be one of the leading players of 'The Devils' in their way of winning the most of the 50's Scudetto's (1950, 1954, 1956 and 1958) and not only.

He arrived at AC Milan on the 22nd January 1949, and in his first season wearing the red and black strips shirt, he scored an outstanding 16 goals in 15 games. Later, in AC Milan arrived his national side team mates, Gunnar Gren and Nils Liedholm, all off them forming the well known GRE-NO-LI trio.

The transfer to the Italian championship was equal for him with the retirement from the Swedish national team as the Swedish had strict rules against professionalism in sports. In his national team career, he scored 44 goals in 30 matches, one of the highest average ever, almost 1,5 goals a match. He played for AC Milan in eight seasons, in five of them being the Serie A top scorer. He scored for Milan a total of 210 goals. At the end of his career he played in AS Roma for two seasons. For AC Milan, he scored in Serie A a total of 210 goals.

He also contributed in a 7-1 AC Milan win against Juventus Torino. Unfortunately, he died in 1995, and he will remain for ever in history as one of the most powerful and greatest players of the game.

Trophies won:
::4 x Swedish title
::1 x Swedish cup
::2 x Italian title
::2 x Coppa Latina
::1 x Olympic Gold Medal
::4 x Swedish Top Scorer
::1 x Olympic Games Top Scorer
::5 x Italian League Top Scorer

[Dark Savante]

Team D subs:

Sammer
Finney
Nordahl

[tpmazembe]

Team D subs:

Sammer
Finney
Nordahl
Nice choices. I especially like the Sammer pick because he provides versatility and at a high level. Pity his career was so short. He was to be one of Team C's subs.

[Wingtips1]

just want to say this draft is the best thing on big soccer. having been a viewer of the pages for a few months, finding this group pushed me to become a poster myself.
i agree with schmeichel being picked. he was the major constant in man utd's dominance of the EPL.
I will say Overath was a great pick. You cannot doubt a man who was voted best of a WC.
And Deschamps has to be the worst pick thus far. One can point to his contemporary on the current French team (Viera) to find a better player, as well as looking to Roy Keane (as well as about 10 others). He happened to be a technically solid player, who was surrounded by technically superior players, whose positioning was good, but he had no notable athletic ability and was like Makelele in the sense he only made 10 yard passes.

[minorthreat]

Skipshady brought up the idea of plugging this whole thing into Winning Eleven or CM and seeing how it played out. I'd love to do it on WE7, the only problem is that I'd have to create the following players since they aren't already in the game:

Nordahl
Charles
Schiaffino
Gento
Marzolini
Czibor
Santamaria
Boszik
Kocsis
Figueroa
Varela

If anyone wants to help me come up with stats for them, or just suggest an existing player that I could use as a template (on an older version of WE I've created Gento before by using Alvaro Recoba as a base), let me know.

[tpmazembe]

TEAM C SUBS.

Team C has agreed to their subs bench, although I have not been able to squeeze time from work to put together proper profiles. We will post the players now in order to keep the process moving (and not lose any of them to Team B) and will post profiles before week's end.

Sub 1 : Domingos Da Guia (Bra), Defender
Sub 2 : Gunther Netzer (Ger), Midfielder
Sub 3 : Jose Manuel Moreno (ARG), Forward

These three provide great tactical options as they are adept at multiple functions within their lines.

PS - Welcome Wingtips1, thanks for the input. Will take time to further explain my Schmeicel comment when get a chance.

[lanman]

TEAM C SUBS
Sub 1 : Domingos Da Guia (Bra), Defender
Sub 2 : Gunther Netzer (Ger), Midfielder
Sub 3 : Jose Manuel Moreno (ARG), Forward


Great choices, especially Domingos - it would have been a real shame if he was left out of the draft. He was my preference for our last defender.

[argentine soccer fan]

TEAM C SUBS.

Team C has agreed to their subs bench, although I have not been able to squeeze time from work to put together proper profiles. We will post the players now in order to keep the process moving (and not lose any of them to Team B) and will post profiles before week's end.

Sub 1 : Domingos Da Guia (Bra), Defender
Sub 2 : Gunther Netzer (Ger), Midfielder
Sub 3 : Jose Manuel Moreno (ARG), Forward

These three provide great tactical options as they are adept at multiple functions within their lines.

PS - Welcome Wingtips1, thanks for the input. Will take time to further explain my Schmeicel comment when get a chance.

Nice, very nice. It took some time, but you got your revenge for Eusebio and Rijkaard.

[argentine soccer fan]

I think I should clear this up. I wasn't riled by what you said of team D in particular it was the way you put across your views on teams outside of A and C. Maybe it's just me, but it came across as tho you wanted to create a debate where B,D and E 'defended' their teams. Again, maybe it is just me, but it came across as intentionally antagnostic as in wanting others to take the bait and state their claim. If you didn't do that on purpose then it's on me and an apology is due, if you did, then it worked . I was just surprised others rose to what I percieved to be a proverbial fishing hook, lol.



Come on, DS, lets keep it fun. Wasn't what we wanted to get other BS posters to come in with their opinionated and biased thoughts about the teams that we all picked? I am glad that Kold_77_Crush posted his views and I hope we get more posters like him who come in with love for the game and some insight of their own. Maybe not all posters will know everything about all the players that we picked, but I doubt many of us do either. There were a couple of guys I had to look up myself, and I suspect that this has been educational for all. We shouldn't accuse people of ignorance. If anything, educate us as to why you dissagree with those posters who don't give your team a chance but don't snap at them. Peace.

PS: No way C beats A in round robin, K_C. :D

[Excape Goat]

TEAM C SUBS.



Sub 1 : Domingos Da Guia (Bra), Defender
Sub 2 : Gunther Netzer (Ger), Midfielder
.

lanman lobbied hard to draft Domingos for our last defenders. We vetoed it. I almost agreed to, but then I went for someone else because I knew very little about him.

Netzer became liked the 5th or 6th West Germany 1974 player drafted.

We still do not have the second 1970 Brazil team member. I thought one of them actually deserved to be in the first three rounds. And no Liverpool player!!!

[argentine soccer fan]

Skipshady brought up the idea of plugging this whole thing into Winning Eleven or CM and seeing how it played out. I'd love to do it on WE7, the only problem is that I'd have to create the following players since they aren't already in the game:

Nordahl
Charles
Schiaffino
Gento
Marzolini
Czibor
Santamaria
Boszik
Kocsis
Figueroa
Varela

If anyone wants to help me come up with stats for them, or just suggest an existing player that I could use as a template (on an older version of WE I've created Gento before by using Alvaro Recoba as a base), let me know.

I suppose the game must rate players based on their strength, stamina, speed, agressiveness etc. Here are some suggestions of possible templates you might use for the South Americans. I am trying to base it on what I know of their playing style and general characteristics.

Marzolini: Use Paolo Maldini
Santamaria: Use Claudio Gentile
Figueroa: Use Luis Suarez.
Varela: Tough one... Use Roy Keane. (Although you will have to do a complete overhaul on his looks).

I'll leave the Europeans for someone else.

[moacir]

Player: Didi (Valdir Perreira)

Just to keep the record straight Valdir PEREIRA

(Unless you are a fan over 50 year old.)

I am and can vouch for the choice.

[Martin Cutler]

Skipshady brought up the idea of plugging this whole thing into Winning Eleven or CM and seeing how it played out. I'd love to do it on WE7, the only problem is that I'd have to create the following players since they aren't already in the game:

Nordahl
Charles
Schiaffino
Gento
Marzolini
Czibor
Santamaria
Boszik
Kocsis
Figueroa
Varela

If anyone wants to help me come up with stats for them, or just suggest an existing player that I could use as a template (on an older version of WE I've created Gento before by using Alvaro Recoba as a base), let me know.

I don't know anything about those, or any other computer game, but if you are looking for more contemporary players to compare these all time greats to I'd say this:

Nordahl- Alan Shearer
Charles- as a centerforward Christian Vieri, as a centerback- Sol Campbell
Schiaffino- Roberto Baggio
Gento- Bruno Conti
Marzolini-Paolo Maldini (when he played as a left back) or a left footed Cafu
Czibor- Karl Heinz Rummenigge
Santamaria-Frank Rijkaard
Boszik- Roy Keane
Kocsis- Rudi Voller
Figueroa- Fernando Hierro
Varela-Marcel Desailly


Thanks to those for their praise of Team C. We think we came up with a pretty good team too! Although, unlike tpmazembe, I think we need to play DiStefano just behind Ronaldo and in front of and sometimes alongside Platini.

[Sampe]

Hi there!

First, I want to express my respect for this magnificent thread and for doing wonders to my knowledge of football history. It's been a real pleasure watching this draft progress.

Second, I am a member of several different forums and by some weird coincidence, we happened to start a similar draft at an ice hockey forum (yes, there are plenty of football fans there, even from countries like Brazil & the Netherlands!), just two weeks later than you (though I didn't discover this thread until the 7th round of our own draft or so). Now that you have all completed your first eleven's I could give you a link to ours, but only if you give the permission to do so.