Imagine that you're the manager of a football (soccer) team with an unlimited budget.
What starting 11+ bench would you select?
There are no loyalties to worry about, no issues of chemistry with which to concern yourself. Just pure, unadulterated magic. Start off with your formation and label each player with an appropriate position. I suppose that they can be any current or past player and the assumption would be that they would play for your team at the height of their career.
Here's my team.
Formation: 4-1-2-1-2 (Wide)
Starting 11
GK- Hugo Lloris (Tottenham)
RB- Daniel Carvajal (Bayer Leverkusen-->Real Madrid)
CB- Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal)
CB- Giorgio Chiellini (Juventus)
LB- Leighton Baines (Everton)
CDM- Marouane Fellaini (Everton)
LM- Neymar (Santos-->Barcelona)
RM- Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich)
CAM- Adryan (Flamengo)
LS- Thierry Henry (New York Red Bulls)
RS- Lionel Messi (Barcelona)
Bench
Santi Cazorla (Arsenal)
Robin van Persie (Manchester United)
Gareth Bale (Tottenham)
Lee Wallace (Rangers)
Axel Witsel (Zenit)
Mario Gotze (Borussia Dortmund-->Bayern Munich)
What's your team? What do you think of mine? Leave me a comment or tweet me. @TheAutoGent
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Monday, June 24, 2013
Fanatic or Aficionado?
Living in New York, you would think that I would be a fanatic supporter of the Yankees, the Jets, the Mets, the Giants, the Knicks and the Rangers.
I'm not.
I played American football for a bit in highschool and college. It was an experience...definitely an interesting experience. There's nothing quite like working out with guys who can squat almost four times your body weight, playing on the defensive line against those same guys and not even being technically gifted. My time playing American football was a mistake of fantastic proportion, but I was humbled more than I think I could ever express in words.
That experience, though, gave me a greater appreciation for the game of American football. Yes, it's about really big guys smacking other really big guys around and asserting their manliness all over a field. But, there's a lot more than that going on. There's a high level of strategy involved and it can be a truthfully beautiful game.
I don't ardently follow any team, though.
I like soccer. I've never played it, but I love watching it and I love how strategic it is--way more so than American football. I don't want to get into an argument here, but I believe soccer players are better athletes than American football players. Their endurance is ridiculous, their understanding of the game is always outstanding and they need to be more well-rounded athletes than American football players. All of this is without even mentioning the rivalries and the bad blood that can go back hundreds of years. I get the tingles just thinking about it.
But I don't have a soccer team that I'm to the moon about.
And I'll tell you why. When you become a gigantic supporter of any team, you lose a part of your average. You lose a significant portion of what keeps you logical and objective. You can stand toe to toe with someone and disagree that a truly great player isn't great simply because he scored a touchdown against your team. People who are professional athletes are pursuing the perfection of an art. The truly great players--the Lionel Messis, the Joe Montanas and the Babe Ruths--have perfected the art of their game.
My dad and I used to watch the New York Football Giants every Sunday together. We would watch other teams too (we both just liked watching American football together), but we loved how the Giants played the game. Even their worst games were great to watch. And, this past year, I was blessed enough to be able to actually go to MetLife stadium to see a game with him.
I can't tell you how many times in my life I've heard him say, "God, what an amazing play," when the other team scored against the Giants. His objectivity in sports is absolutely beautiful and something that I think every aficionado of the athletic art has at the core of his or her joy of their sport.
In that way, my father is someone joined intrinsically to anyone who has ever intentionally missed a penalty kick because the ref's call was bogus, or refused to play because of racist chants, or refused to dive to make a legitimate challenge look like a malicious one. It's not athletic prowess that connects them--my father is not an athlete--it is their love of the beautiful game (whichever game that might be) that brings them together in a passionate swell of devotion.
The athletes, they have perfected the art of the game. My father and I have perfected the art of appreciating the game without bias. Some of us who are overly devoted to a particular team can miss that.
I know that some of you out there are aficionados of the athletic art as a whole. I can't wait to share a pint with you over the sport of your choosing.
I'm not.
I played American football for a bit in highschool and college. It was an experience...definitely an interesting experience. There's nothing quite like working out with guys who can squat almost four times your body weight, playing on the defensive line against those same guys and not even being technically gifted. My time playing American football was a mistake of fantastic proportion, but I was humbled more than I think I could ever express in words.
That experience, though, gave me a greater appreciation for the game of American football. Yes, it's about really big guys smacking other really big guys around and asserting their manliness all over a field. But, there's a lot more than that going on. There's a high level of strategy involved and it can be a truthfully beautiful game.
I don't ardently follow any team, though.
I like soccer. I've never played it, but I love watching it and I love how strategic it is--way more so than American football. I don't want to get into an argument here, but I believe soccer players are better athletes than American football players. Their endurance is ridiculous, their understanding of the game is always outstanding and they need to be more well-rounded athletes than American football players. All of this is without even mentioning the rivalries and the bad blood that can go back hundreds of years. I get the tingles just thinking about it.
But I don't have a soccer team that I'm to the moon about.
And I'll tell you why. When you become a gigantic supporter of any team, you lose a part of your average. You lose a significant portion of what keeps you logical and objective. You can stand toe to toe with someone and disagree that a truly great player isn't great simply because he scored a touchdown against your team. People who are professional athletes are pursuing the perfection of an art. The truly great players--the Lionel Messis, the Joe Montanas and the Babe Ruths--have perfected the art of their game.
My dad and I used to watch the New York Football Giants every Sunday together. We would watch other teams too (we both just liked watching American football together), but we loved how the Giants played the game. Even their worst games were great to watch. And, this past year, I was blessed enough to be able to actually go to MetLife stadium to see a game with him.
I can't tell you how many times in my life I've heard him say, "God, what an amazing play," when the other team scored against the Giants. His objectivity in sports is absolutely beautiful and something that I think every aficionado of the athletic art has at the core of his or her joy of their sport.
In that way, my father is someone joined intrinsically to anyone who has ever intentionally missed a penalty kick because the ref's call was bogus, or refused to play because of racist chants, or refused to dive to make a legitimate challenge look like a malicious one. It's not athletic prowess that connects them--my father is not an athlete--it is their love of the beautiful game (whichever game that might be) that brings them together in a passionate swell of devotion.
The athletes, they have perfected the art of the game. My father and I have perfected the art of appreciating the game without bias. Some of us who are overly devoted to a particular team can miss that.
I know that some of you out there are aficionados of the athletic art as a whole. I can't wait to share a pint with you over the sport of your choosing.
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