Post your country's starting 11 here!

Felipao' probable 11.

Please note this is Felipao's favourite....which is far from being the majority of the population favourite 11.

1. Marcos

3. Lucio 4. Roque Jr:devil: 5. Anderson Polga/Edmilson

2. Cafu 5. Gilberto Silva 7. Emerson 6. Roberto Carlos

10. Ronaldinho Gaucho

9. Ronaldo 11. Rivaldo


Marcos has been uite bad lately, both for club and country. I'd much ratehr see Rogerio Ceni or Julio Cesar in goal.

Lucio is most of the times sfe in defense, sometimes he makes an odd error.

Roque Jr is a nightmare for my heart...the guy is awful, but as he is big friends with Felipao he is on the team.

Anderson Polga is quite safe at the back and can come out playing for the game well. Edmlison is the same thing......Edmilson IMO should be in the team, but as Polga plays for Gremio (Felipao's local club) he gets the nod.

Cafu you all knnw about him

Gilberto Silva is a classical defensive midfielder. Brilliant passer of the ball, calm and stable, brings security to the team. Will definilty be a positive thing of our team in the WC.

Emerson is a blatent butcher. Makes loads of wrong passes and is very slow, but people see him as a leader, but i my opinion he should be out of this midfield and be put in defense.

Roberto Carlos you all know about him

Ronaldinho Gaucho. Finally is playing the football everyone excpected him to play. Hte kid is shining in midfield and will be a great asset for the team, playing with his heart running like hell, and showing all his vision and skill. Will be vital for the sucess of he team in the tournament.

Ronaldo.
Coming back from injury. If he is 50% he will already be a plus....let's just pray that his "crystal jar" knee does not bust up...cause if he does not, we will come even stronker (despite him not being 100% fit, as prooven in the yugoslavian game!)


Rivaldo.
The big question mark. Will he finally be able to play what everyone knows he can play in a Brazil shirt? Has been tested in every position of attack and dissapointed in all of them, until when will Felipao protect him???


The 12th player will be Denilson, who should come on in every second half. He will come on and he will change the pattern of the game making brazil more offesive and dangerous than it was in the first half. This has been a pattern in most game of Felipao since the Copa america 2001.


My WC team woudl be:

Julio Cesar

cafu lucio emerson roberto carlos

vampeta juninho PE

juninho sp kaka

Romario Ronaldo

The swedes strong side is of course their strong defence that became their trademark the recent years. Boring, but effective :strong:

Keepers:
The selfwritten choice is Magnus Hedman. Although he's only playing in english division 1 team Coventry, and been benched a lot, he always does a solid performance in the NT when called upon. Second keeper will be Magnus Kihlstedt and third will prolly be young and promising Andreas Isaksson, who was playing with Juve for a while one year back.

Defence:
Olof Mellberg is given for the central defenders role, problem is that our NT coaches play him on the right flank :sigh:
Our captain and also central defender, Barca's Patrick Andersson is injured, and he might miss the WC, and then Sweden will be in a lot of trouble. Recently our flank defenders have showed great skills with Christoffer Andersson and Erik Edman.

Midfield:
Our problem has for a long time been the left winger, and now that Jesper Blomqvist has made his comeback after 3 years of injury, there might be hope for a natural left winger :excited:
Tobias Linderoth is our new Stefan Schwarz in the defensive midfielder role. Now for the offensive midfielder it was hard to chose between Ljungberg and Svensson. Cos Ljungberg might be doing good in Arsenal, but the recent games he has played under his capacity in the NT But hopefully that will change and he'll find his way back to the nice NT form he had about one year ago Niklas Alexandersson is our natural choice for right winger, but Ljungberg could play there aswell.

Strikers:
Henrik Larsson keeps scoring huge amounts of goals in the SPL, and Marcus Allbäck is doing well in the dutch Heerenveen. Our wonder boy Zlatan Ibrahimovic made a very strong performance against Switzerland, but still has difficulties taking a spot in the starting eleven in Ajax. We also have Stefan Selakovic, recently bought to Heerenveen who has been playing very good lately.
But the starting strikers will without doubt be Allbäck and Larsson. With Ibrahimovic we could play a 4-3-3 formation, where Ibrahimovic would be slightly behind Allbäck and Larsson, serving them with good passes.

Note that this is MY lineup, not our Laurel and Hardy coach couple Lagerbäck-Söderbergs choice :doh:
But it is fairly realistic, and it might be formed like this during the last friendlies before the WC.

Portugal

------------------------------------Pauleta--------------------------------------


-----------------------------------RuiCosta-------------------------------------



-----------Figo-----------------------------------------------Conceicao--------



---------------------PauloSousa------------- Petit----------------------------



----RuiJorge-------JorgeCosta---FernandoCouto----JorgeAndrade----

French starting 11

____________Barthez_______________
Thuram___Desailly__Leboeuf___Lizarazu
____________Vieira_________________
________Petit______________________
______________Zidane______________
__Wiltord___________________Henry__
_____________Trezeguet____________


Important note

Pires, as you may know, won't be available for the world cup...It is a big loss for the french squad. Nevertheless, Roger Lemerre managed to set up a team which has completely destroyed Scotland on both scoreline (5-0) and manner. Actually, the french had never played that good. We are full of hopes even if Robby is not part of the trip.

Defense

This is the most probable line up for defense. The defense remains very strong even if I would prefer :
Candela----Desailly----Thuram----Lizarazu
But, Lemerre doesn't seem to see it the way I do...
We still have lots of quality subs in this area: Sagnol (Bayern Munich), Sylvestre (Manchester), Christianval (Barcelona),etc...

Midfield

What could I say about Vieira :star:...He is just marvellous. The French colossus is just the best defensive midfielder on earth!
Petit is back on form and shows it; after the bad Barcelona experience...he will soon show the world he is a player who counts.
Zidane :star: has now settled in Madrid. Many thought it was just a "prestige" tranfer for Real Madrid; But Magic Zizou has shown once more he is the best football player of his generation, a maestro. Zidane is fit and prepared to rock for this World cup

Offense

With the loss of Pires on the flank, Lemerre chose to entirely rebuild the offensive line with a pure striker in front (Trezeguet). Trezeguet is one of the top 3 scorers in Serie A. Before the loss of Pires, Henry was always in front whereas trezeguet was his sub. Now, Henry was moved on the flank to bring support to Trezeguet. It is only the third time Trezeguet and Henry play together in NT and it rocks!! Trezeguet the "fox in the box", and Henry the best scorer in premiership!!! Let's add Wiltord on the other flank, less good than Henry or Trezeguet, he remains a very good striker, crucial in events such as a World Cup.

Overall

The French squad is ready for this world cup. This squad is much more powerfull than the one in 98 especially in the offensive line which is now one of the best in the world. The defensive line may have weakened a little unless Lemerre makes Candela-Thuram-Desailly-Liza play together. Vieira, as a defensive midfielder, replaced Deschamp who was titular in 98...Vieira is simply better than him/ It could balance on the defensive line which have weakened.

Super Eagles tentative 23 plus or minus

3Goalkeepers: Ike Shorunmu (Lucrene/Swit), Ademola Bankole (Crewe/Eng), Austin Ejide (Gabros/Ngr)

Defenders: Joseph Yobo (Marseille/Fra), Celestine Babayaro (Chelsea/Eng), Isaac Okoronkwo (Shakhtar Donest/Ukr), Eric Ejiofor (Maccabi Haifa/ Isr), Ifeanyi Udeze (Poak Salonika/Gre), Emeka Ifeajiagwa (Wolfsburg/Ger), Taribo West (Kais/Germany),

Midfielders: Justice Christopher (Antwerp/Bel), Pius Ikedia (Ajax/Ned), Austin 'Jay Jay' Okocha (Paris Saint Germain/Fra), Garba Lawal (Roda/Neth), Blessing Kaku (Genk/Bel), Wilson Oruma (Servette/Swit)

Forwards: Benedict Akwuegbu (Shenyeng Gendi/Chn), John Utaka (Al Sadd/Qat), Bartholomew Ogbeche (Paris Saint Germain/Fra), Julius Aghahowa (Shakhtar Donest/Ukr), Nwankwo Kanu (Arsenal/Eng), James Obiora (Spartak Moscow/Russ), Victor Agali (Schlake 04/Ger)

Cut from the team but could later find their way in are the two captains Finidi George (Ipswich/Eng) and Sunday Oliseh (Borussia/Germany).

The starting lineup against Argentina will probably be

---------------------Shorunmu----------------------------
Yobo----------West--------Okoronkwo---------Udeze
----------Kaku/Oliseh-----------Babayaro-------------
----------------------Jay Jay-------------------------------
---------------------------Kanu----------------------------
----------------Aghahowa--------Agali/Ogbeche--------

Ecuador NT

Cevallos

De la Cruz - Hurtado - Porozo/Espinoza - Guerron

E. Tenorio - Obregon - Mendez

Aguinaga/Chala

Kaviedes - Delgado/C. Tenorio

Defense: The only question is between Porozo or Espinoza. Espinoza is taller and probably better in the air but also is more erratic. So I think Gomez will go with Porozo. De la Cruz is playing superbly he has become all out winger watch out for him.

Midfielder: It is also set, the only question is if Aguinaga will start or come off the bench. I like the idea of him coming off the bench, he can change the mold of the game and will take the other teams unprepared besides he would have seen the other teams weaknesses.

Attack: The only question mark is Delgado who is still not fit after his second knee surgery in less than 4 months. He should be healthy by the WC but not sure in what form he would be. Luckily Carlos Tenorio is a star in the making and is playing awesome right now. He would be a great substitute as well.

Argentina

3-4-3

------------Burgos----------


Pochettino-------Ayala---------Samuel


----------------Simeone-----------------

Zanetti---------------------------Sorin


------------------Veron-------------

Ortega----------------------------Piojo/Killy

------------------Batistuta/Crespo-----------


as you all know, our keeper is not the most reliable of all, in fact this is one of the positions we are more worried about, anyway, Burgos, seems the most experienced, and he should get the job..

in defense, Pochettino will likely take Vivas place, and Ayala and Samuel have their places secure..

If Simeone recovers in time, he will be our No.5, if not it will be almeyda, i don´t see Veron playing the CM position like Bielsa has been experimenting lately, Zanetti on the right midfield and Sorin on the left, that´s secure, and veron as a free playmaker.

Ortega will be our right forward/winger, and either Killy or Piojo Lopez on the left, dependig on the game, situation, and Bielsa's plans, Batistuta or Crespo?, the dilema, it seems Crespo is winning the pulse right now, but you never know, we might see Batigol as the starter for the WC..there you have it.

Bench: Cavallero, Bonano, Placente, Quiroga, Gallardo, Aimar, Caniggia, Solari, Almeyda, Saviola???, Riquelme???

I agree with the lineup you have posted Nick except for one thing...Del Piero!! No way is he not going to start, only if he is in a wheelchair will that happen.
As much as I don't wanna see him wearing the blue again, it is an unrealistic hope and he will be playing in the WC for us.

This is what the probable Italy lineup will be at the WC:

---------------------Buffon/Toldo

----Cannavaro--------Nesta--------Maldini

---Zambrotta----Tommasi---Zanetti------Coco

-------------------------Totti

--------Vieri---------------------------Del Piero

This is what I wish our coach would start with at the WC:

-------------------------Toldo

----Cannavaro--------Nesta---------Maldini

---Zambrotta-----Ambrosini--Tommasi-----Coco

--------------------------Totti

-----------Vieri-----------------------Montella

And if God would be really nice he'll make a miracle happen and let Robigol play in the position of Totti, the one which is rightfully his!

FORZA ITALIA!!!

ps. Nick, come stai? Spero che tutto e bene, non ti ho visto per tanto tempo.

GK:

Chokri El Ouaer

DEFENCE::

Radhi Jaidi
Khaled Badra
Hamdi Marzouki
Hatem Trabelsi

MIDFIELD:

Zoubaier Baya
Skander Souyah
Kais Ghodbane
Selim Ben Achour


FORWARDS:
Zied Jaziri
Ali Zitouni



With a new coach and less than two months to go it's difficult to name a starting 11 but here it goes.


Keepers:

El Ouaer has been and is the best GK in Africa and was the only bright spot in Tunisia awful performance at France 98. Strikers will find it hard to beat El Ouaer, but he has a bit of a Barthez complex as in trying to do too much when the easiest play is also the smartest play.

Defense:

This position was the toughest to name simply due to inconsistency of the normaly reliable Badra and Jaidi. With younger defenders such as Ben Abdelkader and Chabani it seems like the time to pass the torch, but on ther other hand at the biggest annual event in the World one wants experince and Badra and Jaidi have that all important element. Good news on the defensive front is the outstandiing form of Ajax defender Hatem Trabelsi, I would not be surprised if after the World Cup clubs in England and Germany flood Ajax with offers.


Midfield

Without a doubt Tunisia's best and deepest postion but will there be enough time for them to gell? Baya has return to form with his Turkish club Besiktas and unlike the 2002 ANC in Mali he won't have too carry the entire midfield on his back due to the return of the prodigal son Skander Souyah. Souyah is the most talented player Tunisia had for years but clashes with the FA and his temper has kept him off the national team for four years. But now he is back and will help a midfield who has lost it''s confidence. Ben Achour is the one of the younger stars of Tunisian football who will play a major role at the World Cup. Not sure if anyone remembers but he played a key role in leading Tunisia to the gold medal at the 2002 Mediterian games. Ghodbane is a mystery great for his club side but very little at the national level if he can balance that out Tunisia chances in group H are looking good.


Strikers:

Time and time again this has been Tunisia weak spot and time time again it has come back to haunt us, at this level a team may need two or even three goals in a game to win and 0-1 simply won't cut it. A year ago it was looking great, the Zitouni- Jaziri tandom was on fire averaging three goals a game and Tunisia was undefeated when the fantastic duo started. Than injuries hit both players and as is the case with small nations Tunisia simply does not have the depth to compensate. Both players are due to return this week to the national team but it may prove to be too late for them to find the rythem they had last year and if they don't Tunisia will be extremly hard pressed to create goals.

ESPAÑA


Coach: Jose Antonio Camacho


GK: Cañizares

DEFENCE: Puyol, Hierro, Helguera, Salgado

MIDFIELD: Lucho, Valerón, Baraja, Vicente

FORWARD: Raúl, Tristán


ALTERNATIVE PLAYERS: Molina, Casillas (GK) Téllez, Romero, Nadal, Abelardo (DF) Guti, Mendieta, Xavi, Albelda, Víctor, Jorge López, Sergio(MF) Morientes, Luque, Tamudo, Catanha, Urzaiz (FW)

England Starting XI

Martyn

G Neville - Ferdinand - Campbell - Cole

Beckham - Scholes - Gerrard - Sinclair (?)

Heskey - Owen

Defence - We have this pretty much sorted with the exception of the left back position. Arsenal's Ashley Cole has started there for most of our qualifiers with Charlton's Chris Powell making the occasional start. However, of late Powell has dropped out of the reckoning and Southampton's young Wayne Bridge has forced himslef into the squad with his attacking style and beautiful left foot. He has turned in superb performances season long for his club and for the U-21 national side. He was also one of the few England players to impress in the friendly dfeat against Italy.

Ferdinand - Campbell is an almost world class pairing. Both have been consistantly playing well for their clubs and have looked solid, if unspectactular when playing a long side each other for the national side. Cover for this position will be provided by the experienced Keown or one of Middlesbro's ultra impressive pairing of Southgate and Ehiogu. G Neville can also play as a centre back in needs be as he often does for Man Utd. His perfered postion is RB where he is ultra solid and ultra consistant if at times a little defensive, as indeed are his understudies, Danny Mills of Leeds and Jamie Caragher of Liverpool.

Midfield - Again, we have this pretty much sorted with the exception of the wide left position. Sinclair has impressed when playing for West Ham but so far has been unable to recreate his club form in the limeted number of oppurtunities he has been given with the national side. Im sure you all know all about our central midfield pairing of Scholes and Gerrard. Gerrard will sit in front of the back four and look to spray passes towards Owen whereas Scholes will look to support the front 2. Scholes, however isnt affraid to tackle and Gerrard isnt affriad to get forward. Gerrard can be ultra dangerous with the ball at his feet 30 yards from goal with his rasping right boot and Englands opponents should look to close him down right away.

Beckham is one of Englands few world class players, captain and nodoubt the first name on the teamsheet. He is a danger at any set piece, either with his shot or his delivery into the box. Again, he should be offered no time with the ball or he will make you pay. There is however a question mark over his temprament still and no doubt the Agrentinian will look to exploit that again.

Forwards - Owen is our other world class player. He thrives of balls played behind the back four. On his day he can rip apart the best of defences with his beath taking pace and cool finishing. Although Owen has shown reasonable form of late he has been struggling to find the form he showed early in the season most notably against Germany in Munich. In this pairing Owen provides the goals but it is Heskey who provides the blood. Often, he will drop deep looking for flick ons and through balls for his strike partner to feed off. He too can frighten defences with his emense strength and he , despite his mid season goal drought has proven on numerous occasions he knows where the goal is. The cover will come from perhaps the best natural finisher in England - Robbie Fowler and Darius Vassell who has been pushing for inclusion in the squad after his spectacular goal against Holland.

Croatia's starting eleven...maybe..


-----------------------------Pletikosa--------------------------------------

-------R. Kovac---------Tudor-------D. Simic--------Jarni--------

-----------------------------Prosinecki-------------------------------------

-------Stanic------------------------------------Rapaic-------------------

-----------------------------Vugrinec--------------------------------------



--------------------Boksic---------------Vlaovic------------------------


Keepers Hajduk Split's 22 year old prospect Pletikosa is our no.1. Most of you haven't heard of him, but come WC time, you'll all know his name. He's a penalty kick expert and saved 8 of 8 one-on-one situations in the Champs league last season. He was sold to Marseilles, but returned to Hajduk to help them with the prelims. Our no.2 is Butina, Dinamo's keeper, and Vedran Runje of Marseilles fills up the quota. He was top keeper of the Belgian league for 2 years in a row, and is playing great in the French 1st division.

Defense As German Thomas Effenberg put's it "Croatia have the tightest defense in the world"
The best in the world cup,(statistically speaking) water tight letting only 2 goals in in 8 games. It's led by 193cm Juve defender Igor Tudor, who is one of t he top defenders in the world, and scores more in a season than most of the Juve strikers. Robert Kovac has been a standard force in the Bayern Munich defense making that right side his for club and country. Boris Zivkovic also makes starts for the NT, he is currently helping Leverkusen to the Bundesliga crown and playing solidly back there. Dario Simic of Inter Milan is in somewhat of a slumb, but for the NT hes always in his prime. Jarni is playing for Panathianaikos in Greece after a short stint with no club, although he's not attractive, he's still deadly fast (100 meters in 10 seconds) and can cause problems down the flank. Can also score, ask the Germans
This defense has proven tough to break down, and it will not fail us come WC time.

Midfield This is our trouble point. Led by veteran of 32 years, Robert Prosinecki, who's lying low in England after a carrer of winning champions leagues and playing for the likes of Barca, Real and Dinamo. He's got silky skill and grwat touch, though he's slower than before. On the right is Chelsea's Mario Stanic, who's preformances lately warrant praise. He has cemented a starting place for Chelsea, but all the injuries have seriously hindered him, he's ready now though. On the left we have Fenerbahce's Rapaic, fast and talented attacking mid with a knack for scoring. Rapaic was wanted by Lazio, Inter and Roma 2 seasons ago, after being Perrugia's top player in the serie A and making France Football's best 11 list of the Serie A. He's slowed down, but at 27 he's still a contender for club success, scored 2 weeks ago for Fener in their 1-0 derby win over Galatasaray. Davor Vugrinec rounds off the midfielders, Lecces leading scorer in the serie A, last season he was a revelation, consistantly scoring and playing great football. He has great touch also, but his defensive work is questionable. Vugi is most probably going to a bigger club next year.
Other mids include Vicenza's Tomas, Leverkusen's Vranjes, Liverpools Biscan (!!??what happened to this guy!?), Munichs Niko Kovac and Verona's Seric.


Attack Led by striker Boksic, ask the Man United fans about him. Formerly of Lazio and Juve glory, led the French league in scoring and will be hungry for goals in the WC. Has 11 goals in 18 games in the Premier League. With him is Goran Vlaovic, Pana's prolific striker, leading them in scoring in the chamos league, he's fast, agile and posseses a deadly shot. Bosko Blaban, Villa's benchwarmer was a hot prospect some months ago, wanted by a dozen clubs, he found Villa's 10 million euro's offer irresistable, and has warmed their bench ever since. Though he's still very good, scoring 5 of Croatia's 15 qualifying goals. Davor Suker, a man who needs no introduction, formerly of Real Madrid and Arsenal, Suker's credits include leading scorer of the Yugoslav league, The Spanish league, Euro96 qualifyers and golden boot winner of France 98. He is currently at Munich 1860, and has found the net 6 times allready. Others include Ivica Olic (leading Croatian league scorer), Sasa Bjelanovic (on his wasy to Inter say some) and Tomislav Maric of wolfsburg, leading Bundesliga scorer until his injury (8 goals in 4 games)


There you have it, Croatia's WC squad ( a rough cut). A rock solid defense, a good forward line with some talend in the midfield, though no real creator apart from Prosinecki. We didn't loose a game in qualifying, infact we haven't lost in 2 years. We conceeded the least goals and found the net 15 times (2 0-0 draws in qualifying) We have a new coach in Mirko Jozic, who won the WC with the Yugoslav u21 team featuring the youthful Suker, Prosinecki, Boban, Jarni, Mijatovic and others, and the South American cuo with Colo-Colo. We're seeded 9th, which is realistic, but if we get through the first round, anything is posible.

Polands starting 11 (4-4-2):
Goalie: Jerzy Dudek is one of the greaytest keepers in the world. No doubt. Plays for Liverpool and is guiding them to glory. widely regarded as one of the top goalies in the premiership and Europe. Bound to make a splash.

Defence: Solid. Waldoch was voted top defender in the Bundesliga last year. Hajto is a very tall and physical player. Both play for Schalke 04. Zewlakow is a young and reliable left-back playing for Mouscron in Belgium. I dont want Klos to start but he will.

Mid: Lack of creativity. Kozminski (Ancona of Italy) and Karwan (polish club Legia) send in alot of crosses tho. Kaluny is currently playing for Cottbus of Germany. A very tall defensive minded mid. Great player. Swierczewski is also very good, starting for Marseille in France.

Attack: Kryszalowicz is top scprer in Bundesliga II and quite consistent. Olisadebe is our real threat tho. Plays for Greek giants Panathinaikos. Our top scorer in qualify and currently has 10goals in 15 games for our national team. Very quick and pacy. Only 22 and will surely be playing top-flight football after the World Cup.