Offside SoundOff: Tell Us About Your 2008 UEFA Team

This is a three-step process. 1) Go to the UEFA site and vote for your team of 2008. 2) Come back here and read the post. 3) Tell us about some or all of the players you picked, and why, in the comments.

Got it? Great. Now go to the UEFA site. We’ll wait.

Chris was going to write this post, but he’s boycotting this contest because there are no Roma players up for anything. I see his point, (and am equally offended that there is only one Ligue 1 player) but I’ve noticed that in years when there is a major competition involving European teams (i.e. World Cup or Euros), the nominations tend to be heavy on the teams that did well, especially the underdogs. That’s why I could pick almost an entire starting eleven of French players in 2006, and also the reason we’re seeing a lot of Turkish and Russian players this year.

So which players are up for the UEFA Team? (And I’m not feeling like Wiki-ing every single player, so I’m basically going by memory on club affiliation — with occasional Skype question to Chris on the Russians — and I haven’t had any caffeine yet. So if I were to accidentally say, “Franck Ribéry, Marseille”? Bayern Munich fans, please be gentle.)

Starting at the back, we have:

Goalkeeper:
Edwin Van der Sar (Manchester United, Netherlands); Iker Casillas (Real Madrid, Spain); Petr Cech (Chelsea, Czech Republic); Rene Adler (Bayer Leverkusen, Germany); Igor Akinfeev (CSKA Moskow, Russia)

I had to go with Iker – based entirely on Euros, since I don’t watch a lot of La Liga games. But he was stellar in Euros.

Rightback:
Jose Bosingwa (Chelsea, Portugal); Aleksandr Anyukov (Zenit St. Petersburg, Russia); Bacary Sagna (Arsenal, France); Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid, Spain); Maicon (Inter, Brazil)

The Equipe de France-loving part of me says Sagna, but I had to go with Bosingwa. I love the creativity he’s brought to Chelsea this year — a team that was so boring last year I think it occasionally made my eyeballs bleed. (What’s that you say? Results? Pfft.)

Central Defender (pick two):
Jamie Carragher (Liverpool, England); Tomas Ujfalusi (Atletico Madrid, Czech Republic); Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United, England); Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea, Portugal); Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United, Serbia); Carles Puyol, (Barcelona, Spain); John Terry (Chelsea, England); Carlos Marchena (Valencia, Spain); Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus, Italy); Pepe (Real Madrid, Portugal)

Carles Puyol was a no-brainer for me. I just love the guy. Picking a second was harder, but I ended up going with Rio Ferdinand.

Leftback:
Joan Capdevila (Villareal, Spain); Philipp Lahm (Bayern Munich, Germany); Patrice Evra (Manchester United, France); Yuri Zhirkov (CSKA Moskow, Russia); Giovanni van Bronckhorst (Feyenoord, Netherlands)

One of those happy times where head and heart agree. Patrice Evra all the way. (And oh dear lord, does that mean I’ve just picked two ManU players?)

Right Midfield
Javier Zanetti (Inter, Italy); Steven Gerrard (Liverpool, England); Hamit Altintop, (Bayern Munich, Turkey); Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United, Portugal); Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich, Germany)

I went with Hamit Altintop based on his Euro performance, and because I wanted to include at least one Turk in my selection because the team was so exciting to watch in SwissAustria this summer.

Central Midfield
Anatoliy Tymoshchuk (Zenit, Russia); Xavi Hernandez (Barcelona, Spain); Konstantin Zyryanov (Zenit, Russia); Marcos Senna (Villareal, Spain); Mehmet Aurelio (Real Betis, Turkey)

Marcos Senna, also due to his Euro performance. (But I really thought Jeremy Toulalan from Lyon should have been on the list.)

Attacking Midfield
Frank Lampard (Chelsea, England); Michael Ballack (Chelsea, Germany); Andrei Arshavin, (Zenit, Russia); Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal, Spain); Luca Modric (Tottenham, Croatia)

I struggled between Arshavin and Fabregas, but in the end went with Arshavin because I thought he performed better in Euros, and Zenit won the UEFA Cup. And because I needed a token Russian.

Left Midfield
Wesley Sneijder (Real Madrid, Netherlands); Arjen Robben (Real Madrid, Netherlands); Andres Iniesta (Barcelona, Spain); David Silva (Valencia, Spain); Franck Ribery (Bayern Munich, France)

Another place where heart and head are one. 100% Ribery!

Forward (pick two)
Alessandro Del Piero (Juventus, Italy); Fernando Torres (Liverpool, Spain); Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Inter, Sweden); Wayne Rooney (Manchester United, England); David Villa (Valencia, Spain); Karim Benzema (Lyon, France); Lionel Messi (Barcelona, Argentina); Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid, Argentina); Daniel Guiza (Fenerbahce, Spain); Emmanuel Adebayor (Arsenal, Togo)

Zlatan and Karim. Just because.

Coach
Temuri Ketsbaia (Anorthosis); Fatih Terim (Turkey); Dick Advocaat (FC Zenit); Luis Aragones (Spain through Euro 2008, now Fenerbahce); Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United)

Um…what? All individually merited, of course, but does this list seem to anybody else to be stacked with lesser-known coaches (and at least one known racist) to ensure that the award goes to Sir Alex? Or is it just me?

I voted for Terim, because Turkey were fun to watch in Euros. And because of this photo — which for some reason amuses me no end. (Chris says, “He’s probably on the phone ordering a hit.”)

And now it’s your turn. Who did you vote for and why? And who wasn’t on UEFA’s list that you think should have been?

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