David Beckham’s World Cup XI

July 9th, 2010 | by: Daryl |

england beckham

We saw David Beckham looking very coach-like on the England bench at World Cup 2010. There was even a (made up) rumour that Beckham would be replacing Fabio Capello as England manager after the team’s World Cup exit. That rumour seemed to mysteriously disappear the second Argentina exited the tournament and proved that inexperienced coaches are probably not the way to go.

However… what better and more basic way to judge David Beckham’s coaching talents than by looking at the World Cup Best XI he chose for Yahoo!?

Assuming Beckham really did make this selection himself (my uneducated guess is he didn’t write the explanations in the article but did select the XI), he’s gone for Uruguay’s Fernando Muslera in goal, with a back four of Sergio Ramos, Ashley Cole, Carles Puyol and John Mensah. His midfield contains Bastian Schweinsteiger, Wesley Sneijder and Xavi, and his attacking line up is Thomas Mueller, Digeo Forlan and David Villa. On the bench he’s got Michael Bradley, Maicon and Leo Messi. Which would be an interesting conversation to watch take place on the sidelines if nothing else.

I’m not 100% sure how Beckham’s team would line up, but here’s my best guess:

Muslera
Ramos – Puyol – Mensah – Cole
Schweinsteiger
Xavi – Sneijder
Mueller – Villa – Forlan

I know, Forlan doesn’t really play on the left. Beckham’s team is actually a little like a Rubik’s Cube of footballers. Everytime you think you have a formation, someone is out of position. Which actually sounds a lot like the England team for the past 10 years, so maybe Becks really is the perfect man for that job.

International Football News – World Cup Blog RSS Feed

netsez

The secret of the octopus has been discovered! I read this in a comment on a Guardian blog

“Apparently, according to a Cambridge professor I heard on Radio 4 earlier, Paul always goes for the box closest to his house in the tank. This would seem a more reasonable explanation: the octopus is actually very lazy, while the person putting the flags onto the boxes into the tank is the real psychic.”

Can anyone confirm this? I'm too lazy to check all Phil's videos.
http://www.myspace.com/34083446 finethen

Shame Beckham is afflicted with that unsightly mud green skin rash all over his arms. Someone should do a fundraiser to find a cure.
LaurieInSeattle

“Everytime you think you have a formation, someone is out of position. Which actually sounds a lot like the England team for the past 10 years…”

This made me laugh.
http://www.facebook.com/m.elizaldejr Marcos Elizalde

They place the flags according to the way FIFA designates it. A few of days before a match, FIFA decides which team will be on the right and left side of the pitch during the national anthems. Paul the Octupus' flags are set up the same way! I read it in an article way back during the group stage but i dont remember where.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Gerardo-Cardenas/100000454023733 Gerardo Cardenas

Maybe. I took a quick peek on youtube and found only one instance where he chose the box on the left as opposed to the one on the right. Sometimes he comes in from above, one time he went from left to right to choose the box on the right and 2 other times he has gone from the far right to choose the box on the right, closest to him. Couldn't find videos of the group stages predictions, only ger v eng, ger v arg, ger v spa, ger v uru and spa v ned
TheoT

When you said 'the way FIFA designates it' I thought for a minute that FIFA had an official octopus refereeing team. Which would be a ridiculous idea if FIFA weren't FIFA.
daisy

There's actually a draw to determine which one's the home and away team. The Flag/Country on the left is the home team and the one on the right is the away team. I'm not sure what the purpose is for the World Cup competition other than what kit the teams need to wear on the pitch during the match.
netsez

AWESOME!
This Octopus is better than they think! If he goes 7-0 tomorrow he becomes a legend! lol
Bense235

He was already sitting on many boxes twice or thrice without picking the food and swinging himself from the one to the other. So, there ya go, it's not to be explained that easily.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/ANWH5AJ3NEH6YIH3H3T27CKDKU Bill

Villa plays from the left for spain