World Cup Defenders to Watch

I feel like I should clarify something before we continue this line of posts. The Goalkeepers in the last post were not meant to indicate "The 5 Best Goalies in the World" or anything like that, they were simply five names that I feel will be interesting to watch in Germany. Now four of the five are World Class, but Barthez isn't even the best keeper on his squad, he's just crazy, thus making for good television.

I guess I should have made that a bit clearer from the start, but the same holds true for today. What follows are not necessarily the five best defenders in the game, but are instead five guys to keep an eye on during your World Cup viewing over the next month. (And considering there are 4 times 32... carry the one, make a left at Albequerque... a lot more worthwhile defenders than goalkeepers, that's important to note.) In short, for one reason or another, these fellows are ones you can expect to enjoy watching when they light up your big screen for the next month.

Rafael Marquez

Believe it or not, these guys were teammates at the club level.

Having won the Champions League with Barcelona less than a month ago, Rafael is the most successful Mexican footballer on the planet right now. He's certainly not the biggest central defender you will run across, but he's absolutely one of the most technically proficient and reads the game better than almost anyone else at his position. His club side is admittedly blessed with a much higher talent level than the Mexican National Team, so it will be interesting to see if he is able to lead them to greater success than in 2002, or if they are once again destined for a T16 finish. Regardless, Marquez is the poster child that contradicts the growing notion that you have to have a pair of man mountains in your central defense in order to win at the club and international level.

He also gets my vote for best defender to wear a ponytail.

John Terry
FIFA lies about Terry's stats, because it says he's not quite 6 feet tall, and I've seen the man play much larger than that. Doublechecking the info on Soccernet tells you he's 6'2", but even that doesn't account for Terry's ability to neutralize every striker to come his way, regardless of size, quickness, or ability. This guy plays against the best the world has to offer on a weekly basis and yet you hardly see a time where he's embarrassed or out of position. That bodes well for England's chances in the World Cup, as does the fact that Terry is extremely dangerous coming forward on free kicks and corners. Even though he's only 25, this guy is the captain of Chelsea, and is the obvious choice to succeed David Beckham as captain of England when Becks decides to hang up his magical right boot.

Gabriel Heinze

Heinze is critical to Argentina's success because he lets their skill players attack.

I picked Argentina to crash out of the Group stage at least partly on the knowledge that this guy has been injured for most of the season and likely would not be fit for the start of the Cup. Now comes late word that he is fit and raring to go, meaning the Argies could be a lot better off than initially anticipated. Heinze played all of four matches for Manchester United last year before blowing out his knee, so it's entirely possible that red devil fans will see more of him in Germany in one month than they did all of last year at Old Trafford. He's one of the keys to the entire Argentinian attack because his presence and sure tackling at the back enables Sorin to make his magical runs on the wing.

Sammuel Kuffour, Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Eboue
Ghana and Ivory Coast are unfamiliar names at the international level, but these three players are hardly virginal when it comes to the pressure of big matches. Kuffour is Ghana's man in the middle, and at age 29, is one of the oldest Ghanaian players on the squad. A veteran of multiple Champions League finals with Bayern Munich and now a fixture at the back with AS Roma, Kuffour is expected to lend experience to a Black Stars team that has a legitimate chance of upsetting some teams in the group of little death.

As for Toure and Eboue, they are part of the Arsenal team that set records for total defense in this year's Champions League, and now will look to try and get the Elephants of Côte d'Ivoire past Argentina, The Netherlands, and Serbia and Montenegro and into the knockout rounds. Without them, Ivory Coast might be hopeless at the back, but Toure is the absolute stones when it comes to both skill and physical ability, and Eboue's relentless attacking up the wing was a revelation to an Arsenal squad beset by injuries early in the year. Watch these guys play just one or two games summer and I guarantee it will be hard not to root for them.

Carlos Puyol
I think this is Spain's year, and if that's going to be the case, Puyol will play a major part in their success. At the club level, he's Marquez's partner in central defense for Barcelona, but unlike Marquez, Puyol is blessed by a raft of talent around him at the National Team level. Puyol looks like he would be equally comfortable on the football or as the tatted-out lead singer in some sort German death metal band, but the hard exterior masks a technical skill on the ball you don't expect out of the big guys in the back.

Roberto Carlos

Carlos is the very model of the modern attacking left back.

I swear this guy should be too old to play anymore, but his bio says he's only 33, and his form suggests he is about five years younger than that. Roberto Carlos has been terrorizing opponents of Brazil since 1993 by giving them a tireless left back capable of both attacking and defending for an entire game without missing a beat. His overlapping runs are just one of the reasons why Brazil is such a difficult team to defend, but it's an important one, and will be again if Brazil are to samba home with their sixth World Cup. He also has one of the most legendary and lethal left boots in the game, which, with Ronaldinho's right, gives Brazil a decidedly unfair 1-2 punch (erm... kick?) on free kicks. I expect that all real football fans already know and either love or loathe Carlos, but that doesn't make him any less watchable or entertaining as a player.