i think ill start a weekly positional poll and when theyre all done well have come up with an unofficial bigsoccer world XI - ill attempt to appease as many as i can with the nominees but bear with me - in any event well start with central defenders - please feel free to pick two to make your ideal middle-of-the back combo and thanks ahead of time for taking part - itll be interesting to see how closely a BS XI matches up with the various other 2002 XIs (uefa, publications, etc.)
sorry if i left out anybodys favorite - had to draw the line somewhere but ayala, mexes, montero and others are good also
I like watching Stam play. He obviously needs a better agent or that stuff about Ferguson wouldn't have made it into his book. I'd volunteer to manage him.
this could turn out to be a close vote all the way around - btw it wouldnt be a bad idea to have some posts so the poll stays on the front to get the most votes possible anyway, i picked chivu and marquez, but id feel pretty good with any pair above - chivus game speaks for itself and when he does move on to a glamour side (not this summer, not yet PLEASE!) more people will get to see him on television - as for rafa, yeah yeah i know he can be a hothead, er... madman... at times, but he is one silky cleaning dude when he focuses on the match
just so everybody knows, pick TWO players - a few have only voted for one - oh well, thanks again everybody
I'd rather have Chivu on my team than any of the others....and hopefully that'll be the case next season.
oscar is clearly a sage-like figure well, looks like a coulda put ayala instead of marquez, but hindsight is 20/20 - frankly i envisioned scads of posters explaining how ayala sucks, so... whatcha gonna do good first day turnout though
i agree with you man - ill be honest , he was the last cut when i got down to a list of 8 - of course, one knock against him is that he always seems to get beaten at the pivotal moment (ie, HOLLAND WC 98, real CL final) - of course that may also be a product of how many times his teams are in that position, so...
Jaap Stam In no time, deprivation misconstrues Holland. Classic characteristics follows specimen. Wherefore not World Cup of 2002. Reasonable there leaves probable cause in remainder. I grant not much television upon showmanship, yet readings gossiping via Inranet. It has levyed judgement. The weightlessness bearing down on country upon competition. This playing toll within multiplicty of year. Shall leave club ventures paranoiac! The second choice is awarded to Korean (Hung Myung Bo). Imperishability denotes preformance of recentcy upon World Cup of 2002. Club adventure relinquishes chance from effortness by Americans in Round Robin. What was it? Thirty attempts to six. Defense resulting in offensive. Remediable this too might be solicitation. Oh my, faster faster the Earth rotates!
votes in % Oliver KAHN GER 147 25% RONALDO BRA 126 21% HONG Myung BO KOR 108 18% RIVALDO BRA 93 16% RONALDINHO BRA 54 9% HASAN SAS TUR 26 4% El Hadji DIOUF SEN 15 3% ROBERTO CARLOS BRA 12 2% Michael BALLACK GER 6 1% Fernando HIERRO ESP 5 1% 592 100%
Watched Ajax V. Arsenal the other night and Christian Chivu was amazing his passsing could have been better but he was still pure class there aren't many teams that stop Arsenal scoring. Phillipe Mexes for Auxerre against Liverpool was pure class despite the 2-0 defeat.
i don;t know how you can have Rafa Marquez and Hong Myung Bo in the same sentence as Nesta and Campbell. Where is Cannavaro, Ayala, Hofland, Samuel, Lucio and Phillip Albert????? If this a poll about who is the best central defenders then they should surely be included. favourite isn't the right word to use.
marquez is the leader french #2 monaco and was splendid at WC until his meltdown v the US - frankly im surprised hes only received 2 votes (donde estas tricolores?) - as for hong, well he only won the bronze ball at WC - without him so. korea dont beat the US, dont beat protugal, dont get out of group (no matter how many calls they get) - and remember hes out there among much lesser squads than everybody else on the list - bottom line: i had to choose 8 and not everbody was going to be happy cannavaro - hes very good but maybe a level below the top CBs ayala - the last name i removed (from 9 to 8) and the one i wish i had put hofland - uhh not quite yet + injured for the better part of 1 1/2 years walter samuel - i actually planned to list him among the wide backs - at roma he is called on to do more and i think hes probably their best player this season lucio - to be honest, an oversight - i simply didnt think of him when making the list to my discredit (he also has been injured basically since WC so that mey be why he slipped my mind - still, he is versatile enough and has plenty of experience at wide back, he could be listed in that poll (which i will probably start tomorrow - once group a week could drag this process out some, so ill try for two a week philip albert - isnt he just a bit past his day? and ill be honest, i dont even know where he is playing now - is he playing? anyway, i did my best to guess who the top 8 votegetters might be - it will probably only get more heated at other positions so try to bear with me - if someone ever gets enough mentions in posts to win the poll, i suppose that could also happen - thanks again for voting
None of these guys are dirty enough players. You need a Montero-like enforcer on the team, even though he's lost a step due to injuries, he is still the most fearsome of all center backs.