The Barcelona and Real Madrid stars have both made the cut for last year's world XI, alongside a host of team-mates and Atletico Madrid's Radamel Falcao
Shocked... why? Did you see Cech & Cole's form in the League? Playing anti-football to win doesn't cut it either. Didier isn't near Messi, Ronaldo, Falcao or even Van Persie.
Casillas won League & Euro Championship. 30 Clean Sheets!
Casillas Vs. Cech;
Casillas; Real Madrid: Games 51 (37), Goals Conceded 44 (31), Saves 122 (84), Clean Sheets 20 (14). All competitions (league only).
Cech; Chelsea: Games 34, Goals Conceded 39, Saves 84, Clean Sheets 10. League only.
So league wise, Casillas played 3 more games, conceded 8 less goals, saved the same number of shots and got 4 more clean sheets... Yep Cech totally deserved it. :/
Casillas Total: Games 68, Clean Sheets 30. Won La Liga & Euro Championships. Cech Total: Games 61, Clean Sheets 23. Won The FA Cup & Champions League.
Champions League is the biggest trophy but Real beat Barca by 9 pts in La Liga and Casillas only conceded 1 goal in Euro 2012. Cech conceded 6 in Euro 2012.
Casillas conceded 9 in the Champions League. Cech conceded 11 (minus 1 because of final - 1 extra game and still more than Casillas)
So yeah, Casillas is GK for XI.
Dani Alves didn't deserve RB Ramos won League & Euro Championship. Pique won Copa & Euro Championship. Marcelo had away better season than Cole, Chelsea lucked out everything and that's why they have nothing this year.
Don't be bitter that La Liga has the best players in the world! Van Persie is a 4th forward at best out of Messi, Ronaldo and Falcao. What did Van Persie win last year? Falcao won the Europa League and smashed Chelsea to bits in the Super Cup.
Uhhhhh I noticed this just now and though....my arse to half of those players. Xabi Alonso is great, better than Yaya Toure now? Toure scores goals from a deep midfield position similar to Alonso's, powered his country in the African cup of Nations as well....No thought for Ribery who had like 25 assists and 10 goals in the year? Bayern only got to the Champions League final beating Madrid along the way. Juan Mata has also had a brilliant year.
Falcao has been quality, but Van Persie has been at least as good (he actually has 1 goal and a bunch load more assists than Falcao if you add up last season and this season so far!)
No interest in Lahm who had a great season with club and was great in the Euros? Chiellini who had similar club and international success? No interest in Ashley Cole, or Ivanovic who was a rock in the Champions League for Chelsea and instrumental in that defensive masterclass against Barcelona....
I mean look at Chiellini, who had an UNBEATEN season with Juventus and had been epic. He helped an unfancied Italy to the final of the euros. Marcelo gets in there instead at left back presumably??? Rubbish has Marcelo been anything like as good.
Ditto Pirlo having an incredibly strong case to displace Xabi Alonso. Granted Alonso won the Euros with Spain but he was hardly instrumental and the same goes for his reasonable but not outstanding year with Madrid.
Xabi Alonso played a critical role in Madrid beating Barca by 9 pts, no other team could of done that ever but Madrid did! Barca have smashed everyone and Mourinho's side last year probably won the hardest league opposition in world history!
As I said above, what did Van Persie win last year?.. nothing. Falcao won the Europa League and smashed Chelsea to bits in the Super Cup.
Chiellini is a good shout for Pique position I guess but Marcelo had a fantastic year!
Pirlo... meh, Xabi won two major trophies last year. Played his part in both and Pirlo didn't do anything in the Euro final!
Of course other teams could have beaten Barcelona. Chelsea beat Barcelona. Alonso wasn't massively instrumental because you could have replaced him with any of the other available midfielders for Spain like Fabregas or Mata and Spain would have still won.
As for your misguided idea that to get into the team of the year you have to win something major and that is the only real consideration.... That's stooooopid. Barcelona and Argentina didn't win anything major and yet Messi won the player of the year and other of their players in the team deserve it like Iniesta.
Van persie deserved it whatever he did or didn't win and the same goes for Pirlo or Chiellini and the others. It is about who impressed the most individually, often as part of a great team but not as you think just played an average part in a side and won something....
I don't know what England players deserve to be on the list ahead of players from other nations in their positions. The biggest shock for me is that no Italians are on it. Seven of Italys starting eleven in the Euros play for Juventus who went 49 games unbeaten last year. Buffon, Chiellini and in particular Pirlo. He was player of the Euros for me and made the impact at Juventus to win Serie A unbeaten. That list is nuts.
I'd take an all star team from Dortmund and Bayern over Barca and Madrid. Madrid is horrible, they were dogged last season by Bayern and this season by Dortmund.
Don't know why though, Barca has Iniesta and Xavi, Dortmund and Bayern don't, simple as that. Real Madrid has the best goalkeeper, and Xabi Alonso is class. Bayern and Dortmund are good, but how many of their players are on the top 20 in the world? But yeah, Bayern and Dortmund have outclassed Madrid, and then Bayern was beaten by Chelsea, lol.
Exactly, yet the only player that I would put from Chelsea's team into an Xi would be Cech, but Casillas is the best in the world...I'm making the point that you can't say a team is horrible just because they lose to an inferior team.
I would argue that it's more exciting because the top teams are weaker in the PL, so even a game against a mid level team is exciting, sometimes even against relegation teams. Current PL champsions and reigning European champions from the PL both got knocked out in the group stages of the CL, Man City rather convincingly. Utd are the only top notch team in England in my opinion.
FIFA Ballon d'Or top ten nominees in the last 3 years, 5 players from the English Premier League (only 1 English) and 20 players from La Liga (11 Spanish). :D
Only 2 English Premier League players in the last 3 FIFA/FIFPro World XI... La Liga featuring 27 out of 33.
No Cech, Cole or Didier? Also no player from Bayern..How biased
All the winners play in la liga :
Real Madrid : Iker Casillas , Sergio Ramos , Marcelo , Xabi Alonso and Cristiano Ronaldo .
Barcelona : Dani Alves , Gerard Pique , Xavi Hernandez , Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi .
Atletico Madrid : Radamel Falcao
i think marcelo deserve to be chosen but pique and dani alves i don't know a lot :s
This was hilariously stupid. No Juventus, Dortmund, Napoli, Bayern or England players.
The only thing I don't understand is their defense, apart from casillas. Offense is spot on, best midfield and best offense, period.