Who is #1 at the moment???

[4-3-3]

Who is #1 at the moment???

[ITALIA1982]

Italy...

[jerrito]

Italia by a small margin over France.

[benficafan3]

This thread deserves no merit with 1/2 the options being quarterfinalists.

[jerrito]

This thread deserves no merit with 1/2 the options being quarterfinalists.


And no mention of France, who lost the World Cup by a single penalty kick. I think sometimes these kinds of things are asked based on reputation. I mean, should Brasil even be considered for the spot right now? Honestly, as bad as they looked in the World Cup you're asking if they are the number 1 team in the world RIGHT NOW? I have the greatest respect for Brasilian football, but this is just silly. They're not the #1 team in South America in my opinion at the moment. Argentina is. No place for Brasil in a poll like this, sorry.

[bigpoppapump]

This thread deserves no merit with 1/2 the options being quarterfinalists.


the "best" teams dont always win, The margin between being #1 and the rest is so slim though when you get to the top teams but it could change from day to day even. By default though since they did just barely won the WC,, italy


edit; but yeah brazil played bad, they should be back though

[megamac20817]

Beyond my bias, I must say it's Argentina.

They have scary depth in almost every position besides Goalkeeper, and their attack looks killer for 2010 (Aguero, Tevez, Messi, Cavenaghi, Maxi Lopez... you get the idea)


Even though Italy are world champs, no one can claim they played very good football, and they lack depths in many spots, most notably CB as the two best in the world Canna and Nesta, are really pushing the age limit. That, and the fact that Totti is leaving is a big question mark over them.

Brazil has no place in a poll like this, since they were shown to be nothing more than hype after the WC exit. Sure, Argentina went out at the same stage, but they actually came to play, and they went to an arguably better team (Yes, Germany is better than France IMO; reaching the final doesn't make you the second best, remember that Germany put up one hell of a game against the champs).

[jerrito]

Beyond my bias, I must say it's Argentina.

They have scary depth in almost every position besides Goalkeeper, and their attack looks killer for 2010 (Aguero, Tevez, Messi, Cavenaghi, Maxi Lopez... you get the idea)


Even though Italy are world champs, no one can claim they played very good football, and they lack depths in many spots, most notably CB as the two best in the world Canna and Nesta, are really pushing the age limit. That, and the fact that Totti is leaving is a big question mark over them.

Brazil has no place in a poll like this, since they were shown to be nothing more than hype after the WC exit. Sure, Argentina went out at the same stage, but they actually came to play, and they went to an arguably better team (Yes, Germany is better than France IMO; reaching the final doesn't make you the second best, remember that Germany put up one hell of a game against the champs).

Argentina was a bit unlucky to lose and in my opinion does have a place in this argument. But actually, I do claim that Italy played "very good football". Many people do. 12 goals from 10 different players is pretty damned good football. Only two goals allowed (one PK, one own goal) is pretty good football. If you were looking for some kind of pretty dribbling and South American style of play then you don't know Italian soccer very well. Lack depth at the cb spot? Did you notice how well Materazzi played? No offense but to say that Argentina is better than Italy right now because Italy won it's 4th World Cup but "didn't play very well" is just a bit off the mark in my opinion.

[AllWhitebeliever]

Rubblish to rule off Brazil. Just because it was not pretty looking does not mean they are not near the top. they were just beated by france. And france were just beated by Italy. Argentina knows that they have a long way off their full potential and no doubt the potential is there. And so is England and Netherlands and Germany and Spain and Portgual. Why you havn't consider France is beyond me and to include Argentina. 4-3-3, are you a one eye Argentinian?

Yes Italy, especially without Zizou France starting line-up would drop a bit of quality. You can't rule Brazil yet and they could be second with France losing Zizou in the midfield. All very close. But not Argentina, not now maybe in a years time, but not now.

At the moment


1.) Italy
2.) France
3.) Brazil
.......close in the top 3 and then a small gap to the potential rest......
4.) Argentina
5.) England
6.) Netherland
7.) Spain
8.) Germany
9.) Portgual


:cool:

Hang loose guys

[Neutral2]

Germany > Argentinia, Brazil

[ibby]

Germany > Argentinia, Brazil

Agreed, but it would have been nice to see how Germany would have faired if the world cup wasn't in Germany.

[nicephoras]

Germany isn't better than Argentina.

[megamac20817]

I agree with Nice. It wasn't so much Argentina failing to win, it was Pekerman managing to lose that match.

[nicephoras]

It isn't even that, necessarily - how can anyone claim Germany is "better" because they managed to win, at home, on penalties?
If you're going to talk about how good teams would be if they had better coaching, England might be world cup champions right now.

[benficafan3]

Its hard to have a #1, because not one team is fully convincing.

[Milliano]

Rubblish to rule off Brazil. Just because it was not pretty looking does not mean they are not near the top.

The players that haven't retired from the team are all either very overhyped or have hardly played on the NT before. There is no reason to rate them as being top three in the world right now.

At least until Euro 2008 is over, I have to say Italy is #1. France won't be as good now, from aging and retired players.
Although ranking national teams isn't very purposeful in the first place. There is too much variability, particularily with the amount of time in between meaningful matches and tournaments, to really accurately rank the teams to practically judge how well they will perform.

[ElverGun]

Its hard to have a #1, because not one team is fully convincing.
Twelve goals scored…only two crap goals allowed.

Undefeated in 25 consecutive matches.

That’s pretty convincing to me.;)



I wish Mexico was this unconvincing. :cool:

[prezbucky]

[QUOTE=megamac20817]snip

Even though Italy are world champs, no one can claim they played very good football, and they lack depths in many spots, most notably CB as the two best in the world Canna and Nesta, are really pushing the age limit. That, and the fact that Totti is leaving is a big question mark over them.

snip[QUOTE]

I thought that I Azzurri played fairly well in most of their WC games. It was refreshing to see their attempt at attacking football. When they were fresh, they tried to create shots and (otherwise) press on in the opposition's half.

We saw them mostly dominate France in the first half. As the second half wore on, and Italy got tired (Pirlo could barely even jog), it became clear to me that La Nazionale's biggest question mark is in their conditioning.

They've got one of the premier midfield quarterbacks in Pirlo.

Totti, when 100% (wasn't near that at the WC, it was plain he was not match fit), is one of the top fantasistas in the world imo.

The back four is the world's best, maybe along with England's. It was cool to see both fullbacks (Grosso and Zambrotta) really take their game into the attacking half. I thought, heading into the final, that Zambrotta had been every bit as good as Pirlo and Cannavaro. Cannavaro should have won the golden ball.

Gattuso covers Pirlo's rear to make up for any deficiency Andrea might have in the defensive department.

Italy are not great on the flanks. Perhaps that's weak spot #2.


I'm not sure if anyone's mentioned it, or where this would go, but i hope nobody here took much from Italy's 2-0 loss to Croatia. It was an A team against a C team -- none of the field players were even in Germany on Italy's world cup squad. And I bet FIFA counted that game in the rankings. FIFA rankings... don't EVEN get me started! hehe

[footychick]

Brazil

[megamac20817]

Brazil

I can see you've really thought it out. I mean, a team that completely failed to meet expectations and failed to beat a France team with many players pushing 30 while they themselves have supposedly the best player in the world (absolute flop in the WC)... oh yeah, they're definately #1