Our Starting XI, Round 2

Each round of the group stage and knockouts of Euro 2008, we will be choosing a starting eleven based on who we think put in the best individual efforts. Before we get started, I have to admit that we cheated a little on this one, putting a left back into the right back slot, but it had to be done. We just couldn’t leave either of the two left backs off.

Keeper: Artur Boruc (Poland)
Boruc kept a clean sheet against the Austrians, until a last-minute penalty, on a very host-friendly call, took it away from him. The day before the match, Boruc’s wife gave birth to their first son, and what a performance for the boy to look back on someday, probably in some super-futuristic 3d hologram or something.

Left Back: Fabio Grosso (Italy)
The first of our two left backs, we chose to keep Grosso on the left not only for the strength of his performance against Romania, but also because he’s supposedly not much use with his right foot. While Zambrotta was inconsistent on the right, Grosso was perhaps the defender of the round, not only stopping every Romanian move on his side but also becoming the engine of the Italian offense.

Central Defender: Christian Panucci (Italy)
I have a special blend of bitterness and respect for Christian Panucci. It was his header that sent my beloved Scotland out of Euro qualifiers, and his goal that equalized against my adopted side, the Romanians, this week. He doesn’t score a huge number of goals, but always seem to be surrounded by words like “game-winning”, “clinching”, and “clutch”. He took the wind out of the Romanian sails, and was solid in his defensive duties as well.

Central Defender: Olof Mellberg (Sweden)
After Spain took Russia apart in the opening round, Sweden must have come into this match with a bit of hesitation. Even though they eventually lost to Golden Boot leaders David Villa’s last minute strike, they held up far better than the Russians against the Spanish armada of attacking talent. A lot of the credit for that goes to Mellberg, who never let Torres, Villa and the rest have any sort of real room in the center.

(Converted) Right back: Yuri Zhirkov (Russia)
Zhirkov played a brilliant match at right back for Russia, in their 1-0 win over the Greeks. Like Grosso for Italy, it seemed like every attacking move for the Russians came through him, and his accuracy and control reminded me of the first-round performance of Ludovic Magnin. He didn’t seem to make a single mistake with his balls in, and it’s lost on me how Roman Pavlyuchenko could be called the man of the match, when he was so often unable to convert such lovely service from Zhirkov. Apologies for changing his side, but we just couldn’t leave him out.

Left midfielder: Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands)
Sneijder missed out on the left winger position in our starting eleven last week, despite scoring maybe the goal of the tournament so far in the 3-0 win over the Italians. This time around, he was the unanimous choice. There are so many weapons for Holland that it would seem easy to get lost in the crowd, but Sneijder has truly stuck out as not only a great goalscoring winger, but also a fantastic crosser and passer of the ball. Amazing tournament so far.

Central midfielder: Deco (Portugal)
The Brazilian-born attacking midfielder showed everyone in the Czech Republic and elsewhere what Barcelona and Porto fans already knew about the amount of quality you can pack into a small frame. At 5′9″, he wasn’t going to win any headers over Jan Koller, but his crisp passing was a huge threat throughout the match, and he opened the scoring with his 4th goal for Portugal. This was another unanimous choice by the World Cup Blog editorial team.

Central midfielder: Luka Modric (Croatia)
Coming into this tournament, Modric was the young player with perhaps the most eyes on him. England fans learned of his tricks during qualifying, but since he has played his club football in Croatia, he has not gotten the attention of many mainstream fans. This was supposed to be his breakout performance, and in the win over Germany, we saw glimpses of what he might be capable of for Spurs next season. Great movement with, and especially off of, the ball, and incredible vision for such a young footballer.

Right midfielder: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
CRon was inevitably going to show up on this list eventually, and in the win over the Czechs, he may have put one more nail in the rumor that he shuts down in big games. His low bullet of a goal past Petr Cech should put that one to bed for another week. I’m relatively sure that Euro 2008 cameramen get docked pay for every minute of every Portugal match where he is not on the screen, but you can’t completely blame them. It’s getting harder and harder to argue with the word “greatest”.

Forward: Ivica Olić (Croatia)
The biggest worry for Croatia coming into this tournament was the lack of a real cutting-edge striker, a target man to replace the injured Eduardo. Olic might not be Eduardo, but he did cause consistent troubles for the German defense. Some of this, of course, can be credited to the German defense itself, which was never really comfortable in the match. But Olic’s movement and eye for goal was a great asset to Bilic’s Boys, and it all paid off in the 62nd minute with the go-ahead goal.

Forward: David Villa (Spain)
I know what you’re saying. Only one goal? Pfft. After his hat trick in the opening round, David Villa was flying high, and though he was anonymous for much of the first 91 minutes of the game, he showed up when it mattered most. 2 minutes into injury time, he got the right ball in the right place and neatly tucked it away for the game winner over Sweden. We have to admit that he got his spot thanks to a fairly mediocre round from the strikers this time around, but a striker’s job is to finish when it counts, and that’s just what he did.

On the bench: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Bogdan Lobont, Giorgio Chiellini, Robin van Persie