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The World Cup Best XI (After One Match)

Maicon (ISIphotos)

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Now that all 32 World Cup teams have played at least one match, it is time to look back at which players impressed the most in the tournament's first 16 matches.

Now, there haven't been a ton of goals scored, but that doesn't mean there haven't been good performances from attacking players. There were actually plenty of strong individual performances from offensive players despite organized team defending being the story of the tournament so far.

Here are our picks for the World CUp Best XI After the first round of group matches:

FIFA World Cup Best XI (After First Matches)

————Robinho—–Tshabalala———-Lionel Messi—–

—————————-Mesut Ozil——————————

—-Alexis Sanchez—————————-Park Ji Sung——-

————————–Michael Bradley————————–

Stephan Lichsteiner—–Kolo Toure———————Maicon

————————–Vincent Enyeama————————

Coach– Ottmar Hitzfeld

HONORABLE MENTION– Tim Howard, John Mensah, Michel Bastos Oguchi Onyewu, Ji Yun-Nam, Yaya Toure, Yong Hak-An, Jean Beausejour, Steven Gerrard, Asamoah Gyan, Miroslav Klose, Jong Tae-Se.

I'm sure there are some players who I forgot, and will gladly tweak the squad accordingly. Consider this a launching point for discussing which players you have liked in the tournament so far. No, last night's Uruguay-South Africa match was not included in the consideration. As for positions, we obviously massaged some positions to make this group work. Considering the varied positions we've seen in this tournament, you can't really go wrong with any particular formation.

Yes, there were obviously some tough calls, such as Asamoah Gyan missing out, and Robert Koren and Yaya Toure being edged out by Michae Bradley. Oguchi Onyewu could have also made the squad, but Toure got the nod and there were other positions with great performances so I went with a three-man defense (and yes, I do realize it's been an ultra-defensive tournament, but that puts even more of a premium on attacking success).

Who did we forget? Who would be on your Best XI after the first round?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Im not surprised an american blog excludes a mexican for this honor…marquez has been solid for mexico…show some respect at least

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  2. Michael completely shut down Lampard.. he was a ghost.

    The only omission that stood out to me was Podolski. Also, I think DeMerrit had a bit better game than Gooch. He covered Rooney like a glove, and it took 15 minutes for Gooch to settle in.

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  3. First breathe.
    Take a step back.
    Re-watch the sequence.
    Apply logic.

    Once you follow those easy steps, you will see in fact Onyewu floated away from his positioning and therefore is responsible (equally so) for the goal.

    What he said wasn’t wrong. Relax.

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  4. “Hell – if his name were Johnson, Smith or Jones (anything other than Bradley) no one would be complaining.”

    Needed to re-quote for truth (Corrections included 🙂 )

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  5. Why do people keep blaming Clark for England’s goal? Bob Bradley clearly said the fault was mainly on the back line? Now, he didn’t say whether it was Onyewu or Bocanegra at fault but I wouldn’t expect him to call out individuals like that. It isn’t his style.

    Like most defensive breakdowns it is a team mistake but Clark is no more than 3rd to blame.

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  6. Yeah, Zonal Marking especially is a great site.

    It’s funny how different people can have such different perspectives of the same game. I thought the US played great, did very well in possession, and showed flashes of danger.

    To be fair to the US, I think you have to admit that England is an ugly team too. They’re not particularly known for their beautiful and flowing possession.

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  7. Aristophanes, Very interesting articles… Those 2 sites are going directly into my favorites list.
    I guess I should clarify and say that the 2nd half was the source of my true ire.
    Also, I realize much of this ugliness was the side-effect of tactical decisions which led to a favorable result, but that didn’t make it any more attractive to watch.

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  8. “England have received plenty of criticism for their display against USA after failing to score more than the one Steven Gerrard goal.

    But surely some praise should be given to the Americans who managed to restrict the number of clear cut chances fashioned by Fabio Capello’s charges?

    They were disciplined in midfield, where Michael Bradley and Landon Donovan kept possession well, not allowing England much access to their back-line. ”

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  9. BTW, is it time to reconsider Enyeama’s spot in this lineup? He’s been unbelievable, but he handed Greece the match-winning goal today.
    (I know the list was compiled before today’s game — just saying)

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  10. lassidawg, Bradley actually didn’t get carded at all vs. England. DeMerit, Cherundolo, and Findley were the only ones who saw yellow.

    So barring something really ugly happening against Slovenia, Bradley will not miss the 3rd match.

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  11. Did you watch that game? North Korea played a much, much better match than Australia. I’m not a Brazil fan, but Maicon’s goal opened up that match and gave them the confidence to score that second goal. Otherwise I feel it may have ended in a draw. I agree that Lahm played a great match as well.

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  12. Poor positioning? Are you serious? Every time he ran up out of the line was because an English player had the ball unpressured from 20-30 yards out, and Gooch was doing his job by closing down on them (and since in most of those cases it was Rooney, he’ll put in 3 from that range if you don’t close him down). England’s goal shouldn’t be blamed on Gooch, it was mostly that Rico hesitated on whether to close down on Rooney as well or stay on his mark, and that was enough for Gerrard to get a step on him. Combine it with DeMerit’s delay in closing down Heskey, and we get the England goal.

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  13. I’m scratching my head over the Bradley pick as well… I know he played tough, and the guy keeps running all day long, but I thought his passing was atrocious.

    IMO, the weakest part of our game vs. England was our midfield’s inability to maintain possession or even string together more than 2 passes.

    After that game, I was of the opinion that it was the worst I’ve ever seen the U.S. play (in terms of build-up and possession) and still not lose.

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  14. No, the dude ISN’T correct. First off, if his name were any other, he wouldn’t be the coaches son. That’s a totally different argument. Second of all, if his name were Santos, Ronaldo, Adu or Ekufo or any other presumed surname of supposed soccer royalty, he wouldn’t be Mike Bradley. That’s the point here. We’re talking about Mike Bradley. We’re not talking about the woulda, coulda and shouldas. We’re talking about Mike Bradley. We talking about Mike Bradddley. (Practice, we ain’t talking about practice…)

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  15. Yes, Rico was ball watching, Onyewu was out of position, and Demerit was slow to react… The story of the whole game and the reason they had 15 chances (luckily Timmy is a beast).

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  16. I bet Bradley can sleep ok with being considered better than all other DM’s outside of Schweinsteiger. MB has clearly arrived on the world stage.

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  17. Americans have a soccer-inferiority-complex. If bradley’s name were Santos or Ekufo or Jurgman or…Bradley…and he played for any other team, no one would be complaining about Ives selecting him here.

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  18. I want to see Bradley’s passing percentage higher especially near the end of the match. It seemed like he made quite a few poor passes towards the end of the England match. This might be because they were playing for a win instead of the draw.

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  19. I would argue that M. Bradley is as important to this squad as anyone except Howard, and we need to hope he doesn’t get a card tomorrow and have to miss the 3rd match.

    I think all of the people that don’t like Bradley are the ones still asking where John O’Brien is at.

    Please leave Clark and Findlay on the bench, Findlay would be fine for the last 15 if we are trying to hold a lead.

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  20. If Rooney is left unmarked I am pretty sure that he dribbles closer and rips a shot. A central Defender has to step to the ball and relay on his mids to be marking their man and not ball watching.

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  21. In addition to ball watching on the goal as his man ran past him. I felt like I was watching pass back Pete for the Sounders, only we will call him Reverse Ricardo. It seemed like every pass he made was going backwards, sometimes is ok but he also need to go forward.

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  22. I think when it comes down to it, no American deserves to be on this team. They were outplayed by England, but had enough grit to earn a point. If anyone is on this team, it’s Howard. He gave up his body numerous times and played through an injury. Just how American is that? VERY AMERICAN!

    But more to the point, how can you justify giving Bradley a Best XI when the Americans were constantly barraged by the Three Lions in their own third? England’s center forwards, while they couldn’t put the ball in the net, were given a number of chances because of breakdowns in the American’s defense. Bradley didn’t impress me all that much…I guess that’s the point here. Maybe he’s the best American defensive midfielder — nepotism be damned — in the system, but he isn’t the world’s best.

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  23. The Sloth from Goonies look-alike got a bit of a poacher’s goal, eh? Do you really think he deserved acclaim for his overall game or just from the “get your name in the scoresheet” kind of way?

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  24. the pool can’t be picky. They’d be smart to pick him up, especially with their recent foreign-relations PR disasters.

    And Bradley would be foolish in so many ways to leave the Bundesliga for a bottom-feeder EPL team.

    Reply

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