COMPILATION XIs

Eurosport has just released their all time best World Cup XI. Like all of these exercises in nostalgia, it is always in danger of being predisposed towards older players, a nostalgia akin to the numerous Rolling Stone and NME mags that released their 'all time best albums', with the inevitable Rubber Soul, Pet Sounds or The White Album chosen as no 1 even as late as 2002 until the true value of such greats as OK Computer et al were truly appreciated and we felt OK with ourselves about letting the older greats sink with some semblance of grace.

Not so for Eurosport though, with their line looking like this:

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4-3-1-2

Lev Yashin

Cafu Franz Beckenbauer Bobby Moore Roberto Carlos

Garrincha Bobby Charlton Johan Cruyff

Zinedine Zidane

Pele Ronaldo

'Wildcard' : Roger Milla

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Only the coach of such a line up could imagine the defensive duties that both full backs would be faced with knowing Garrincha and Cruyff's disdain for tracking back. Mind you, if you're 5 up at half time with this lot I'd imagine the wind going out of any team's sails to prevent any attacking momentum.

In Genx terms, our first real accessible world cup was Mexico 1986. So if we look at an XI based on the 1986-2006 period and the 6 tournaments, this would have more relevance to us.

Your comments please on who would make such a unit and who would coach such a talented team.

Ciao,

GP