Since last December a couple of BS posters have been mulling around an idea. It follows the premise of some of the recent threads that have popped up. All these debates about best players - today, best by decade, by position, all time, etc -what if people were actually forced to make real choices in a draft like exercise, would they vote their hearts or heads? Would someone actually use their first pick on Zidane to build a squad around? We’ve put 5 teams of BS posters together, with the mandate of building a team (starting 11) from the pool of all players who ever existed. Each week, for 11 weeks -- I know it is ambitious given attention span of BS posters and our busy lives -- a team representative will make their selection public for all to see. First picks of each round on Mondays, second picks on Tuesdays, and final picks on Friday. As with any draft, once a player is picked he is no longer available to other teams. What would we have after this exercise? We’d have a (stress "a", not the only) BigSoccer definitive all-time greatest squads, from which we could garner: • The definitive list of 55 greatest players ever (from a complete team stand-point) • Top 5 greatest players of all time (by default top 5 picks, the players BS experts chose to start their teams with given the universe of all players being available) • Top10 greatest players of all time (First and Second Round picks; beyond the Second Round the drafting will probably get more tactical as choices are made to fill out an actual team, so this logic would not necessarily hold true into later rounds) • best players at specific positions, etc. We could have common basis to do all sorts of analysis, such as: • % all-time greats by country • % all-time greats by country by position (eg. Germany placed 42% of all time great midfielders) • % by decade (eg. Our exercise appoints the 60s as decade that produced the most gifted footballers) • % by club • etc. This could turn out to be a reference thread for future discussions. To make it work we needed a good cross reference of posters (age, nationality), and tried to assign the selection teams with posters who tend to disagree with each other (this will force them to make picks that are negotiated and debated internally). Finally, the team members should be posters that actually have a great knowledge of the game beyond the past decade. To keep the process manageable we invite around 40 BS posters to participate – 20 have currently accepted the challenge (5 teams of 4 BS posters). This thread will host the official daily selections. All BS posters are invited to comment, provide analysis, agree/disagree with picks.
Draft Process GOAL. Draft the best starting 11 from combined knowledge of the list of players that have ever played: active or retired, dead or alive. Selection teams should keep in mind that their team should be able to win a mini championship against the other four selections. PROCESS. Each week day a selection team will make its selection for that round. The first week’s selections will be called Round 1…second week’s will be Round 2….and so forth. Thus we will end at the conclusion of Round 11. Within each round there will be 5 players selected in total. A selection will occur on Monday by one team; a second selection will occur on Tuesday by another team -- through the fifth and final selection for that round (week) on Friday. No weekend selections will be made. Once a player has been chosen they are not available for further selection. SELECTION TEAMS. There will be 5 teams of BigSoccer Posters. The minimum number of posters on each team is 4. This ensures that picks are not solely one poster's opinion. Teams will debate / select privately prior to their selection. Each selection team has a Captain responsible to make sure that the team’s pick in each Round (week) is made by the deadline. In a week that such Captain in unavailable, they are responsible for delegating the posting of their teams selection on to the thread. Teams will be designated simply as A, B, C, D, E. Selection sequence will be: ROUND 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Mon(1) A E A E A E A E A E A Tue(2) B D B D B D B D B D B Wed(3) C C C C C C C C C C C Thu(4) D B D B D B D B D B D Fri(5) E A E A E A E A E A E SELECTION CRITERIA. Player selections can be made using any criteria your team chooses. The only requirement is that each team have a four man backline (Right Back, 2 Center Backs, Left Back) for comparison purposes. Other than that, they can use any formation they choose.
TEAM A Ombak – captain Argentine soccer fan Motterman Skipshady TEAM B Clanblue – captain Bauser Alex1 Treetaliano TEAM C Efernandez9 –captain Maczebus Martin Cutler Tpmazembe TEAM D Dark Savante - captain Spartak Real Ray Mobile TEAM E Comme – captain Auriaprottu Excape Goat Merengue Team A will kick-off the draft with the First Round's First Pick on this Monday March 15th.
It would be nice if we could do the ESPN thing and have these teams play each other on a in a single table PS2 league (in Realvideo for all of BigSoccer to see- controllers set to neutral, CPU plays the games). Every team plays every other team three times. Then again, I'm a football videogaming addict. Never mind...
Team A picks Geoff Thomas Position: Midfielder Clubs: Crystal Palace Honours: none Distinction : The worst player England have ever had?
Team A's real selection will be up shortly - it is going through a formal final approval process in our team thread. Really just a formality though.
First pick in the ultimate draft With the first pick in the draft of drafts Team A (Ombak, Motterman, skipshady, argentine soccer fan) select Pelé. TEAM A Ombak, skipshady, Motterman, argentine soccer fan Round: 1 (Week 1) Selection: 1 1st overall pick Player: Pelé (Édson Arantes do Nascimento) Position: M (THE number 10) Career Span: late 50’s – early 70’s Nationality: Brazilian, born in Três Corações, Minas Gerais. Caps: 52 Club Teams: Santos, New York Cosmos Profile / Stats: Played in 4 World Cups (58, 62, 66, 70), won 3, scored 12 goals. Led Santos to back-to-back World Club titles in 62 and 63 over Milan and Porto. What more needs to be said? From the age of 15 Pelé was leading all scorers in Brazil consistently, he changed the way the game is played with his combination of vision and athleticism. Could literally play any position (was Santos’ replacement keeper in the days before subs and never gave up a goal when he had to play in goal). A genius in every aspect of the game, from positioning to passing to dribbling (would regular dribble players by knocking the ball off the inside of their leg early in his career) to shooting and heading. Enough said. This selection: Uncontested.
Our team, as well as the other 3, did not expect him to fall out of the first two selection. Tommorrow's pick by team B will start the domino effect.....
Re: First pick in the ultimate draft Slight error...the 1963 home and away World Club title was against Eusebio's Benfica. This match-up includes the famous return leg game at a packed Stadium of Light in Portugal in which Santos probably had their greatest display on the European stage, defeating Benfica 5-2; w/ Pele scoring a hat-trick in out-deuling the legendary Eusebio who had two scores of his own. I've seen a 15 minute "compact" of this game which is pretty impressive. If anyone has the whole game on tape, would love to talk.
I just had a thought. Since there is an unbalanced 11 rounds giving some teams an advantage over others with the last pick. Why don't we just add a 12th round balancing out all the groups. This could be called every teams bench player. I think it would also be interesting to see which team has the best sub. We would be able to pick any position as well. I mean, what's the differance between a top 55 and a top 60?
Pele? Over the great Geoff Thomas? You must be mad. Still at least it means that Geoff will be available for me in round 5. Also you have caps 52, while I have Pele down with 91 caps and 77 goals.
TEAM B Clanblue (c), Alex1, Treetaliano, Bauser (stand-in captain) Round: 1 (Week 1) Selection: 2 2nd overall pick Player: Diego Armando Maradona Position: M/F (THE #10) Career Span: late 70’s – mid 90’s Nationality: Argentinian, born in Lanus, Buenos Aires. Caps: 91 Club Teams: Argentinos Juniors, Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Napoli, Sevilla, Newell's Old Boys. Profile / Stats: Well, we all know his story. In his rollercoaster career Diego occupied the #10 shirt for Argentina in four World Cups, three of them as captain. Kicked down against Italy and sent off against Brazil in 1982, a great champion in 1986, silver in 1990 with a weak team and suspended in 1994 with a potential WC winning team. Never a dull moment when Maradona was involved. Famous for his extra-ordinary abilities on the ball which enabled him to score some of the most memorable goals in history as well as assisting his teammates with the most delicate passes. He also deserves praise for his on-the-field leadership that took relegation-threatened Napoli - a Southern club without any previous honours to boast - to the very top of the Italian game in a period when Serie A had the majority of the international stars in the world.
Sounds alright to me. It should probably be a one-time three-player selection (one striker, one mid, one defender) forming the subs bench -- with understanding that they did not make the ultimate cut. And comme, our team may or may not have followed the script today. Obviously we're all going for best available regardless of position at this point....so when will the first current player be selected? And who will it be? My guess is not until the third round.
Worth noting that he softened the pain of Menotti's cruel ultimate cut for WC 1978 with a Youth WC Championship in the following year.
Really? Really, really? I'm hoping for someone to cause a upset and pick someone I wouldn't expect. I am not holding my breath here however. I value my oxygen ^_^
Well it is almost inevitable that the picks will go to plan, but my team is having a bit of internal conflict at what I thought might be an obvious choice. Still I guess our's will still be predictable.
TEAM C: efernandez9(c), maczebus, martin cutler, tpmazembe Round: 1 Selection: 3 3rd Overall Pick Player: Alfredo Estéfano Di Stéfano Laulhé, aka La Saeta Rubia (the Blond Arrow). Position: M/F Career Span: 1943-1966 Nationality: Argentine, born 1926, Buenos Aires;; Naturalized Spaniard Caps: 42* [*Only player to have played under the colors of three NTs: Argentina, Colombia, and Spain. Unfortunately, his only world cup appearance (1962 w/ Spain) was hampered by injury]. Club Teams: River Plate (arg), Huracan (arg), Millionarios (col), Real Madrid (esp), Espanyol (esp) Profile / Stats: Stellar club career: 2 Argentinean league titles; 4 Colombian league titles; 8 Spanish league titles; 5 European Cups. Twice voted European Player of the Year. 774 goals scored in 966 games. Renown for his versatility as a player -- with ability to help marshal a defense, direct midfield play, and score goals. Blessed with incredible stamina. Starred in Real Madrid’s original dream team. His most famous display was in the 1960 European Cup final against Eintracht Frankfurt in Glasgow, where he scored a hat-trick (this game is widely available on video…check it out). This Selection: Unanimous http://www.votre-rezo.com/onenparle/sports/gothafoot/players/distefano.htm http://soccer-europe.com/Profiles/DiStefano.html http://www.geocities.com/dbalceda/distefano/
Another good choice, another wonderful player. If the next team doesn't pick someone with the initials JC I will eat my head.
You should probably avoid hinting at players regardless of how obvious you think their choice should be.
I should think all friendly banter of this sort will stop after the obvious choices of the 1st 2 rounds are taken.