Ochoa

Zanetti G Milito Lugano Fucile

Mascherano

Torrado Riquelme

Messi Castillo Robinho

Sorry to say that, all the players are semifinalists. I would have chosen Roque Santa Cruz if Paraguay progressed to semifinal. I also had an eye on Edixon Perea from Columbia and Bolivian Moreno and I can slot them into substitute. Ayala did not really impresses me especially during semifinal against Mexico when he allowed fast and furious Castillo to intercept the ball which could have been converted into Goal.
Hernan Crespo was very unlucky. I am always admired him but he was injured earlier and could not showcase to me for my best 11.

Zanetti
Marquez
G Milito
Gilberto

Mascherano
C Rodriguez
Riquelme

Messi
Robinho
Suazo

Alex has his supporters in Brazil who remember him from his Santos championship winning days. But we’d pick Juan over him every time.

Alex has been at fault for several goals this tournament and got a bit of a runaround from Castillo in the Mexico game. He was also very lucky not to have a penalty awarded against him in the Ecuador game in a case of shameful cowardice by the referee.

He poses a threat going forward – especially from set-pieces – but it is Juan who’s got on the score sheet this Copa instead.

Finally Juan is a clear leader on and off the pitch and not surprisingly Dunga has made him captain in the place of the suspended Gilberto Silva and this is another quality we like about him.

In defense, I think I would put Zanetti – Ayala – Alex – Rodriguez right now. I don’t know why you rate fran over alex in the brazil back, to me there is no contest, and I feel that Ayala has not been proven slow so far – although I do agree this is his weakness.

Going back, my 11:
Ochoa
ZAnetti – Ayala – Alex – Rodriguez
Riquelme – Mascherano – Rodriguez
Robinho – Suazo – Castillo

If Tevez or Messi has a breakthrough game in the final, they would probably take a starting place in my 11.

i would be surprised if argentina try and match brazil pound for pound. they will surely keep playing the way they have dispatched all comers – including the tournament’s other form side, Mexico – and provided they are solid at the back they should have no problems wresting the trophy back from brazil

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-HiMlXAxiQ&mode=related&search=

One of the individual moment of the tournament. Messi’s lob was absolutely brilliant but you could argue that Tevez teed him up nicely and he had time and space to work with.

Suazo had to create his own room to get his chip in with defenders around him meaning less time and had to get his lob up and down in less space. Brilliant.

Agree it is somewhat of a fantasy exercise (unless you are Florentino Pérez) – but it’s fun!

We’ve been big fans of Lugano since his São Paulo days, where he was a huge hit and with all respect to Turkish football we expect he will one day play at one of the biggest clubs in Europe.

We also wrote about Roque Santa Cruz earlier in the Copa who we rate highly and cannot believe there is not more of a rush to get his signature now that Bayern – for whatever reason – are letting him leave.

Would be interested to hear why you like Vagner Love. Thanks for the plug on your always excellent blog on FU.

Enjoy the game Sunday

agree about riquelme, obviously, but would be tempted to position a reliable sportpsychologist very near him for the next 36 hours or so to make sure he remains as confident and collected as he seems to be. problem is, if one were to suggest a sport spych he would probably walk out of the tournament…

i really liked lugano – i really liked roque santa cruz too.

and i rate vagner love more than several, judging by comments i’ve been reading.

don’t know how people do this ‘picking teams’ business but really enjoyed your selection and justification.

great blog!

Another striker we didn’t forget but didn’t see him do just enough that we liked was Roque Santa Cruz.

If our Basile really was in charge (instead of coaching our selection) he might have picked him to play alongside Messi.

We’re not including penalty shoot-outs in the list. Just because they do not go towards players when counting top scorers for tournaments.

Technically the game is over and drawn when it goes to penalties, which is just to decide who goes to the next round.

Robinho-Castillo was the most debated point here but we went with Robinho because without him Brazil would have risked going home after the group stages and Castillo did it early against Brazil and Ecuador and shone again against 10-man Paraguay but (most likely because of injury) just didn’t when his team needed him most against Argentina. Unlike Robinho – so far.

But a very close call in our view.

Basile as you write knows what he is doing but it was late that he consented that it would be okay not to have a target man and go with Messi-Tevez. Will be interesting to see how they do with Brazil on Sunday.

Agree with you about Juan but Alex has not convinced me