By Mike Woitalla
@MikeWoitalla
They went undefeated except against each other, so it’s natural thatplayers from champion Chile and runner-up Argentina dominate our Copa Centenario Best XI. Argentina outscored its foes, 18-2, and Chile bettered its opponents 16-5 until they stalemated in the finalto force a penalty-kick shootout. The choices for Copa Centenario Best XI, as selected by the editors of Soccer America, place an emphasis on the influence these players had on the success of theirteams.
Goalkeeper
Claudio Bravo (Chile)
The 33-year-old Barcelona keeper more than made up for a rough start in group play,which included the 2-1 opening loss to Argentina, by posting only shutouts in Chile’s three knockout wins. In the final, Chile’s captain made perhaps the save of the tournament onSergio Aguero’s overtime header and saved Lucas Biglia spot kick in the shootout.
Argentina’s Sergio Romero had a flawless tournament and his fine foot-skills played a role in Argentina’s possession play.But Bravo’s final heroics gave him the edge.
Defenders
Mauricio Isla (Chile)
Nicolas Otamendi(Argentina)
Gary Medel (Chile)
Jean Beausejour (Chile)
Outside backs Isla and Beausejour were key to Chile’s lightening quickcounterattacks and high-pressing game, while Medel marshaled its central defense. Otamendi led the Argentine defense that gave up only two goals in seven games. Otamendi also opened the scoring inArgentina’s rout of Panama.
Honorable mention: The Colombian central defense tandem of Cristian Zapata and Jeison Murillo, who kept Paraguay at bayduring its furious comeback attempt in Los Cafeteros’ 2-1 group win, got it through the quarterfinal win over Peru when Colombia’s offense stuttered.
The 23-year-old JohnBrooks played superbly in the U.S. central defense until the semifinal rout at the hands of Argentina and he sat out the USA’s 1-0 loss to Colombia in the third-place game.
Javier Mascherano (Argentina)
Arturo Vidal (Chile)
Perhaps the world’s bestall-around midfielder, the hard-tackling Vidal scored both goals in Chile’s 2-1 win over Bolivia. He helped enable Chile’s historic 7-0 rout of Mexico by rendering El Tri’s midfieldineffective and assisted on two of the goals. He managed, after an 18th-minute yellow card in the opener against Argentina, to avoid another caution until the Mexico game and sat out thesemifinal.
But in the final, Vidal was again at his best, constantly disrupting Argentina’s buildups and his burst forward prompted the 43rd minute red-card foul by MarcosRojo that ruined Argentina’s man-advantage after Marcelo Diaz’s 28th minute ejection.
Mascherano defended like a tiger in midfielder and dropped into theArgentine backline to frequently to aid the backline and orchestrate buildups once the ball was won.
Front Four
Eduardo Vargas(Chile)
Alexis Sanchez (Chile)
Clint Dempsey (USA)
Lionel Messi (Argentina)
Coming into the tournament with aback injury, Messi played only 75 minutes in group play but managed a hat trick and an assist in the 5-0 win over Panama. In his first start, he scored and assisted in the 4-1 win over Venezuela. Inthe 4-0 semifinal win over the USA, he assisted twice and scored with a brilliant free kick. The tournament ended in major disappointment for the world’s greatest player, who missed his shootoutspot kick, but he had produced five goals and four assists.
Sanchez hit two golazos in the crucial win over 4-2 win over Panama and scored against Mexico. He got credited for one assist butplayed a part in many other Chilean goals.
Vargas won the tournament GoldenBoot with six goals, four against Mexico and two vs. Panama. The 26-year-old with a modest club career — he scored two goals for Hoffenheim in the last Bundesliga season — goes world-class when heputs on his nation’s jersey. He also assisted on Sanchez’s amazing goal against Panama with a pin-point chip after juking two defenders.
The USA scored seven goals en route to afourth-place finish. Dempsey scored three of them and assisted on three others.
Including Clint Dempsey in the front 4 is quite laughable. He’s nowhere near the level of the players around him. Don’t take me wrong I like Dempsey we just have to be really honest with ourselves which we hardly ever do.
Is there a single US player you would have started in the final ahead of those who did for Argentina or Chile?
The Deuce is good, but not in the cited company.
This is not a list of who is the best players over a career or overall skill level. This is a list of who was best in *this* tournament. Dempsey had 3 goals and 3 assists. That easily ranks him among the best performers in *this* tournament.
Pay attention, guys!!! Reread the criteria!!! :”The choices for Copa Centenario Best XI, as selected by the editors of Soccer America, place an emphasis on the influence these players had on the success of their teams.” We finished 4TH in the tournament and Clint Dempsy’s play was a critical part of it. I’m not trying to be offensive, but, geez, Louise, your reading comprehension skills leave a lot to be desired.
Harsh, but not inaccurate!
Keep touting the US! We started making strides when Arena was in office. This is back when Americans were in charge. All the changes after that has set us back. Nothing has changed!! We are the same as back in the day. If you are saying members of the best 11 come from the top teams then by default choose a Columbian over a US player. By the way, Klinsmann is on the long list of managers to replace Hodgson in England, I will pay for the stamp and place it on his forehead.
Ginger!!! Can you imagine what I’ve gone through in 40 years of reading college-level essays and then have several beers to read them, now have to suffer like you in reading the comments? Oy!!!
Lordy be, for you to say we were or “started making strides when Arena was “in office”!!!(sic)” Really?!?!? And it is spelled C-O-L-O-M-B-I-A-N !!! OY!
I will say this about Dempsey every team needs a player like him. Why, no matter where you put him. Even if he was a back without the ball he would be up when the ball is up. How many times in games do you see no team mate up in the middle when the ball is up on flank for example.