Is it too early to do a team of the tournament yet? Oh well, here's mine...

----------------Buffon---------------

Bosingwa---Simunic--Chiellini--Zhirkov

------------Senna----Modric-----------

---Schneider---Arshavin----Podolski---

----------------Villa-----------------


Manager: Fatih Terim

Subs: Casillas, Lahm, Frings, Iniesta, Deco, Ballack, Van Nistelrooy

Not bad, but I'd question Bosingwa's place (as a defender, he did well going forward), and two important passes yesterday notwithstanding, I think Iniesta has been terrible at this tournament, not sure why he'd be on the bench

I don't think there has really been any outstanding defenders to be honest so went for the attacking full-backs instead. You're probably right re Iniesta, did have last night's passes in mind (plus the pass from the first game to Villa) when choosing him.

Schneider?

Fabregas?

Ah sorry, just seen "Team" in your profile, Paxton. Ignore that last post.

Ok, here's mine. The weight of impressive left backs means that I'm playing Lahm on the right, which isn't really in the spirit of the exercise, but there we are. Despite not being overly impressed with any defences in the tournament, there was also a surfeit of keepers, to the extent that I was considering having two on the bench, but bottled it.

Gk: Casillas

RB: Lahm
LB: Zhirkov.
CB: Simunic.
CB: Gokhan Zan.

DM: Senna
CM: Deco
AML: Schweinsteiger
AMR: Sneider

SS: Arshavin
CF: Villa

Subs:

Buffon
Grosso
Servat
Aurelio
Modric
Van Nistelrooy

Manager: Hiddink

Mighty Mudhsuden wrote:

QUOTE:
Ah sorry, just seen "Team" in your profile, Paxton. Ignore that last post.

Lol, exactly! Consider it ignored.

GK Buffon

RB (I honestly can't think of one who's had a great tournament)
CB Servat
CB Chiellini
LB Rat

DM Senna
CM Deco
RM Schweinsteiger
LM Podolski
(though that midfield may be a bit attacking)

ITH Arshavin
CF Villa

Subs
Casillas
Grosso
Goian
Aurelio
Nihat

I have been holding back on this as I thought etiquette demanded we do them post-final.

Russia failing to turn up last night has caused me to re-think Arshavin & Zhirkov's places though the latter was probably one of their better performances.

I'll have to think about this but for me, Van Der Sar has been the keeper of the tournament.

Who was Turkey's right back against Germany, he was excellent.

Sabri, but he got skinned for the first German goal

Casillas

Sergio Ramos
Servet
Chiellini
Pranjic

Nico Kovac
Senna

Schweinsteiger
Deco
Zhirkov

Pavlyuchenko

Subs:
Buffon
Corluka
Sionko
Mehmet Aurelio
Modric
Sneijder
David Villa

Coach: Fatih Terim

I was taken with Sabri myself, but his defending was beyond the pale too often.

GK Boruc (Poland)

RB Garics (Austria) - best of a bad lot
CB Chiellini (Italy)
CB Servet (Turkey)
LB Zhirkov (Russia)

RM Schweinsteiger (Germany)
CM Mehmet Aurelio (Turkey)
CM Deco (Portugal)
LM Podolski (Germany)

F Villa (Spain)
F Nihat (Turkey)

Subs: Casillas (Spain), Marchena (Spain), Simunic (Croatia), Modric (Croatia), Senna (Spain), Arshavin (Russia), Pavlyuchenko (Russia)

Manager: Fatih Terim (Turkey)

Like Holland, Portugal, Croatia, and Italy (in a different more prosaic way), you've all gone too early, surely?

I wait for Sunday night/Monday morning, though I haven't been paying as much attention as some of you given the breadth of countries providing players for your teams.

Though I see they are largely drawn from 4 teams basically on second sight.