Real Life Football Manager - Best Buys from the Group Stages

Sometimes it's fun to pretend the real world exists as a Football Manager-like vehicle* for you to speculate as to who you would like to buy, should you just happen to find yourself managing a giant football club. Silly? Perhaps. But folks need to dream about football, just like they need to think about what they would do if they win the lottery next week. And hey... maybe you slept in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

Today you get to pretend you are this man, minus the perpetual pout.

A few caveats before we begin. First of all, during or shortly after the World Cup is the worst time possible to buy players. Player values at the Cup skyrocket, while a maximum of 7 games is a particularly small sample size to see whether a player is actually good or if he's just enjoying a good run of form surrounded by outstanding teammates. There are a billion examples of craptastic buys made directly after the World Cup where players never came close to panning out at the club level (half of them were on the Senegal team from 2002), thus making your purchases closer to hitting the craps tables in Atlantic City than buying a sure thing. Thankfully, we don't care. I just wanted to point out that we are aware of the circumstances and would behave differently if we, you know, were managing an actual club side that was not named Chelski.

The other thing to note here is that we (I expect you to chime in with your own opinions here) are doing here is not naming players that are already superstars. Assume everybody knows Henry, Zidane, Ronaldinho, Zlatan, Ballack. What we're looking for here are guys who may not be famous yet, but probably should/will be after Germany. If you have questions on this, save them for a bit until after you've read my choices, which should clear most of them up.

Defense
Arthur Boka - Ivory Coast
Boka plays his club football for Strasbourg, and was perhaps the best player minus Drogba on the pitch for the Ivory Coast throughout their 3 group games. An extremely fast left back, his service from the wings was very impressive, as was his work rate. He's a little smaller than most teams like for their defensive line these days, but being a left or right back generally mitigates that, and any team looking for a fast fullback who is always willing to get involved in the attack should take a closer look at how Boka did when playing for Strasbourg. You have to love a full back who can actually deliver accurate crosses.

Phillip Lahm
The inaugural goalscorer of the 2006 World Cup is also one of its breakout stars. Dubbed "The Magic Dwarf" by German tabloids (bad beat on that one), Lahm has been instrumental in kickstarting the impressive German attack with his overlapping runs on the left hand side of the defense. After the early mistakes against Costa Rica, he's been part of a defense that has hardly given opposing teams a sniff. Though he plays for German giants Bayern Munich, Jose Mourinho has reportedly already tabled a hefty bid in his endless search for the perfect left back. Judging just by World Cup performance, Lahm would certainly be a better choice than previous target Ashley Cole.

Plus, if he moves, you’re bound to see a bevy of Hannibal Lechter headlines from the English tabloids, and who wouldn’t want that?

Oguchi Onyewu
Reader "Mouth" will doubtless disagree with this, but Gooch was one of the best players on the U.S. team and has shown he can shut down top-notch forwards consistently at the international level. A beast of a man who clearly lifts weights to make sure his upper body is stronger than any forward he will face, Gooch is great in the air and reads the game pretty well. He's a relatively new addition to the U.S. MNT, and clearly needs some work on controlling forwards with his body and positioning instead of his hands and arms, but he clearly has great potential and is rumored to have already signed a contract with EPL team Middlesboro.

John Mensah
The so-called Rock of Djiporta was one of the key players in helping Ghana advance out of the group of little death. Built like a smaller Onyewu, Mensah has more experience playing at top levels against crafty forwards and it shows in his game. He's considered to be one of the better defenders in the top French league, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him move to one of the bigger leagues in the next six months. It will also be interesting to see how he handles Brazil's bullish forwards in their round of 16 match.

Juan Pablo Sorin
This one is dodgy because everybody knows who Sorin is, but despite watching him play some in La Liga and in the Champions League, I didn't understand that he was this good. An absolute joy to watch whether he is attacking or defending, Sorin just turned 30, but like Roberto Carlos, he plays like he's ageless, running up and down the flank to get in on attacks while making destructive tackles when forced to track back and defend. Ayala is the rock of the Argentine defense, but Sorin is just as good at his position and should get as much credit.

Sorin seems to get transferred about once every 18 months, which implies that he has some hidden "issues" that I'm not aware of (translation: he might be a dick or he fails to shower - one of the two), but after seeing him play for Argentina this Cup, whatever squad he's on (and he currently plays with teammate Riquelme for Villareal in Spain) has now become a must-watch game for me.

Midfield
Bastian Schweinsteiger

Who would that be, Tommy? Ze Germans?

Another relatively unheralded Bayern Munich youngster, Schweinsteiger has been the yin to Ballack's yang for Germany thus far. He's shown real quality in the attack, linking up extremely well with the German strikers and showing a pretty solid work rate as well. Plus he's young - only 22.

Looking at Schweinsteiger's face makes me think he'd fit in just fine on the set of a Guy Richie movie (perhaps Snatch 2 has a World Cup plot?), the guy has clearly had his nose broken a couple of times, but he seems tough too, like he's broken someone else's nose to boot. I wonder what "Oy!" sounds like with a German accent... This in turn has spawned the hope that some English club will cough up the big dough necessary to sign him before the next World Cup rolls around.

In fact, seeing how good these kids are makes think Bayern are ready to destroy the Champions League next year. Nobody wants that.

Stephen Appiah
Michael Essien’s midfield counterpart was the man of the match against the United States and while he’s not rocket fuel like the Chelsea player, but he’s pretty diesel. One of the things I really like about the Ghana players is that they are all powerfully built, giving them something extra when they are on the ball (and not flopping on the ground like they were shot during the second half against the USA). Appiah has solid skill on the ball, good vision, and tackles like Mike Singletary in his prime. He deserves better than being stuck playing for Fenerbahce in Turkey.

Maxi “Adam Sandler” Rodriguez

Rodriguez had the game winning goal and a huge movie opening this weekend.

This was written before his ridiculous goal against Mexico, but needless to say his stock has been raised further.

Argentina’s midfield is loaded, but at times Maxi Rodriguez has been the best player on the pitch. His runs up the right side of the field have made the Argies considerably more dangerous, and his contributions have been a helluva lot more than two (now three) goals. Originally I just felt he was hard-working and fast, but now I’m convinced he’s capable of brilliance. He plays his club football for Atletico Madrid, but considering the difficulty one can have these days of finding an attacking right-sided midfielder who can attack AND defend, I think he’s certain for bigger things. Like “Click.”

Omar Bravo
I’m not convinced Bravo is a true forward, but I love his movement and what he brings to the game. His two goals against Iran were quality, and he’s one of the best players in the Mexican League. If he were to move to a bigger Europe club, his size might force him to move back slightly into an attacking midfielder role, but I think he’d adapt to that position pretty easily. Then again, maybe he’d just be a less obnoxious Craig Bellamy. I said previously that I think more Mexican League players could be making their way overseas, and I think Bravo deserves the chance if he wants it.

Honorable mention: Clint Dempsey

Forwards
I’m going to leave this one up to you guys – who have you seen that isn’t a superstar yet, but that you love to watch play?



* For those Americans who have never heard of it, Football Manager (currently in its 2006 edition) is perhaps the most addictive sports simulator on the planet. A mega-blockbuster seller in Europe, FM can be completely overwhelming to the novice, but if you stick with it, it offers you just about everything a fan could possibly imagine with regard to being able to manage one of the world's major or minor football teams. You get to do everything from buy and selling players, resigning them to contracts, setting tactics and training, scouting players and teams, etc, blah, foo... basically anything that does not involve the actual kicking of a ball is possible. If you are at all the "manager" type and you like football, I highly recommend checking it out, assuming of course, that you don't mind losing days of your life to playing video games.