Eurosport - Thu, 17 Jun 07:47:00 2010
Find out who produced the best performance in the opening set of games at the World Cup in our team of the round.
We combine the expert rating assigned on the matchcast and the user rating at 0800 GMT the following day to formulate the team and here's our line-up.
So four men from Chile, including both marauding full-backs, after an attacking display against Honduras.
Mauricio Isla and Arturo Vidal beat out the likes of Doo-Ri Cha (South Korea), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Nadir Belhadj (Algeria) and Gabriel Heinze (Argentina) for the defensive slots.
Stephane Grichting, who anchored the Swiss defence in their shock victory over Spain, is in defence in a side coach by the mastermind of that upset, Ottmar Hitzfeld.
He is joined by Jung-Soo Lee - one of two men from South Korea in the XI - who completes the back four.
They are ahead of Vincent Enyeama of Nigeria who is in goal after his one-man show to deny Argentina and Lionel Messi, who of course is included, a cricket score.
Mesut Ozil pulled the strings in the Germany midfield while Ji-Sung Park is the other man from South Korea in the XI.
Siphiwe Tshabalala represents the home nation after his wonder strike in the opening game but it is hard to see any South African making the team when the Best XI of the second round of games is unveiled on Tuesday morning.
The third man from Chile is Matías Fernández who completes the midfield quartet, beating the likes of Chung-Yong Lee (South Korea), Ji Yun Nam (North Korea), Andre Ayew (Ghana), Vladimir Weiss (Slovakia), Steven Gerrard (England) and Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands) to a berth.
Messi's partner in attack is Chile forward Alexis Sanchez.
The Udinese livewire taking his place ahead of Asamoah Gyan (Ghana), Tae Se Jong (North Korea), Thomas Müller (Germany) and Giovani Dos Santos (Mexico).
Goalkeeper
GK: Vincent Enyeama (Nigeria)
Defenders
RB: Mauricio Isla (Chile)
CB: Stéphane Grichting (Switzerland)
CB: Jung-Soo Lee (South Korea)
LB: Arturo Vidal (Chile)
Midfielders
LM: Ji-Sung Park (South Korea)
CM: Mesut Ozil (Germany)
CM: Matías Fernández (Chile)
RM: Siphiwe Tshabalala (South Africa)
Forwards
FW: Alexis Sanchez (Chile)
FW: Lionel Messi (Argentina)
Coach: Ottmar Hitzfeld (Switzerland)
Comment 13 - 32 of 32
what about a crapness team?
domenech
green
carragher
milner
govou
demicheli s
sergio ramos
Italy
Australia
ITV HD
vuve, vuze ..the big #u'king horns!
uruguay (for being spoil sport @#stards)
the 40 oranje blondes (pure evil, lock them up
the @#$% adidas football
Dunga
C. Ronaldo
Greece
Cameroon
LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!
Where are Podolski, Muller and Lahm?
Steve Cherundolo of the USA should be at right back. His performance was amazing.
What ?
No Dutch and only one German in this selection?
No way, no how, no sense.
Podolski, Mueller, Lahm, Schweisteiger, Khedira and Badstuber all performed much better then the players in their respective position give above.
this can also be said for 3 or 4 dutch players.
Also, the Swiss Goalie by far was the best so far.
Schwarzer of Australia had the most safes. If not for him, Germany would have scored 7 or 8 Goals.
I agree that he also made mistakes, but he is the goalie with most ball contacts by far.
NOTE:
eurosport only did a voting on this team on the english and spanish site.
No wonder, Chile is overrated and Germany and the Netherlands are much underrated.
Risiculous team that would be swept by the USA.
u p'ple are ryt but no body should worry about spain loss, b'cos they re still the favourite. i repeat spain or agentina.
u p'ple are ryt but no body should worry about spain loss, b'cos they re still the favourite. i repeat spain or agentina.
messi world greatest player. superb display. i love it
u p'ple are ryt but no body should worry about spain loss, b'cos they still the favourite. i repeat spain or agentina.
...only one German in it? You suffer from Vuvuzeela fever?
i thik robinho has been the best player so far with lahm, how they dont make the team i dont know, although chile's defenders played well they were hardly up against the best opposition in the world, in total only 9 of the 23 players in honduras squad play outside the honduras league, with two of them in the chinese league
Müller or Podolski miss! Both made a goal an assist and a lot of dangerous passes.= much better than Tchabala or Park!
Messi? was good but not good enough to score!
BUNCH OF BULL------@#$%
this is @#$%.
phh... what is that messi guy doing here? he didnt do anything... just because he got a goldne ball?? according to that he should be in this s.hit team....
maaan, this is bulls.hit
germany had the best scoreline. but chile gave us a reason why to watch the boring worldcup. go chile!
Where are the Dutch? Didn't they win against Denmark?
Where are the blue samurai? Didn't they win against Cameroon?
How about Benaglio from Switzerland? Didn't he save some crucial Spanish strikes?
How about Gyan from Ghana? He played better than Messi and at least he scored against Serbia?
Unfortunately from the ones chosen I would take only 3 - Grichting, Ozil and Park. For the other positions there were at least 20 other players that performed better than the ones given here.
So here is my team of week 1
Goalkeeper - Diego Benaglio (Switzerland)
Defence (right to left)
Lahm (Germany), Grichting (Switzerland), Heinze (Argentina)
Midfield (right to left)
Elano (Brazil), Honda (Japan), Ozil (Germany), Park (South Korea)
Attack (right to left)
Kuyt (Holland), Gyan (Ghana) and Podolski (Germany)
ENYEAMA... Arsenal needs him
Elia did a great job but he was a subsitute so probably that doesnt count here. My personal opininon or the two players who impressed me where the combination Sanchez and Isla! The most dominanat side was definately Germany
Where is Lahm of Germany, and Elia of Netherlands, I'd replace Isla and Park by these two they were amazing especially Elia!
where the heck is Lahm? He was incredible. And how come this laughable 11 include 3 Chileans - who "stormed" to a 1-0 win courtesy of a deflection - and only 1 German?
enyeama is too good to be in spain or england, great
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