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The Best of the EC according to the AD

June 27th, 2008 | By: Jan | 16 Comments »

Subtle passes, beautiful goals and tough challenges. This is the Best of the EC team, according to newspaper AD. Apparently, the final doesn’t need to be played anymore.

The goal keeper is Edwin van der Sar. Our Edwin. We won’t debate it. He helped us reach the quarters with some spectacular saves. Sar even got us in extra time. Apart from Sar, Iker Casillas impressed.

The best right back is Sabri Sarioglu of Turkey. An offensive full back, who also played midfield. Against Germany, he relegated Lahm and gave the assist to the 2-2. Fine choice. But I’ll go with Sergio Ramos anytime. The man is the most complete defender today.

Centrally, we see Carlos Puyol. A defender who seldom makes mistakes. Pepe of Portugal is the second center back. The Real Madrid player impressed, not only defensively, but also in offense. He saw a goal being disallowed unjustly but did score a rightful one. He almost scored against Germany. A true athlete.

As left back the only right choice is Yuri Zhirkov. The CSKA Moscow player drove many opponents crazy. Against Holland he was one of the best on the pitch. One of eleven.

Sergei Semak is one of the two controlling midfielders. The Russian captain closed down the space and took care of balance. He also had an assist against Greece, leading the resurrection of Russia. Pirlo would be another pick. Important for disappointing Italy, and scoring an important goal against France.

Marcos Senna of Spain is the second central midfielder. His passing and tough challenges make him a vital component of the Spanish football machine.

Bastian Schweinsteiger is the right midfielder. Started as a sub this tournament but despite his red card he was the motor in the German team. He gave two assists against Portugal and scored the 1-0. Against Turkey, he scored the equalizer.

Andrei Arshavin is the central midfielder. No opponent until Spain knew how to stop the Zenit St Petersburg star. He is fast, has great vision and dribbles as the best. It seems Barca has the best papers to sign the young revelation of the tournament.

On the left hand side, the AD chooses Lukas Podolski. True, he did score a lot and he’ll play the finals on Sunday. He received kudos for not cheering after he scored against his motherland Poland. My choice would be Arjen Robben though. He played not a lot during this tournament due to injuries, but whenever he did grace the field, he was lethal, scoring one of the best goals of the tourney.

The striker of this team is David Villa. He is quick, tricked and a true goalscoring machine. He scored four times already and is the tournament’s topscorer. Next season he is expected to sign for Liverpool.

This team will be coached by Guus Hiddink. The Czar gained respect – yet again – for the manner with which he got his team to play after a bad start and in particular the Russian game against Holland will be remembered. For this, Marco van Basten will be his assistent.

Tags: Euro 2008, Hiddink, Ramos, Robben, Senna, Villa, Zhirkov

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Comments

By goose | June 27th, 2008 at 6:21 am

best EC blogger; JAN!!!

Posted from Netherlands

By Jan | June 27th, 2008 at 6:40 am

Thank you my main man!!

By Ross | June 27th, 2008 at 7:51 am

Best diver: as per usual C. Ronaldo (cheap shot) joke

I can’t wait to see the best goals. Sneijder for president! (with Robben and Robin as Vice-Presidents). Oh and we can’t forget: best trickery: van Nistelrooy (wasn’t he supposed to be the lone striker?) with the roulette against France.

Posted from Canada

By Caleb | June 27th, 2008 at 9:08 am

That looks like a pretty good team. I agree with you that Robben should be on the left instead of Podolski. I think I would also put Fabregas in the team somewhere. He played fantastic against Russia. I can’t understand how he doesn’t have a starting posistion! Hope he starts against Germany.

Posted from Canada

By richard | June 27th, 2008 at 9:32 am

Three Russians after they were destroyed twice by Spain? The writer was too influenced by their fine performance against the anemic Dutch–one game. Arshavin has only played two games–and he was invisible in the semifinal, so I would not put him on this team, and the same for Zhirkov: Ramos absolutely dominated him yesterday.

Posted from United States

By Finnster01 | June 27th, 2008 at 9:40 am

I think you arguable have to consider Aragones as the coach. Spain hasn’t won anything (yet), but he has handled controversy and big egos magnificently. Having the balls to leave Raul at home. Dealing with Ramos “Disco-gate” in a great manner and finally get Ramos to play a good game. Manhandling Guus twice gets my vote. If only he can beat the Krauts…

Posted from United States

By --HedonistiX | June 27th, 2008 at 10:38 am

Cesc or David Silva should be there before Schweinsteiger, Podolski or Arshavin. I also like Andrea Pirlo and Camoranesi a lot (despite hating their team). Always hard to select best XI because players in losing teams may not look as good as they were (Sneijder) or in winning teams may look better than they really were (to me Arshavin).

Except for the Oranje NOT playing in the final and lift the trophy, I think this EC is the best tournament (EC or WC) in recent years in term of many goals scored, relatively attractive football (except for some teams).

–H

By Igor | June 27th, 2008 at 11:53 am

i am biased, but i think i can say this since i’ve always disliked him even in his ajax days…doesn’t de Jong deserve to be there instead of semak? and schweinsteiger is also overrated in my opinion (inconsistent, undisciplined) i’d rather see fabregas or sneijder in this team somewhere.

Posted from Canada

By Fares Van Kar | June 27th, 2008 at 1:46 pm

What surprises me is this .. a week ago everyone was talking about How good is Holland and how their player and their coach showed the world soccer is attacking. Funnily their goals were selected the best, their players were the best. But all of a sudden no one recalls SH*T about them.

Imagine one goal or thing takes away all the work from years.

Thanks Guss for breaking my heart … You are just Semi Final guy. With Holland or with South Korea and even with Brazil.

By Jan | June 27th, 2008 at 6:00 pm

Fares, it’s true. When you perform well in the groupstages but get bitchslapped in the knock out stages, neutral people don’t seem to care anymore. Sad.

By russian-exile | June 27th, 2008 at 6:25 pm

yes Ramos had his best game in ages in the semi-final but, when Zhirkov goes to try to take on the entire Spanish defensive line singlehandedly and slips because of the wet conditions, I wouldn’t call that domination by Ramos >_>
/
by the way Zhirkov is without a doubt the most consistent player in the RPL, so you know something is wrong when even he had a bad game. Honestly he’s as solid as they come.
/
and from your comments it seems you people don’t know much about either football or these players.
/
let me spell it out for you, Arshavin can create magic out of nothing. He is a player which will do the mundane, make a few passes.. maybe a tackle or two, then all the sudden a piece of brilliance which creates a scoring chance. It might not happen in every-game, but he is a good option to have in your team, and he is usually very clinical in his finishing if he gets a shot on target.
/
you cannot compare him to other players like Silva who might might be part of the action more often but have less potential for greatness. Well come to think of it it’s really hard to explain on paper but most people don’t’ seem to realize things like style of play. They just see vague things like position “forward”, “winger” and argue about who’s the “best” when it’s like comparing apples to oranges. But it’s not just fans even managers and owners make moronic decisions bringing certain players which obviously have no place in the team (ie Ballack, Shevchenko, and Wright-Phillips, all came at once to Chelsea.. but then again they were brought not to succeed but to make sure the other big 3 didn’t get their hands on them, and they were all too happy to oblige when Abramovich basically doubled what clubs like Man U were offering).

Posted from United States

By Jan | June 27th, 2008 at 6:30 pm

We are the Brazil of 1982. The Danes of 1986. The Portuguese of 1984.

Hell, we are the Oranje of 1974, 1978, 1992, 1998, 2000….

By finnster01 | June 27th, 2008 at 7:09 pm

You know the sad thing about this EC, is that it will not be remembered for Oranje schooling the existing World Champions AND the other WC finalist, France. It will be remembered as the EC Guus took an “unknown” Russian team to knock out the favorites.

That is a shame, but for non-Oranje fans, that is what they will remember

Posted from United States

By Jan | June 28th, 2008 at 1:49 am

Correct Finn. But I don’t mind that really. Russia did great. So did Guus. We all like those “easy heroes” if you know what I mean. Here on Australian tv the only player they talked about was Ronaldinho, some years back. As if Deco, Iniesta, Xavi and Marquez weren’t important. And Guus deserves respect.

Russian-exile: who exactly doesn’t understand football and/or players ?

So fans, site-moderators, media, coaches, managers and club owners don’t understand football, only Russian-exile does?

By Alex | June 28th, 2008 at 7:54 am

Puyol didn’t really do anything impressive so doesn’t deserve it,thought Boulahrouz showed more quality than Puyol, at least this tournament, i would say Sergio Ramos instead of Sabri, Ramos just al little better, i think Nigel de Jong did much better controlling then Semak. And i feel Schweinsteiger and Podolski don’t really deserve their places more than Robben and Iniesta or Sneijder and Xavi. I say, this isn’t team of the EC.

Posted from Netherlands

By jojohnson | June 28th, 2008 at 10:07 am

well i would agree with this team if only saw them after quarter finals but you should give a credict to Fatih Terim his team dominated German match with 2. squad i mean come on they used midfield player in centre back position because there is no avaible back in the team if somebody -like isnt already enough- has a injury before the game they might think their 3. goalkeeper as a left back WHAT THE?

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