WORLD CUP 2014: THE TEAM OF THE TOURNAMENT - PRIOR TO SEMIFINALS

I might still make corrections to the selected eleven after the semifinals and final are concluded. Also, since James Rodriguez and Leo Messi until now appear to be the best two players of this world cup, and they both are playmakers, I took a liberty of moving Rodriguez to centre-forward position, particularly that in nowadays football teams often play without nominal centre-forward. It is not a big stretch as Rodriguez, until now, has scored the highest amount of goals in the tournament. This way, I did not have to put Rodriguez as a reserve player in his natural position of a playmaker.  For now, here they are:


                                         Neuer - Ger. (reserve: Howard - USA)

Zabaleta - Arg.               Gonzalez - Costa R.     Hummels - Ger        Blind - Hol
(res. Gamboa-Costa R.) (res. Kompany-Bel.) (res. T. Silva-Bra) (res. Verthongen-Bel.)


                                      Lahm - Ger.         Schweinsteiger - Ger.
                                     (res. Fernandinho-Bra) (res. Mascherano-Arg.)

                                                           Messi - Arg.
                                                    (res. de Bruyne-Bel.)

Robben - Hol.                              J. Rodriguez (Col.)                            Neymar (Bra)                             
(Valbuena-Fra.)                          (res. T. Muller-Ger.)                          (res. Bolanos - Costa R.)