World Cup dream squad

Well, we are now at the stage where there are just 4 teams left in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. All of the teams that have made it that far have got there through playing some good, attractive football along the way, as well as showing tenacity and commitment at key times and of course, each of have had some lucky breaks. None more so than Uruguay, whose place in the last 4 owed everything to Luis Suarez's spectacular goal-line save in the final minute of extra time against Ghana. Suarez, of course, is a centre forward rather than a goalkeeper and so his instinctive act resulted in him having first use of the showers, but his self-sacrifice also had the desired effect as Uruguay would go on to win a penalty shoot out after Asamoah Gyan's final minute penalty had hit the top of the crossbar.

I was almost tempted to name Suarez as one of the 3 goalkeepers in my ultimate World Cup squad, such has been the generally poor standard of goalkeeping in the World Cup this year. In the end I decided against it. Here for your delectation, however, is my 23 man squad of the best players that have graced the world stage this summer. Please note that I have picked this 23 solely on how they have performed in the World Cup and not on past reputations, performances for their club in the past season or any other criteria. Hence, there are a number of big name absentees from the squad, as well as the complete absence of any Englishmen. Here goes:

GOALKEEPERS
Eduardo (Portugal)
Stelekenburg (Holland)
Kawashima (Japan)

DEFENDERS
Ramos (Spain)
Lahm (Germany)
Lucio (Brazil)
Friedrich (Germany)
Lugano (Uruguay)
Salcido (Mexico)
Coentrao (Portugal)

MIDFIELDERS
Iniesta (Spain)
Schweinsteiger (Germany)
Sneijder (Holland)
Khedira (Germany)
Ozil (Germany)
Boateng (Ghana)
Beausejour (Chile)

FORWARDS
Villa (Spain)
Mueller (Germany)
Higuain (Argentina)
Forlan (Uruguay)
Honda (Japan)
Robinho (Brazil)

The first thing you notice about the squad is the distinct lack of players in the squad I have named that ply their trade in England. In fact, only one player in my squad was still playing their football in the English Premier League last season, Kevin Prince Boateng of Ghana, and he featured in the Portsmouth team that was relegated from the division. Whether this is an indictment on the standard of the Premier League is open to debate, but it is certainly true that a number of the Premier League's star names have failed to light up the tournament. This has not only been true of English marquee names such as Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard, but also of household names representing other countries. Fernando Torres and Robin Van Persie have noticeably looked desperately short of match sharpness, while Cesc Fabregas has featured mainly as a substitute for Spain. A second member of my squad, Brazil's Robinho, did feature for Manchester City last season but had been farmed out on loan back to his native Brazil during the second half of the season. The Brazilian sunshine appeared to enable him to rediscover his best form, on the evidence of the World Cup.

By contrast, Spain's La Liga is well represented in the squad that I named with five of the squad playing their club football in that league. All six Germans that I named in the squad currently play their football in their native Bundesliga, while only two of the squad play in Italy's Serie A, both for European champions Inter Milan. This would again seem to highlight the decline of a league that was once, by common consent, the strongest league in Europe. This status has diminished since the match fixing scandals damaged the purchasing power of the leading lights in the country. The rest of the squad is made up of two players that play in the Netherlands, two that play in Portugal and one each from the national leagues of Turkey, Japan, Russia and Mexico.

Choosing three goalkeepers for this squad was a difficult decision for the simple reason that the standard of goalkeeping in the tournament has been poor. Maybe the erratic movement in the air of the Jhabulani football has affected goalkeepers' confidence, but the fact remains that very few keepers have stood out in the tournament and people will remember some horrific goalkeeping howlers from the 2010 World Cup far more than they will recall the good saves. Even the goalkeepers with the best reputations have suffered. Iker Casillas has looked decidedly shaky for Spain, while Julio Cesar had enjoyed a quiet tournament until he was finally called upon against Holland, where he was completely at fault for the first goal Holland scored in their comeback win.

I feel that the 3 keepers I have selected have largely had the most error free tournaments and have made some important saves too. It is true that one of my keepers, Stelekenburg of Holland, gave away a penalty against Slovakia, but it made no difference to the result and the Dutch custodian had earlier made a couple of vital saves that swung the balance of the match the way of the men in orange. My first choice keeper though is Eduardo of Portugal, who had an excellent match against Spain, ultimately in a losing cause. Had Portugal been calling upon the services of a lesser keeper though, surely Spain would have won by a wider margin. My third keeper is Kawashima whose assured presence between the posts gave the defence in front of him greater confidence and helped Japan advance to the last 16 of the World Cup, conceding only 2 goals during their participation in the tournament.

The defensive positions were trickier to fill given that there have been several right backs that have impressed in the tournament, while have been fewer centre backs and left backs to choose from. In fact, in the end, I have had to leave out probably the best right back in world football, Maicon of Brazil and Inter Milan, despite him scoring one of the goals of the tournament against North Korea. I have chosen Sergio Ramos and Philip Lahm ahead of him because they simply could not be left out, Lahm has been outstanding in his marauding role for the Germans. Ramos' versatility means he can also play at centre back if need be, while Lahm is equally adept playing at left back.

With Ramos included, I have chosen only three specialist centre backs. Arne Friedrich of Germany has been the standout player in that position during the tournament and will surely be a target for major European clubs after the World Cup finishes, especially given that his club side Hertha Berlin were relegated to the German second division at the end of the season. Alongside Friedrich, I have chosen Lucio, who lived up to his reputation as the world's best centre back throughout the competition by being both accomplished in the tackle as well as displaying the usual Brazilian trait of being comfortable in bringing the ball out of defence. In reserve, I have chosen Uruguay's captain Lugano, whose injury early on in Uruguay's quarter-final win against Ghana put them under more pressure than they usually would have expected to face.

In the left back position, some of the marquee names did not live up to their pre-tournament billing with Patrice Evra heading home in disgrace with his French colleagues while life was not much better for Ashley Cole. Only two left backs really impressed me during the tournament and both were players that showed both sides of the modern full back's game, solid defensive tracking and positioning, as well as great athleticism in getting forward to support the attack. Carlos Salcido shone like a beacon in an adventurous but somewhat toothless Mexican side and found himself at the heart of many of his team's finest moments in the World Cup. Meanwhile, young Sporting Lisbon left back Coentrao was one of very few Portuguese players to emerge with any credit from their insipid displays in the World Cup.

Choosing the midfielders for the squad was generally a straightforward task. The team that has had the best midfield in the tournament has been Germany and so the decision to include all three of their regular midfielders, Bastien Schweinsteiger, Mesut Ozil and Sami Khedira, was a no-brainer. Schweinsteiger's determination and drive make him a certain starter while Ozil's ability to get between the lines of midfield and attack and create space for others to drop into mean he too should get a starting berth. My third starter is Wesley Sneijder of Holland, who has shown that a long season in club football need not write off your performance in the World Cup. Sneijder has scored four goals for the Dutch in their run to the semi-finals (albeit one should have been classified as an own goal) but he has had a knack of delivering when it has mattered in the tournament and retained possession well.

In reserve, my midfield options include the aforementioned Khedira, who has not attracted the plaudits that his colleagues Ozil and Schweinsteiger have, but who has been very tidy and efficient in the German midfield and rarely misplaced a pass. I also include Spain's Andres Iniesta, who has brought his club form for Barcelona to the World Cup more than his esteemed team-mate Xavi, who in my opinion has had a slightly disappointing World Cup. Iniesta has shown plenty of energy and played some trademark passes during the tournament, as well as scoring a vital goal against Chile that ensured his country's progress into the knockout stage. I also selected Kevin-Prince Boateng who I felt was the heartbeat of the impressive Ghanaian side and who scored a goal against the United States in the second round. Ghana were missing their best player Michael Essien due to injury and yet it is testament to how Boateng performed that Essien's dynamic qualities were not significantly missed.

The final midfield place was a tricky choice between two wide players, Landon Donovan and Jean Beausejour of Chile. Donovan's three goals for an ordinary USA side were almost reason alone to include him, but I was impressed by Beausejour who I had not previously heard of and his energetic, hard working performances summed up the work ethic of the Chilean team and Beausejour capped a good tournament with the winner against Honduras. So this previously unheralded player is perhaps my wild card pick in the squad, but I think he deserves his chance. As well as Donovan, other midfielders that just missed the cut were Park-Ji-Sung and Park-Chu-Young of South Korea, who both typified the industrious and energetic displays of their country. Had Arjen Robben started all of the matches in the tournament, he may well have been a contender for a place too.

So this leaves us then with the forwards. I have chosen six forwards, mainly because I have decided that my starting XI will play a 4-3-3 formation. Even so, whittling this squad down to just six forwards is tough because several forwards have made their mark during the tournament. In fact, four absentees from my squad, Miroslav Klose, Luis Suarez, Marek Vittek and Luis Fabiano have scored 14 goals between them during the tournament to this point, with Klose still having the potential to add to his tally. Leaving a player of Klose's goalscoring pedigree out of my final squad was not a decision I took lightly, but it says much about the players that did make it.

Let's start with the easy choices. Thomas Mueller at just 20 years of age has been a revelation in this World Cup. The young Bayern Munich starlet had not scored an international goal prior to the World Cup, but he has notched 4 goals in the tournament so far, mainly stationed on the right hand side of an attacking trio for Germany. He will play there too in my notional XI. Stationed on the left of a front three will be David Villa of Spain. While Torres has painfully laboured and looked a mere impostor compared to the player Liverpool supporters see week in, week out during the regular season, Villa has been Spain's talisman and has almost single handedly dragged his country to the semi-finals, showing exactly why Barcelona paid £34 million to acquire his services for next season. One suspects he will mainly operate on the left of a front three for Barcelona next season and he will occupy that self-same position in this team. Through the middle, I have chosen Real Madrid's Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain who is what I call a "Johnny on the spot" forward, great at anticipating where the ball is going to land in the six yard box and scoring proper goalpoachers' goals. He best demonstrated this in his hat-trick against South Korea, the only hat-trick of this World Cup so far.

So I have chosen three of my forwards, but I still need another three forwards in reserve. Diego Forlan of Uruguay is my first pick. The player who was a figure of fun during his not entirely happy spell at Manchester United has shown that like a good claret, he has got better with age and has been the central figure in getting Uruguay to the World Cup semi-finals for the first time since 1970. When Uruguay have needed inspiration, Forlan has provided it, demonstrating this most when scoring a spectacular free kick against Ghana in the quarter-finals. Forlan's reputation as a proven goalscorer has been re-established at Atletico Madrid, but this World Cup has also shown that he can play in the hole between midfield and attack too and he has been his country's talisman in every sense.

My next pick may be slightly from leftfield given some of the star names I have left out, but Japan's Khisumi Honda just had to be in the squad. He stood out in a Japanese side that played with plenty of adventure and creativity during the World Cup and Honda had a fantastic match against Denmark that assured his country of a last 16 place. He scored a free kick to set Japan on their way (a free kick which at the time was the first that had been scored in the tournament) and then sealed victory by laying the ball on the plate for his strike partner to score the all-important third goal. Honda has made a mark with some good performances in the Champions League for CSKA Moscow and his showings in the 2010 World Cup may make him a target for clubs in the Premier League.

The final pick for my forwards is someone who has already played in the Premier League and was not a roaring success. But despite this, Robinho was arguably Brazil's star performer during the World Cup, scoring twice and also being involved in setting up other goals during the tournament. Robinho is not the type of player that is going to be involved for all 90 minutes of a match and he has a tendency to drift out of games. But he showed enough in the World Cup to show that his return to Brazil has done his game some good and that there is more to him than just being the stereotypical "luxury player". For that reason, he provides cover in the wide forward positions.

So there you have it, there is my 2010 World Cup select squad. There were plenty of possibilities, plenty of maybes and not-quites. But in the end, that was the squad I settled upon. It is always a subject of conjecture and so I would be interested to hear some alternative suggestions. From the 23 man squad I named though, here is my first choice starting XI. Note to Fabio, I found a way of picking this team without playing 4-4-2:

Eduardo

Lahm
Lucio
Friedrich
Salcido

Ozil
Sneijder
Schweinsteiger

Mueller
Higuain
Villa

SUBSTITUTES: Stelekenburg, Kawashima, Ramos, Lugano, Coentrao, Khedira, Boateng, Beausejour, Iniesta, Forlan, Honda, Robinho