Koch (Duisburg) - Mahdavikia (HSV), Mertesacker (Hannover), Lucio (Bayern) - Frings (Werder), Demichelis (Bayern), Micoud (Werder), Borowski (Werder) - Klose (Werder), Klasnic (Werder), Halil Altintop (K'lautern) Kicker Elf der Hinrunde what do you think?
I would change some positions Enke instead of Koch Ballack instead of Micoud van Buyten instead of Mertesacker Sagnol instead of Mahdavikia and what about van der Vaart? What do you think about Mr. Hopp and his "FC Neureich Bimbesheim"?
Klose has gone insane this year. What a year he's having. Hopefully Klasnic can come back so that they can give Juve a real handful. One of the most exciting teams to come out of Germany in a long time. Beating Juve though...I dunno if I can see that happening. But yes back to the team of the first half. Altintop was completely anonymous for half of the 1st half, I don't think he should be in there. I think Smolarek should take his place.
Sagnol instead of Madavikia maybe Ballack instead of Micoud? no way... micoud is playing like the master days again.. van der Vaart.. well werder's midfield team is too good this year I think with the time that Merte had after the mini WM, he did very well.. I would put smolarek with K&K
Interesting list, though I agree that Ebi should take Altintop's place. It's interesting that players with 4 or greater MOTM's (SDT) were automatically awarded a place on the XI (at least it appears that way, from what Kicker wrote). Altintop's year has been very inconsistent, his great games being tempered by some absolutely awful games (essentially any game he doesn't score in). Van Buyten should have been in the XI IMO as well. I haven't seen much of Duisburg, so I can't comment much on Koch's play, but the GK spot could have gone to several other players as well (Enke, Fiedler, Keller, Weidenfeller..). Most of the list is quite solid though, and Werder's dominance of the list is of no surprise.
A lot of Werder on the list is always a good thing and very well justified. Still, van der Vaart rocked the league and brought about the HSV rennaisance. For me, Halil Altintop was the player of the first half of the season, showing great performances in a desolate team.
I don't agree on several positions, besides, I find it strange that the Top 11 of the kicker has always got a 3-4-3 formation :S Anyways, my personal Top 11: Enke Sagnol, Lucio, van Buyten, Jansen Demichelis Borowksi, van der Vaart Micoud Klose, Klasnic other people which were also important candidates, but didn't make it into the final 11: Weidenfeller/Keller, Mertesacker, Ballack, Frings, Altintop, Pizarro
I would put Fathi into the LB spot instead of Jansen. Jansen's really shone as more of a winger/forward of late.
I agree to a certain degree, Fathi has been pretty good this season as well, but I think Lahm will conquer this position when he is 100% fit and a starter for Bayern.
Some results of the kicker -"Spielerumfrage" (players poll???): 249 Bundesliga players voted. Best player: Miroslav Klose 38,3 % Rafael van der Vaart 22,5 % Tim Borowski 13,0 % best goalkeeper Robert Enke 22,9 % (he got voted best by his peers for the third time in a row, pretty impressive) Oliver Kahn 21, 6 % Roman Weidenfeller 10,4 %
The kicker team is just based on the nominations for team of a day, so I guess that's why some players are missing. Players poll: Best coach: Thomas Doll (57,5%) Horst Köppel (10,8%) Peter Neururer (7,5%) And an interesting fact from the manager game: Most picked players (interactive): 75375 Barbarez Hamburger SV 65771 van Buyten Hamburger SV 62578 Butt Bayer Leverkusen 51024 C. Metzelder Borussia Dortmund 44919 Hitzlsperger VfB Stuttgart 43559 Podolski 1. FC Köln 39599 van der Vaart Hamburger SV 38716 Klasnic Werder Bremen 38667 Tomasson VfB Stuttgart 37594 Soldo VfB Stuttgart