Poll: Best Editor XI

June 6th, 2008 | by: chris | Comments(13)

So the draft has finished and we’ve all got our teams picked. With the system at a 4-4-2 and a maximum of two players from each country, it got really interesting towards the end and some serious talent was left on the bench. Particularly with the strikers, when surefire world class dudes like Ruud van Nistelrooy and David Villa were left on the bench, while guys everyone could probably agree could light up Swissaustria – like Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Lukas Podolski – weren’t really considerations. Hell, Zlatan was the 5th to last pick. Tough for sure.

All but two countries were represented, so apologies to Turkey and Austria for being left out of the party. Germany, Spain, Italy and France all had six representatives apiece, which should come as a complete shock to no one.

The rules are each player named in the Team of the Tournament (23 players selected by UEFA) gets a point, while the POTY and Golden Boot winners get a two point bonus apiece. So if the same person wins both (a fair chance), that’s a huge head start. 27 points available in total, with the max each team can get is 15. (We’re also allowed one trade.)

With that said, which squad has the best chance of taking home the spoils?

After-the-post Edit: We would like to point out that the purpose of these teams is to pick the players that are A) most likely to win UEFA’s post-tournament accolades, and B) have not already been picked by the other editors. As opposed to picking teams that would actually play well together on the field. This has created some rather odd teams. So yes, Laurie is fully aware that her team reflects her unnatural obsession with marauding fullbacks, speedy wingers, and #10s. But thanks for noticing.

So Good, They Could Be French (Laurie).:

Gianluigi Buffon (Italy);
Philip Lahm (Germany), Gianluca Zambrotta (Italy), Patrice Evra (France), Marek Jankulovski (Czech Republic);
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid Portugal), Cesc Fabregas (Spain), Samir Nasri (France), Roger Guerreiro (Poland),
Miroslav Klose(Germany), Zlatan Ibrahimovich (Sweden).

It’s All Steve McClaren’s Fault (Daryl).:

Artur Boruc (Poland);
Jose Boswinga (Portugal), Sergio Ramos (Spain), Pepe (Portugal), Fabio Grosso (Italy);
Franck Ribery (France), Rafael Van der Vaart (Netherlands), Daniele De Rossi (Italy), Arjen Robben (Holland);
Karim Benzema (France), Jan Koller (Czech Republic).

Eleven Naturalized Scots (Ian).:

Iker Casillas (Spain);
Ricardo Carvalho (Portugal), Philippe Senderos (Switzerland), Traianos Dellas (Greece), William Gallas (France);
Jeremy Toulalan (France), Konstantin Zyryanov (Russia), Michael Ballack (Germany), Joao Moutinho (Portugal);
Mario Gomez (Germany), Adrian Mutu (Romania).

Antonio Cassano’s Mental Equilibrium (Chris).:

Peter Cech (Czech Republic);
Vedran Corluka (Croatia), Carles Puyol (Spain), Per Mertesacker (Germany), Tomas Ujfalusi (Czech Republic);
Torsten Frings (Germany), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Luka Modric (Croatia), Ricardo Quaresma (Portugal);
Luca Toni (Italy), Fernando Torres (Spain).

Which team will win the competition?
( polls)