Johannesburg: Six players from Spains' World Cup winning team made it to the All star team that was announced by the online voting from FIFA.com Club members who decided their ideal starting XI in a 4-4-2 formation. Spanish coach Vicente del Bosque was a hands down winner, the other players included two representatives of Germany, and one each from Brazil, Uruguay and the Netherlands.
No prizes for guessing the goal keeper. Iker Casillas who came to Spain's rescue on numerous occasions, most notably when he saved a penalty against Paraguay during the Quarter Finals. He followed it up by charging out of the goal mouth and thwarted Robben's attempt who seemed destined to score for the Dutch.
The defenders include Maicon who will be remembered for scoring an absolute stunner against North Korea when he defied logic and scored from an almost impossible angle bringing back memories of the Marco Van Basten goal during the 1988 Euro Cup finals.
Carles Puyol whose header sent the whole of Spain into euphoria as they reached the finals of the football World Cup for the very first time truly came to the party at the right time.
Philipp Lahm unfortunately came into the limelight because of the wrong reasons. He spoke to soon about his captaincy ambitions which did not go down too well with Michael Ballack. Had Germany won the cup it might have been a different story.
Sergio Ramos who impressed one and all during Spain’s World Cup glory completes the list of defenders.
Wesley Sneijder with five goals to his name, Xavi, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Andres Iniesta who thought he was off side when he scored the World Cup winner completes the line up for the midfielders.
The two forwards include the two revelations of the 2010 World Cup, Diego Forlan who won the Golden Ball award and David Villa. Forlan's free kicks and long range goals kept Uruguay in the hunt and it was because of him that the rank outsiders from South America dared to dream the impossible. On the other hand Villa came to the fore at a time when bigger names like Fernando Torres were struggling to find form.
The fans' choice included three right fullbacks (Maicon, Sergio Ramos, Philipp Lahm), as well as two central attacking midfielders (Wesley Sneijder, Xavi). Golden boot winner Thomas Mueller failed to make the starting lineup.
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