Rahul Rao
There were undoubtedly some fantastic performances in Euro 2008, but as in anything some excelled more than others. The disappointments will be forgotten but the players of the tournament have carved their names into history, and there bank balance will see the benefit!
Here is my team of the tournament,
GK: Casillas
RB: Boswinga
CB: Puyol
CB: Chiellini
LB: Zhirkov
DM: Senna
RM: Schweinsteiger
CM: Xavi
LM: Sneijder
AM: Arshavin
FC: Villa
Iker Casillas: The Spanish #1 has been recognised as a world class keeper throughout much of his relatively short career, but only in the past two years has he really been considered the best (with, after, or before) Gianilugi Buffon. The 27 year-old not only saved two penalties against Italy, but the way he organised his supposedly "fragile" defence was inspiring and captain-like. A contender for FIFA Player of the Year in my opinion, it takes a big man to captain a championship winning team and he did that this tournament.
Jose Boswinga: While there were no outstanding right-back performances in Euro 2008, the scrawny new Chelsea recruit Boswinga showed exactly why Abramovich snapped him up. Indeed he did look a bit fragile and fell to the ground quite easily, but his surges up the right flank coupled with dangerous crosses which fizzed across the face of goal were impressive to say the least. With Deco and Pepe, Boswinga was one of the only Portugal players who bothered to show up to the tournament.
Carles Puyol: Clumsy, no skill, and slow: these are the words pundits described Puyol with prior to the tournament. And throughout the course of the Euros, Puyol was error-prone. However these were all minor errors, and he rose above them to be the commanding figure of Spain’s backline and constantly covered for his teammates. In terms of defenders, he possibly is the best when it comes to leaping in the hair, I mean air, and heading the ball away. A mammoth performance against Germany in the final capped off a great tournament from Barca’s skipper.
Giorgio Chiellini: In an immensely under-par Italy side, Chiellini was one of the only players to show up. It’s amazing to think that Juventus were desperate to sell him last summer, and he made sure that captain Fabio Cannavaro wasn’t missed too much in terms of the Azzurri’s central defence. When he was on the pitch, Italy only conceded one goal.
Yuri Zhirkov: One of Russia’s new stars, Zhirkov impressed all of Europe with his forward runs, skills, support of the forwards, and tenacity in the position of left back. The CSKA Moscow man is known as the "Russian Ronaldinho", despite his position, and many clubs will be sniffing around Moscow for one of the best players of Euro 2008.
Marcos Senna: Simply world class. He played the Makelele-role as good if not better than the Frenchman himself. His man-marking of Michael Ballack and Andrei Arshavin in Spain’s last two games was brilliant, and his distribution to creative players like Xavi, Iniesta, and Silva was stunning. He brought discipline to Spain’s midfield, and has most likely taken away any chance David Albelda had of becoming Spain’s starting defensive midfielder again. For me, the player of the tournament. Fans should be looking forward to seeing him in the Champions League again next season with Villareal, the team he captained to 2nd place in La Liga.
Bastian Schweinsteiger: With Lahm, was one of Germany’s more creative protagonists. His close dribbling, a rare trait in Germans (not to be stereotypical), and surges up the flank were classy and he grabbed two goals and two assists during the tournament. It’s amazing to think that such an influential player can be seen rotting on the bench at Bayern Munich.
Xavi: Although many people see UEFA’s voting him as player of the tournament controversial, I fail to see the problem. Not only did nearly everything positive Spain had to offer come from the Catalan maestro, but he linked the whole team together, from Capdevila’s passes from the left back position, to Fernando Torres galloping towards the opposition’s goal. While I still don’t think that he had a better tournament than Senna, Xavi cemented his place as one of the world’s premier playmakers.
Wesley Sneijder: Even though Sneijder’s preferred position of central midfield is taken up by Xavi, there was no way I could leave the Real Madrid man out. The Dutchman was the tournament’s top performer during the group stage, he not only scored two stunning goals (both goal of the tournament contenders) but his industrious character was prominently displayed in his running back to help out the defence, his distribution to the wings, and his powerful shots at goal. Everything the brilliant Dutch did went through this man. If you didn’t know his name before June, now you do.
David Villa: Unless your name is Oleg Salenko, it is very hard to leave a tournament’s topscorer out of its "all star team". David Villa, who came off a poor season with Valencia (just so you know he still scored 18 league goals), light the Euros ‘en fuego’ to say the least. His classy tally of 4 goals aside, the Valencia man stole the show from the hyped-up Fernando Torres with his speedy runs, great skills, and amazing link-up play. What’s scary though is that Villa missed one and a half games (sadly "the one" was the final), yet he still did not show his full ability. Throughout the tournament he has been linked to big spending clubs like Chelsea, Real Madrid, Liverpool, and Barcelona, yet he showed what a class act he is off the pitch by declaring after the tournament that he wanted to see out his contract with Valencia instead of going for the money.
Andrei Arshavin: Despite being one of the top performers in the UEFA Cup this past season and being credited for dismantling a stingy Rangers side in the final, much of Europe did not know his name… now they do. Even though the Zenit St. Petersburg star was suspended for the first two games of the tournament, his inspirational performance against Sweden led Russia out of the group stages, and then he put on a masterclass against a powerful Netherlands side. Big names such as Arsene Wenger (hmm), Zinedine Zidane, and his coach Guus Hiddink began to laud the Russian schemer as one of the best in Europe, which is probably true. Even though he went AWOL against the Spanish due to some fine man-marking by Marcos Senna, Arshavin, the new symbol of the resurgence of Russian football, was one of the top players of the Euros, despite the hype.
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