Men of the world

We were in the same stadium, looking through different eyes. The pictures you get on television also give fresh perspectives, sometimes beyond what the eye can detect — witness Peter Crouch pulling the hair of his opponent to gain a sneaky advantage for the crucial goal against Trinidad & Tobago. We should speak of the Hand of God no more.

These are some players I have admired (or not) in the first 10 days of the tournament. It is a list lacking in English names for the simple reason that “the lads” neither performed well enough to please, nor badly enough to fail. Their mediocrity sufficed, for now.

Somewhat more inspiring, because it had to be, was the display of goalkeeping, especially in the last 10 minutes, of Shaka Hislop against Sweden. His three most thrilling dives seemed to defy age, if not gravity and, just as he has revived his career at West Ham, so the 37-year-old has captured a landmark in Caribbean history, almost literally single-handed.

In the defence in front of him stands Dennis Lawrence, who can almost stand head to head with the 6ft 7in Crouch. Strangely, however, he did not mark Crouch, presumably because the England forward is rather nifty on the ground, where Lawrence seems to find it a long way down.

Much more accomplished central defenders are Lucio, the Brazilian, and Giovanny Espinoza, the Ecuadorian. We knew about Lucio’s instinct to come out of defence, but here it has been tempered with a sense of responsibility, an awareness that his full-backs are ageing and need astute covering.

Espinoza has also reined in his nature. He has been known to wander, to switch off, but in two performances so far he has used his height and reach, and his considerably physical courage, to deny opponents a sight of goal. Truly, “The Shadow”, as his countrymen call him.

At full-back, I go for Paraguay’s Jorge Nunez, I admit on the basis of one outstanding moment of awareness, swiftness and calmness when he intercepted Marcus Allback’s lob over the keeper. Philipp Lahm, who is said to interest Chelsea, is a right-sided player who excels wherever his manager puts him. That is now left-back. Apart from doing the job soundly, he gallops upfield to make or take goals with whichever foot is nearest the ball.

Such has been the attacking urgency of most teams that hard-core midfield anchor men have yet to be tested, but the Brazilian-born Marcos Senna has swiftly given a sense of order to the midfield of his newly adopted Spain, complementing the Spanish skills of Xavi and Xabi Alonso.

What Senna also has is an intrinsic sense of team play. His inner mind urges him to go for goal, and he can do that with appreciable ability, but with Spain it isn’t necessary while Fernando Torres and David Villa do the scoring so powerfully.

The final of the four Spanish goals against Ukraine, so masterfully plotted by Carles Puyol, so flamboyantly finished by Torres, is the sort of harmony that Spaniards have long dreamed about. Yet arguably it was Villa, the replacement for Raul, who set the tempo and terrorised the feeble Ukrainian defenders with his controlled aggression.

Some are doubting that Brazil will be the sum of their parts. The critics focus on Ronaldo’s lack of mobility, but is Adriano a real foil or an option for him? Brazil, in any case, find the answers, and the goal so handsomely scored by Kaka against Croatia proved the point. To beat two men by the sway of his body, to prod the ball into obedience and then with deceptive nonchalance to strike it high inside the goalkeeper’s right post was evidence that another Brazilian master is growing.

With two goals, and a third shot against the bar against the USA, Arsenal’s new signing Tomas Rosicky showed his talent, and also that, once again, Arsène Wenger’s timing is immaculate. Wait for the proof at this World Cup and the fee would have doubled. Timing is everything. Rosicky has it every way you look at him; the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Michael Owen and Andriy Shevchenko seem perilously short of inspiration, youth, or physical fitness.

Unless Zidane, the greatest Frenchman of his generation, is able to summons a masterpiece today, his World Cup is in danger of emphasising the diminishing returns of an ageing performer; it would be a sad way to end it all for a footballer who has given the world so much pleasure. He may yet regret coming back for one last hurrah with France.

Yet one player, the final individual in my line-up, has been floating around for almost a decade without a club as big as Arsenal making a bid. He plays for Sevilla, we have seen glimpses of him, and heard that because he is diminutive, forceful defenders discourage him.

Not at this World Cup, so far, they haven’t. He seems to play to a higher peak of confidence, or is it freedom, in the light blue of Argentina. All he asks for is the chance to start, which he is getting despite the presence of Leo Messi and Carlos Tevez on the bench. It is the job of the coach to know from the training ground who is hot and who is not. Jose Pekerman has trusted in Javier Saviola from the off.The respect of his team, and the joy that Saviola has given, is an eye-opener.

It didn’t take long to fit him into my Dream Team of the World Cup thus far, either.