Best of the Rest - WC squad

[Great Birtannia]

Ok, so I'm sitting here bored and have decided to piece together a squad of players whose countries choked in the qualifiers *cough* Nigeria *cough* and those that didn't stand a chance e.g. Wales

Only one player per country is allowed in the 23 man squad. I have come up with the following team:


Shay Given (Newcastle, Republic of Ireland)

Carlos Diogo (Real Madrid, Uruguay)
Ivan Cordoba (Inter, Colombia)
Juan Manuel Pena (Villarreal, Bolivia)
Christian Chivu (Roma, Romania)

Aliaksander Hleb (Arsenal, Belarus)
Mahamadou Diarra (Lyon, Mali)
Thomas Gravesen (Real Madrid, Denmark)
Ryan Giggs (Manchester United, Wales)

Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona, Cameroon)
Sanli Tuncay (Fenerbache, Turkey)

Subs:

Jussi Jääskeläinen (Bolton, Finland)
Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow, Russia)
Kakha Kaladze (AC Milan, Georgia)
Vincent Kompany (Anderlecht, Belgium)
Papa Bouba Diop (Fulham, Senegal)
Giorgos Karagounis (Benfica, Greece)
Morten Gamst Pedersen (Blackburn, Norway)
Yossi Benayoun (West Ham, Israel)
Eidur Gudjohnsen (Chelsea, Iceland)
Mido (Tottenham, Egypt)
Obafemi Martins (Inter, Nigeria)
Dimitar Berbatov (Leverkusen, Bulgaria)

It's a pretty handy little squad. Eto'o is probably the only genuine world class player but geez there is a fair bit of quality there. How far could my little squad go? Am I missing anyone obvious?

[steds]

No James McFadden or Steven Pressley? I'm hurt.

[steds]

Duplicate threads?

[Samuel_Vimes]

Originally Posted by steds

No James McFadden or Steven Pressley? I'm hurt.

Jääskeläinen is the keeper. No need for McFadden.

I'd pick Diego Forlán, even bearing in mind how badly he choked with Man U - certainly over Berbatov. Mind, the biased me would pick John Carew over Berbatov.

Edit: The geographical distribution of players shows very well what regions get shafted by FIFA in terms of qualifying spots:

15 Europeans
5 Africans
3 South Americans

[steds]

Originally Posted by Samuel_Vimes

Edit: The geographical distribution of players shows very well what regions get shafted by FIFA in terms of qualifying spots:

15 Europeans

Despite 43.75% of the countries in the World Cup being European? Would you rather it be 27 European countries + 1 from each of the other continents?

[Barney Rubble]

Originally Posted by steds

Despite 43.75% of the countries in the World Cup being European? Would you rather it be 27 European countries + 1 from each of the other continents?

I think he meant more that South America gets five (?) spots, despite no-one other than Brazil and Argentina actually being much good any more.

[marc71178]

Originally Posted by Samuel_Vimes

Jääskeläinen is the keeper. No need for McFadden.

Isn't McFadden an attacking midfielder/striker?

[steds]

Originally Posted by marc71178

Isn't McFadden an attacking midfielder/striker?

He's referring to the red card he got against Norway for handballing a header from Claus Lundekvam off Scotland's line.

[Craig]

Originally Posted by marc71178

Isn't McFadden an attacking midfielder/striker?

Does McFadden still play for Everton?

I'm racking my brains on the last time he did something except for onced being linked with a move to one of David Beckham's former clubs (Preston - where he spent a month on loan stupid)?

[Craig]

Originally Posted by Great Birtannia

Ok, so I'm sitting here bored and have decided to piece together a squad of players whose countries choked in the qualifiers *cough* Nigeria *cough* and those that didn't stand a chance e.g. Wales

Only one player per country is allowed in the 23 man squad. I have come up with the following team:


Shay Given (Newcastle, Republic of Ireland)

Carlos Diogo (Real Madrid, Uruguay)
Ivan Cordoba (Inter, Colombia)
Juan Manuel Pena (Villarreal, Bolivia)
Christian Chivu (Roma, Romania)

Aliaksander Hleb (Arsenal, Belarus)
Mahamadou Diarra (Lyon, Mali)
Thomas Gravesen (Real Madrid, Denmark)
Ryan Giggs (Manchester United, Wales)

Samuel Eto’o (Barcelona, Cameroon)
Sanli Tuncay (Fenerbache, Turkey)

Subs:

Jussi Jääskeläinen (Bolton, Finland)
Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moscow, Russia)
Kakha Kaladze (AC Milan, Georgia)
Vincent Kompany (Anderlecht, Belgium)
Papa Bouba Diop (Fulham, Senegal)
Giorgos Karagounis (Benfica, Greece)
Morten Gamst Pedersen (Blackburn, Norway)
Yossi Benayoun (West Ham, Israel)
Eidur Gudjohnsen (Chelsea, Iceland)
Mido (Tottenham, Egypt)
Obafemi Martins (Inter, Nigeria)
Dimitar Berbatov (Leverkusen, Bulgaria)

It's a pretty handy little squad. Eto'o is probably the only genuine world class player but geez there is a fair bit of quality there. How far could my little squad go? Am I missing anyone obvious?

My hero Alvaro Recoba and made perhaps one of the stupid comments I have heard in the lead to a World Cup Qualifier

Shows you can make a decent living, whilst spending the most of your time on the subs bench.

You could always pick Henrik Larsson on the subs bench - where he also sits for Barcelona.

[Great Birtannia]

Sorry about the duplicate threads. I was logged out by the system when I was putting it together. It came up with invalid path specified so I posted it again.

Larsson is Swedish isn't he? Or has he retired from international football or something? Although that opens up another can of worms entirely.

As for Diogo, I'm pretty sure he is a fullback in the South American, Real Madrid sense ala Roberto Carlos, Juan Pablo Sorin etc.

[Great Birtannia]

Originally Posted by Samuel_Vimes

Edit: The geographical distribution of players shows very well what regions get shafted by FIFA in terms of qualifying spots:

15 Europeans
5 Africans
3 South Americans

Not really it just means there are more countries in Europe than South America as I was only picking one from each nation. It also says more about my lack of South American knowledge outside the big European clubs. Chile have that Gonzalez bloke Liverpool own but can't get a work permit for and I'm sure Venezuela etc. have some decent players in Europe I'm not aware of.

Who were the strongest team not to qualify from Europe? Greece have stunk it up since they won Euro 04, Turkey, Denmark? Uruguay are a strong side and would account for most of the nations on my list.

It is Concacaf that needs to lose a place or two. The US and Mexico get a free ride into the world cup with a two place cushion, I wish we could qualify through there. Oceania is about as competitive as that and FIFA took our promised direct qualifying spot away. Asia isn't all that strong either. We beat Bahrain away with a third string side 3-1 and they were very close to making it to the World Cup. I can't see Australia having trouble qualifying through Asia, at least until all these 8 year old Chinese academy kids come through.....It's all about the money.

[Samuel_Vimes]

Originally Posted by Great Birtannia

Who were the strongest team not to qualify from Europe? Greece have stunk it up since they won Euro 04, Turkey, Denmark? Uruguay are a strong side and would account for most of the nations on my list.

Probably Turkey (who finished third at the last World Cup, remember) or Russia. Still, I agree that Europe probably has enough places - it's the 5 African teams that are a crying shame. They're a much better footballing region than Asia, yet gets almost as many places, because the money is in Japan/Korea.

/hobby horse

[TT Boy]

Originally Posted by Craig

Does McFadden still play for Everton?

I'm racking my brains on the last time he did something except for onced being linked with a move to one of David Beckham's former clubs (Preston - where he spent a month on loan stupid)?

He scored on the weekend (for Everton)...

[TT Boy]

Originally Posted by Great Birtannia

Larsson is Swedish isn't he? Or has he retired from international football or something? Although that opens up another can of worms entirely.

Larsson is going to the WC with Sweden.