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The World Cup is over, so it's time to pick the best of the best. Join us as we break down the stats and the stories to select our definitive World Cup XI. Did your favourite players make the cut?
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00:00With the World Cup coming to an end, it only feels right to pull together 4-4-2's definitive World
00:04Cup XI.
00:05So, here it is.
00:07Let's kick things off, pun intended, with the goalkeeper position.
00:10My brain tells me Unai Simon for his clean sheets, a save percentage of over 90%, and of course Spain's
00:16World Cup in general.
00:17But, my heart is telling me for Xenia.
00:19I mean, when else will we witness a story quite like Cape Verde's 40-year-old goalkeeper?
00:24Stopping Spain's scoring, helping his team qualify for the knockouts on an unbeaten group stage record,
00:29and push Argentina all the way to extra time?
00:32Sure, I may be buying into the social media hype a little bit on this one,
00:35but being a top goalkeeper on the biggest stage is Unai Simon's bread and butter.
00:39This is above and beyond for Vosinha.
00:42For those same reasons, I could have also picked Kurosawa's Iloroum, Iran's Ali Reza Birenvand, or Norway's Oskar Nyland.
00:48But, as far as I'm aware, you can only name one goalkeeper in your starting XI, so Vosinha it is.
00:53Into defence now, and starting it right back, there's Spain's semi-final hero, Pedro Porro.
00:58Now, I'm not just talking about his well-taken goal versus France, nor his well-timed header versus Austria,
01:03but his all-round play throughout the tournament, which has seen him justify his selection and then some.
01:08He's got two man-of-the-match awards, two goals, and has made up part of a record-breaking Spanish
01:13defence,
01:13who went five games straight without conceding a goal before the Belgium quarter-final.
01:18Also, big props to Ashraf Hakimi in another good World Cup showing for him in Morocco,
01:23as well as Alex Freeman bombing up and down the right wing for host USA, but Porro just edges it
01:28this time.
01:29The first of the two centre-backs has to be Lissandro Martinez.
01:32Now, for someone who's been through injury hell in the past couple of seasons,
01:35to regain his form, make it to the World Cup, it's been a spectacular effort.
01:39He's actually missed over 330 days of football in the last two years,
01:43yet has stepped onto the world stage and looked as comfortable as ever.
01:45Of course, his defensive ability has helped push Argentina all the way to the final,
01:50but going forward, his impact has been brilliant too.
01:52A goal, an assist, and 93.6% pass completion, elite.
01:57It's actually a close call between him and centre-back partner Cristiano Romero,
02:00but Martinez takes the spot.
02:02And the other centre-back spot belongs to Diot Opomecano.
02:06Now, during the Frenchman's time in the competition,
02:08nobody made more interceptions than him,
02:10and no defender won possession more times or made more tackles than him.
02:14A complete stalwart at the back.
02:16Did the tournament end in disappointment for him and his team?
02:19Sure, but you can't knock his contributions over the entire tournament.
02:22I'm Rick Laporte and Pau Cabasi are both up there,
02:24for largely the same reason that Pedro Porro and our left-back are.
02:27It honestly could have been decided on the toss of a coin.
02:30Oh, and we'll have to give a big shout-out to Pico Lopez as well.
02:33Cape Verde will go down in 2026 folklore, and so will he.
02:36The last man in the back four then, and yes, we return to Spain,
02:40because Marco Carrera's tournament has been exceptional in a team and personal level.
02:44He's contributed to that sturdy defence I've been banging on about.
02:47He's got three assists while simultaneously locking up
02:50some of the best right-wingers the World Cup has to offer.
02:52And lastly, did he seal a dream move to Real Madrid from Chelsea
02:56for around 50 million quid?
02:57You bet he did.
02:58All in all, not a bad month for the former Chelsea man.
03:01He was named in the team of the tournament for Spain's successful Euro 2024 campaign,
03:05and I'm sure, regardless of what happens in the final,
03:07he'll be well-placed to take a spot this time around too.
03:10Honestly, looking at other options, I thought Nuno Mendes was good for Portugal,
03:13but their lack of progression keeps him out.
03:15Jed Spence could have made either full-back slot with some great performances,
03:18and Nathaniel Brown made a good go of his first international tournament with Germany,
03:22but none came close to Cucurea.
03:24Just no awkward song afterwards this time, please, Mark.
03:27Cucu-cucurea, se come una paella.
03:32Cucu-cucurea, se me me me a strella.
03:36We start in the midfield with the more defensive of the duo,
03:39of which there doesn't need to be one,
03:41because this team doesn't really need to make sense.
03:43It's not like they're playing anyone or it needs to be realistic,
03:45but I'm doing it anyway.
03:47The defensive-minded position is filled by Rodri.
03:50I mean, his career will be looked back on as elite, top, top level,
03:54but to watch him is rather unremarkable,
03:56and the same could be said about his World Cup.
03:58Could I, off the top of my head, give you a moment
04:00where I've gone absolutely mad over something he's done?
04:03No, but he's doing absolutely everything else,
04:06keeping Spain ticking over,
04:07he's there to break up dangerous counter-attacks
04:09and can be relied upon in all areas of the pitch.
04:12I think central midfield is difficult to choose,
04:14but actually, this one's fairly easy.
04:17Alongside him, Enzo Fernandes has been as good as you'd expect him to be,
04:20if not better, which is very good,
04:22keeping Argentina tenacious and aggressive from front to back,
04:25even popping up with a few important goals.
04:27Steven Estakio was a great watch for Host Canada
04:30during their run to the last 16,
04:31and Johan Manzambi has been fantastic for Switzerland,
04:35but playing a little bit more attacking than a true central midfielder.
04:38Although, to be honest, the same thing goes for Jude Benningham too,
04:41but this is where I'll stick him.
04:42An all-timer of a World Cup.
04:44It'll go down in the history books as a definitive summer in an England shirt,
04:48and he's been keeping up the top scorers in the competition the whole way,
04:51carrying England on his back, making a nation believe,
04:53if I get any more excited, I'll start singing Hey Jude right here, right now.
04:57You get the point. Jude's in.
04:59Now, the number 10 role.
05:01Is there a crazy amount of hate for the Argentinian team
05:03amongst claims of conspiracy and cheating?
05:05Yeah, there is.
05:06But denying the fact that Messi is yet again, age 39 now,
05:10put on display after display of the highest order is just wrong on so many levels.
05:14The greatest to ever do it has turned up to the biggest tournament in the world
05:17and smash records on his way to the final.
05:19The most goals and assists in World Cup history now,
05:21and the chance to go back-to-back with a trophy,
05:23it was going to be hard to leave him out or even displace him in this team.
05:26Big props to Ismael Saibari though.
05:29He was Morocco's shiny light throughout the tournament.
05:31So much so, he earned a big money move to buy Munich from PSV.
05:34But I'm sure even if you asked him,
05:35he'd find it difficult to select himself ahead of Messi.
05:38Video aside for a second though, here's a hypothetical question for you.
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06:14Back to the video then, and moving into the attacking third now,
06:17and it's probably where the most controversy lies,
06:19because there is no right answer.
06:21Has Michael Alisse been at his absolute tip-top best?
06:24Probably not, but 5 assists during France's run to the semi-finals
06:27is a pretty good return.
06:29He's not the one though, and neither is Ismail Assar,
06:31despite a very good showing of 4 goals and 1 assist in 4 games for Senegal.
06:35It could have been Lamin-Yamal.
06:36I think he's been good for Spain in a way where he's a consistent threat,
06:39and has actually carried the ball forward more than any other attacker,
06:42bar Lionel Messi, in the tournament.
06:44But he doesn't quite have the goal contributions to back that all up.
06:48It's not the defining metric for a winger,
06:50but when it comes up against a record like Ousmane Dembele's,
06:53it's hard to argue for anyone else.
06:55Dembele's 5 goals and 2 assists in 7 games
06:57saw him take arguably a similar share of the spotlight alongside Kylian Mbappe.
07:01You could argue that he scored those 5 in only 3 games,
07:04but then again, a World Cup hat-trick is hardly something to scoff at.
07:07From the right to the left,
07:09and Leandro Trossard was incredibly instrumental for Belgium
07:11in their run to the quarter-finals,
07:13actually playing on both the left and the right side
07:15of the Red Devils' attacking 3.
07:17Yandiam Mande was fun to watch, wasn't he?
07:19The group stage saw him complete over 10 chances and over 10 dribbles,
07:22so you can kind of see why so many clubs are linked with him and want him.
07:25But alas, neither of those two take the top spot.
07:28Nope, that belongs to Julian Quinones.
07:30The Mexican winger was outrageously good.
07:33A combination of speed, skill, and a deadly eye for goal
07:36that saw him back four times in Mexico's run to the last 16.
07:39Yes, you could throw the argument out there that left-wingers went further than he did,
07:43but if we're talking about how individually good a player was for his team,
07:46who, by the way, did have a good tournament themselves,
07:49Quinones has got to be there for me.
07:51I mean, his goal-scoring exploits saw him score more goals than games in the Saudi Pro League,
07:56finishing first above Tony and Cristiano Ronaldo in the goal-scoring charts.
07:59So maybe his scoring should have been no surprise, but still, what a tournament.
08:04Lastly, but not least, here we go with the central striker,
08:07from which you could pick any of the big guns with Sean in front of goal.
08:10Mbappe scored a ridiculous eight times with three assists to boot,
08:13which means with 20 goals across three World Cups,
08:15he'll move past Nino Messi at the next one without doubt and take the record for himself.
08:20And maybe I'm being a bit harsh here, but he's not the one I'm going for.
08:23Neither is Harry Kane.
08:24I'll admit, I'm one of his biggest fans,
08:26and he's done wonders for England throughout the tournament,
08:28but Bellingham has done more, and the others have scored more.
08:31So that's basically what I'm going off.
08:32I do feel harsh not picking Oyathabel for Spain, though.
08:35He's definitely got his unsung hero vibe about him.
08:38Without his goals, Spain wouldn't have made it all the way to the final showpiece.
08:41You could argue for every one of these forwards,
08:43and to be honest, there is no right answer, but I'll go for Erling Haaland.
08:47I think it's a mixture of his goals, seven of them in five games.
08:50The fact that he was playing for a nation not expected to mix it with the big boys,
08:54but still made the quarterfinals.
08:55And he single-handedly put Brazil to the sword in the round prior.
08:58Like I said, no wrong choices,
09:00but Haaland's first tournament didn't seem to faze him at all.
09:03World class.
09:04So that's all for my team of the tournament.
09:06Let me know who you agreed with, completely disagreed with,
09:09and who you would have had in the comments section below.
09:11World class.
09:11World class.
09:11World class.
09:12World class.
09:12World class.
09:12World class.
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