Heaven's XI vs Earth's XI

After the passing of the legendary Dutch player Johan Cruyff, do you now think the greater XI can be made from players no longer with us or from players still alive? And if you played bookmaker for an imaginary match who would you make favourites?

Feel free to use your own XI's if you want of course, but these are the ones I came up with....


Heaven's XI - (4-1-3-2) Lev Yashin; Djalma Santos, Gaetano Scirea, Bobby Moore, Nilton Santos; Duncan Edwards; George Best, Alfredo Di Stefano, Johan Cruyff; Eusebio, Ferenc Puskas with alternate formation (4-3-3 narrow with false 9) Lev Yashin; Djalma Santos, Gaetano Scirea, Bobby Moore, Nilton Santos; Alfredo Di Stefano, Duncan Edwards, George Best; Eusebio, Johan Cruyff, Ferenc Puskas.
Substitutes: John Charles, Tom Finney, Giussepe Meazza, Jozsef Bozsik, Didi, Garrincha, Juan Schiaffino.

Earth's XI - (4-2-1-2-1) Peter Schmeichel; Cafu, Fabio Cannavaro, Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini; Michel Platini, Franz Beckenbauer; Diego Maradona; Lionel Messi, Pele; Marco van Basten with alternate formation (4-2-3-1 narrow/flexible) Peter Schmeichel, Cafu, Fabio Cannavaro, Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini; Michel Platini, Franz Beckenbauer; Lionel Messi, Pele, Diego Maradona; Marco van Basten.
Substitutes: Elias Figueroa, Johan Neeskens, Zinedine Zidane, Zico, Luis Figo, Ronaldo, Ruud Krol.

I did pick open teams to put in as many great players as possible. And I felt in the end Scirea with Moore sort of works, albeit both as playmaker centre-backs in a way, as Scirea swept up and Moore was closer to the midfield....and both in their own ways were great defenders. But if Van Basten became a problem as centre-forward maybe the Brian Clough&God managerial duo would bring on Charles!

 

I think I'll have my own go at Football Manager editing for this to see how it turns out (parallel to what @poetgooner is doing for the CL era).

I'll use in game editor but also change height/weight/hair etc as I overwrite existing players of Everton and Tottenham, and then I can upload like this (seems the best quality available on Youtube) which was a goal scored by my All-Time Forest team in the Club World Cup Final which I uploaded to test things out:

 

Thanks! Somehow, while Nasazzi crossed my mind this morning, Andrade (either one but thinking you probably mean Jose Leandro) didn't. Andrade would actually be a bit easier than Nasazzi to get an understanding of and make an assessment regarding I would think. Muller would have been named if I added a few more to the squads I'm sure, while Beckenbauer/Baresi might work just as well as Scirea/Moore I suppose but I stuck in Cannavaro as a pure defender and tend to think Matthaus was best if not a proper anchor player anyway (although it should be said that so was Beckenbauer, as you've stated yourself I think - still maybe he could play as midfield sweeper come regista....?).


But yeah, I'm thinking Johan entering the Heaven XI makes this a compelling/uncertain question to think about at the least now. Great players have been passing away at quite a rate over the last few years.

 

I realise now that entering height and weight data in the in-game editor is actually impossible, so even though it doesn't matter probably and the Youtube highlights would make things less evident, I'm using the main editor to create new players around the age they'd be in prime time. I've done the goalies and entered my own ability ratings but I see the recommended ones actually came out close anyway based on other attributes entered. To save a little bit of time but still give myself some subs if needed/wanted I'll probably not edit Meazza, Didi, Figueroa or Zico atm.

 

How do you mean sorry mate - the definition of the picture maybe or do you mean I should put this game online? I'm probably being slow!

 

I am actually giving Garrincha shirt number 7! And obviously Cruyff gets shirt number 14.

In the other team, starter Van Basten is getting 12 and Ronaldo will have 9.

I might use 17 and 18 and have some gaps, but I'm working forwards in shirt number order with my FM editing and have got up to number 8 for both teams. I just got a rating spot on in terms of mine matching the recommended one based on attributes entered - Platini on 196! Beckenbauer's recommended one went slightly over 200, and my version of Messi was at 199, but the fact I entered overall ratings directly which were a bit less should mean the attributes reduce themselves slightly accordingly. Likewise Cannavaro's will go up, and even Maldini's but a lot of them are close between recommended and entered anyway.

 

I've got a match ready to go - any predictions as to what will be deemed to happen?
(btw, I have set Tottenham/Earth XI's mentality/team shape/instructions to be the same as Everton/Heaven XI's now, but hadn't when I did the pre-match screenshot).

 

The assistant managers were taking the pre-season friendly a bit seriously (although I've also tried to choose a team-talk to give them incentives to play well!) - suggesting showing Di Stefano onto his weaker foot....and that going in hard on Pele would be a good idea. I've ignored them though, and just let everyone play uninhibited by man marking etc!

 

Yes, this was about quality of upload - I did choose 720 this time.

Maybe despite the players being in-game edited to improve fitness/condition/morale, the thing is they'll be rusty in the first pre-season friendly even though they're great. But anyway, Heaven XI had a comfortable 4-2 win with even Djalma Santos getting a goal! I don't think I'll try and capture/upload longer highlights or the goals in more detail, so here are the goals:

First one was after Yashin grabbed a cross and punted downfield to Djalma beyond halfway.
The first consolation was scored after Zidane (on for Maradona) and Krol (on for Maldini) combined to play in Pele.
Ronaldo was on for Van Basten.
Heaven XI brought on Charles for Moore and Bozsik for Edwards, after they'd made it 4-0 with a multi-player move, and Earth XI made their changes.


I've set-up a return game at WHL so I'll see how that goes, and what the aggregate score ends up as....

 

Not sure whether Football Manager is really answering the question lol (but I do think Poetgooner's idea to use it for a draft or two is a cool one and as good as anything to decide on a winner with a method other than voting)....

but game 2 is ready to go

 

I did think about 3 trequaristas, rather than having the Argentines as 'inside forwards' from wider positions, for this second game (I had used it occasionally with my all-time Nottingham Forest team but not so often considering the best player was a left winger!).

Yes, I suppose Platini/Charlton/Rivera etc are disadvantaged by having many great support forwards meaning that a double pivot might be chosen. But I did put Platini in as deep lying playmaker.

The other game has finished now as a 4-4 draw so even with a goal disallowed for offside (Cruyff and sub Schiaffino involved before Eusebio fired home) the Heaven XI have taken the honours in my little simulation over the 2 legs!
When the goals are uploaded I'll stick them on the thread again.

 

Heaven XI were 3-2 down with the tie in the balance, but scored after bringing on Garrincha and Finney to play as attacking wingers (Best off and also Di Stefano with Cruyff taking the central playmaker role) and Schiaffino replacing Puskas and playing as a supporting advanced playmaker behind Eusebio. They scored before Earth's XI could even make their changes, Neeskens coming on for Platini to be a box to box player, and Figo for Messi to be a supporting winger. Pele took MOTM, but Eusebio was key player over both games it's fair to say!