All right, I saw a similar thread in the other groups. Let each country pick 6 or 7 of its best players, and from them we'll choose (by vote or consensus, I guess), the All Star XI for the group, and five substitues. Then at the end of the group stage we'll see how good we were at predicting the best players in the group. It will also help us to get to know the stars from the opposing teams, so that we know whom to pay attention to during the games. I'll start with Poland first: Artur Boruc (Celtic): Goalkeeper Miroslaw Szymkowiak (Trabzonspor): Central Offensive Mid Jacek Krzynowek (Bayer): Left Mid Kamil Kosowski (Southampton): Left/Right Mid Ebi Smolarek (B. Dortmund): Right Mid/Forward Magic Zurawski (Celtic): Forward Tomasz Frankowski (Elche): Forward
great idea. Ulises de la Cruz - Rightback - Aston Villa Edison Mendez - Rightmidfielder - LDU de Quito Luis Antonio Valencia - Leftmidfielder - Villarreal CF Jaime Ivan Kaviedes - Centerfoward/second top - Argentinos Junior Franklin Salas - secondtop/offensive midfielder - LDU de Quito Agustin Delgado - centerfoward - as of now, no club. Ivan Hurtado - centerback - Al Arabi (Ecuador's captain) These are probably the 7 guys who will have to play to their potential to improve Ecuador's chances of advancing.
Hey Smoga, Well I'm not too fond of Polish football but whatever happened to Olisadebe? I remember I thought he was really good. Is he going through a bad moment or what? Thanks.
Olisadebe is a strange case. I'd be very surpised, even shocked (and most of my fellow Poland fans would be too, I am sure) if he had made our squad for Germany. The number one reason is that unlike in 2002 Poland now has at least three strikers that are better than him, and maybe four or five that are at about the same quality level. But there are other reasons. It turned out that he has bad knees, and thus a transfer to a top notch club never happened (I guess Panathinakios is a pretty good club, but Oli was, at some point, linked with top Premiership sides). So he is often sidelined at Pana, either due to injuries or dips in form, both of which happen very often. He is also known to be somewhat lazy in practice, and prone to conflicts with the coaching staff. And even though he has a Polish wife, he never even learned to speak Polish well, and for that reason some in Poland resent him as well. On top of it all Oli was called into the 23 man team for one of our recent WC Qualifiers, but didn't even make the subs bench. I am sure that he considered it to be a personal affront and humiliation, and even though he swears that he would still play for Poland if given the chance, this is unlikely. A sad story, in a way, because he had truly great potential four years ago.
List of potential key players for Germany IMHO: Philip Lahm (Bayern München) Michael Ballack (Bayern München) Sebastian Deisler (Bayern München) Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern München) Miroslav Klose (Werder Bremen) Lukas Podolski (FC Köln)
List of potential key players for Costa Rica IMHO: Paulo Cesar Wanchope (no team) FW Alvaro Saborio (Saprissa) FW Ronald Gomez (Saprissa) FW Walter centeno(Saprissa) CMF Cristian Bolaños (Saprissa) OMF Carlos Hernandez(Alajuela) CMF Jose Francisco Porras (Saprissa)GK
Tim Borowski (Werder Bremen) Torsten Frings (Werder Bremen) Per Mertesacker (Hannover) Kevin Kuranyi (Schalke 04) ...
Too bad, he is a great player. I wonder if he can get a Polish passport based on his parent’s ethnicity ;-)
potential key players for Germany: Phillip Lahm (Bayern Munich) Rightback Tim Borowski (Werder Bremen) OMF Christoph Metzelder (Borussia Dortmund) central defense Lukas Podolski (FC Köln) Forward Miro Klose (Werder Bremen) Forward Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich) LMF Sebastian Kehl (Borussia Dortmund) CMF
The Key Player for Germany will be Ballack... for sure. But other key players are whoever is goalkeeper, Friedrich, Lahm, whoever in DM and the Klose and Podolski/Kuranyi
well, i guess ill combine the german and polish teams, because i know them best, and maybe the guys from ecuador and costa rica can combine theirs, and than we'll decided whos better. Goalkeeper: Boruc (hes on the upswing of his career, and Kahn is on the downswing) Defence: Maybe Lewandowski could be in there, but I'll give this one to the Germans Lahm Metzelder Mertesacher Friedrich Midfield: Smolarek Ballack Schweinsteiger Krzynowek Forwards: I'd put Podolski in, but this season, hes not exactly playing like I'd expect. Plus, without Schweinsteiger, I don't think hed be as good as people make him out to be. Klose Zurawski
OK, here is the Group A All Star Team, and a sub's bench if anyone disagrees feel free to discuss --------------------Kahn-------------------- Friedrich------Hurtado------Metzelder-------Lahm Smolarek---Ballack-----Schweinsteiger-----Valencia ---------Zurawski--------Klose----------- Subs: Goal: Boruc Defense: Mertesacher, De la Cruz, Lewandowski Midfield: Hernandez, Szymkowiak, Kaviedes Forward: Wanchope, Podolski, Frankowski
im glad you guys have schweinsteiger in there, he will break out and be concidered by most as one of the best younger players in the world after this world cup
Formation: 4-4-2 Diamond GK: Timo HILDEBRAND RB: Arne FRIEDRICH CD: Per MERTESACKER CD: LB: Philipp LAHM DM: Torsten FRINGS RM: Bernd SCHNEIDER LM: Jacek KRZYNOWEK AM: Michael BALLACK ST: Maciej ZURAWSKI ST: Miroslaw KLOSE Subs: Jerzy DUDEK Gilberto MARTINEZ Ivan HURTADO Edison MENDEZ Bastian SCHWEINSTEIGER Kevin KURANYI Lukas PODOLSKI
bad choice on the goalies, as neither of those 2 will be starting, or probably not even on the bench.