My World Cup XI

So, the world cup is here, England aren't playing to their full potential (What a surprise) and I seem to have been pretty accurate with my predictions (except the Brazil one, feel I may be way off with that one). All in all a good couple of weeks. Now I was watching the Japan vs. Cameroon match and noticed the presence of two players called Honda and Matsui, both hardware companies (one Japanese, the other Pseudo-Japanese) and I joked (to myself) about their being a Nintendo and Capcom on the bench. At work a few days ago I was reliving this experience and laughing about how awesome I am to have made those jokes and I elaborated on it - “Oh and Honda scores after a fantastic cross from Matsui, and there's an action shot of the bench showing the reactions of Nintendo, Capcom and Pikachu!” - “Pikachu” I thought, where did that come from, then it hit me...I needed to make a Video-Game Character Football Team!! Why didn't I think of this before, it seems so obvious doesn't it...and so I began...

Now traditionally in Football games (Football Manager, PES and FIFA) I play in a rather attacking 3-5-2 formation or a more conservative liberal Labour generic 4-4-2D formation (more recently it has been the latter, due to the lack of PES play and 3-5-2's defensive record). I decided this time to go with the 4-4-2D.

My 4-4-2D formation uses wingers rather than the FM suggested method of playing a narrow midfield and allowing the full-backs (/wing-backs) to play more aggressively. I also use a tall and strong CF with a pacey and intelligent Striker. This is how I line up on FM2010 :-
So I decided that my players had to have all of the attributes required to play in the position I put them, i.e. height and concentration for a CB, composure and control for a Striker.
This is my team :-

Goalkeeper – Kirby (Kirby's Dream Land; Nintendo)
I wanted to put Kirby in my team somewhere and initially had him as a centre-back due to his ability to fly up high (good for countering crosses) and his resilience, then I remembered his most powerful attribute. Kirby sucks...and not in a bad way, Kirby has the ability to suck in objects coming in his general direction and then redistribute them quickly and effectively, exactly what you want from a Goalkeeper. He also has the ability to suck in air to make himself larger, this is a plus when defending penalties and free kicks as he can take up a larger portion of the goal than he would normally be able to do in his smaller form.

Right Back – Sora (Kingdom Hearts; Square-Enix & Disney)

A right-back has to be both attacking and defensive (at least in my team they do) and able to both support the winger ahead of him, then get back to his position when the winger fails to make the cross work. This requires stamina, something which Sora has in abundance. How else does he persevere with tracking down his friends through hundreds of giant, scary, Disney inspired worlds whilst maintaining his pure heart? Sora's stamina combined with his attack/defence capabilities (Only if you choose to discard magic at the beginning, and let's be honest, who does that?) make him a great Right-Back.

Left Back – Samus Aran (Metroid; Nintendo)

Samus Aran is a bounty hunter raised on Chozo. One of the key things to note about Samus is her resilience to foreign entities, provided by being infused with Chozo DNA when she was young, and the amazing powers of her aptly named Power Suit. With the power suit she can change into a Morph Ball form, a tiny, high defence machine/ball thing, which prompted me to tout her as “The Ball, but then I realised that kicking around 90kg of Chozo hardware probably wasn't good for the feet. Samus, like Sora, has very high stamina (Expandable when necessary) and excellent defence, combined with an awesome attacking flair rarely seen on left-backs, she may be better than Ashley Cole.

Centre-back – Link (The Legend of Zelda; Nintendo)

Link, the Hero of Time (or one of his descendants), defender of Hyrule. This green suited elven lad is one of the greatest heroes ever known, appearing in one of the greatest games...ever known. While he may not be tall in his kid form, Adult Link is a beast, literally if thrust into twilight. He is epic defensively due to his sword and shield combination, yet he is not hot-headed and does what needs to be done without complaint. Has great concentration and anticipation he will be able to stop any strikers attempting to make a run in behind the defensive line. Also he has Navi who would generally assist the whole team as a 12th player, but shhhh don't tell no one!

Centre-back (c) – Master Chief (Halo; Bungie)

Possibly the least difficult decision of my life, who better to be a central defender on my team than the defender of earth? He possesses strength, composure and great height, key for a centre-back. He's also not afraid to lead the forward line and put pressure on the opposition. His height and attacking strengths mean he'll be a dangerous threat at corners. He also has fantastic leadership qualities, able to inspire greatness in anyone who meets him, this makes him the ideal person to be the Captain of the team as well.

Defensive Midfielder – Gordon Freeman (Half Life; Valve)

Dr Gordon Freeman a Theoretical Physicist/Xen annihilating, Combine crushing (in progress), Headcrab stomping meta-Hero. Gordon was a difficult one because he is certainly worthy of a place in any VG football team but, a bit like Stephen Gerrard, I had no Idea which position to put him in, I initially toyed with the idea of placing him alongside “The Chief” as the most awesome CB pairing ever! Then I put him in as an attacking midfielder, thinking that his ingenuity and attacking flair, plus his ability for squeezing through tight spaces, made him the perfect Trequartista. I was then hit by what G-Man says at the beginning of Half Life 2 - “The right man in the wrong place can make all of the difference...” - and I knew where to put him. DM is a position which many people have differing opinions about, some (like Arsene Wenger) like to play a DM as a purely defensive player, hovering in-front of the back four and cutting down attacks. Others (like Fabio Capello and Rafa Benitez) like their DM's to get forward a bit and play long accurate balls to wingers and strikers. I prefer to combine the two, thus Gordon Freeman, the earth's original saviour, back again to do it again...on the football pitch.

Right Winger – Sonic (Sonic the Hedgehog; Sega)

What do you want from a winger, what do all 4 of Capello's potential (initial 30 man squad) right wingers have in common? SPEED!! And who is the epitome of SPEEED!!! in the video-game catalogue? SONIC!! He has the ability to blast past defenders before they realise he's on the pitch, although, a bit like English wingers, he does lack that end product...but the SPEEEED!!!! more than makes up for it.

Just

Left Winger – Pitt (Kid Icarus; Nintendo)

As I think I mentioned in the previous position, one of the key attributes of a decent winger is speed, but that is only to get past the defenders and put in that killer ball that will lead to a goal. Pitt doesn't have as much speed as Sonic, by quite a margin, but that's because Sonic just has too much speed. Pitt is fast, yes, but he can also fly. This means that he will be able to literally glide past defenders using either his awesome ball control or just playing keepy-uppy while flying. Regardless Pitt also has the trait which Sonic lacks, accuracy. Wielding a bow and arrow in the Kid Icarus games proves that Pitt has fantastic hand-eye coordination, and the ability to put an arrow up a bad guys arse the ball accurately in the box from 3 miles away anywhere on the pitch might come in handy.

Attacking Midfielder – Lucario (Pokemon Diamond/Pearl; Game-Freak)

Oh come on, do you really think I would do a VG Football team without a Pokemon in it? Just be glad I didn't put Samus Aran as AM and Plusle & Minun as the LB/RB combo (I was thinking along the lines of Rafael and Fabio Da Silva). Lucario is one of those players who is excellent in an attacking sense, above competent in a defensive situation and has that special ability to make something out of nothing, also possessing above average speed Lucario is the Lionel Messi of this team. He will play in a similar role in this team that Messi does at Barcelona, he'll be given free roam of the pitch to do as he pleases.

Striker – Sam Fisher (Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell; Ubisoft)

I had trouble picking out a suitable person for this role (This is the pacey/intelligent striker) and my mind immediately went to the stealth genre, so of course Solid Snake (Metal Gear; Konami) and Garret (Thief; Eidos) were in contention. Snake was cast aside due to his stealth being to hide under a box, not going to work on a football pitch. Garret, meanwhile, was rejected because he was too slow and not attacking enough. Sam Fisher, then, was the man to go for, he has that ability to remain undetected for great lengths of time, and then punish someone if they give him too much space. Yes he may be a bit tall for the role he will play in, but he is intelligent and fast enough (we're talking Chaos Theory, peak fitness speed) to avoid the offside trap and score plenty of goals from the knock-downs of his partnering Centre Forward...

Centre Forward – Auron (Final Fantasy X; Squaresoft)

Again this position had quite a lot of competition for it, with Kratos (God of War; SCEA) being the front-runner and Jack (Madworld; Sega) placed just behind him, then I decided that both of them were too attack minded (that and I didn't want the opposition box to be blood drenched) for the position they would be playing in, this role is similar to the role Crouch plays at Spurs, leading the front line, heading down crosses and goal kicks to the striker assisting him, getting more assists than goals. Thus Auron came into contention, Auron has the height and strength to deal with even the most battering Central Defender partnership, he also has the vision and concentration to play the ball into the correct position for his strike partner. He would also be vital in teaching the younger players who are being nurtured to eventually replace him. He is exceptionally level headed given the situations he is thrust into (though that may just be in the Dub), which allows him to make the right decision for the whole team. Also...HE HAS AN AWESOME MOTHER FRAKKING SWORD!!!!!!!1!

So there's my team, let me know what you think, post your own, berate me for being sad enough to do this, I don't care, enjoy this while you can, the next blog WILL be a rant, I can promise you that (unless I decide to trawl through loads of You Tube videos to link to my thesis).
Adiós
GB

p.s. Song of the Week is:-
Athlete – Black Swan Song
iTMS - Spotify