A Proven Striker

"There is never a game in which he doesn’t get into goalscoring positions. He always generates them."
Coach Pep Guardiola

World's Starting XI

What 11 great players would make the World's team?

According to Grant Wahl at SI.com, here is the World's starting XI:

GK, Iker Casillas [Real Madrid/Spain]

RB, Dani Alves [Barcelona/Brazil]

CB: Gerard Piqué [Barcelona/Spain]

CB, Nemanja Vidic [Manchester United/Serbia]

LB, Patrice Evra [Manchester United/France]

M, Bastien Schweinsteiger [Bayern Munich/Germany]

M, Xavi [Barcelona/Spain]M, Andrés Iniesta [Barcelona/Spain]F, David Villa [Barcelona/Spain]F, Lionel Messi [Barcelona/Argentina]F, Cristiano Ronaldo [Real Madrid/Portugal]

There you go, pretty much FC Barcelona with a splash of Man U and Real Madrid [7 players from Barca and/or Spain]. For the most part I agree with this starting XI, although I do believe Valdes deserves to be on this list as well. VV doesn't get enough credit for his outstanding performance every game with Barcelona. 

This list is a 4-3-3 formation (what Barcelona plays) and is the way to go. Not sure why other teams aren't adopting this; watch Real Madrid start this way next season. 

The 3 forwards, 1 of which would never get along with the other two, would be literally unstoppable. Use one forward for defensive-F (Messi or Ronaldo would work) and the other to be constantly off-sides (Villa) in case the ref doesn't catch him. (joke, obvi)

Xavi and Iniesta are two peas in a pod and gain all of Barcelona's possession by keeping the ball moving from left to right effortlessly. When the sad day comes that these two are separated and replaced, Barcelona will slowly fall apart. 

Side note: Wahl deserved Villa as "the most consistently deadly finisher in the world." Sounds perfect to me. 

Spain v USMNT Pre-Match

 

This Saturday, June 4 will be the first Spain v USA match on US soil [Boston, MA]. Their last meeting was back in 2009 for the Confederation Cup semifinal in which the United States won 2-0. Ouch. Payback? Alonso was quoted saying "We remember this US team well". Personally, I love and support both teams but fully believe Spain will take the victory, they are on fire this year! If anything, they may lose from being tired as they just arrived in the US 2 days before the game and the Barca boys just finished their season not even a week ago.

  Here is a [USA] line-up prediction by soccerbyives.net: 
 

No idea whatsoever who del Bosque will start for his side. Just make sure it includes Villa, Torres, Valdes (please?), Iniesta and we will be set!

For full squad, please view our Spain page