The great-unheralded position in soccer is defense. Not glamorous in any way, it is regardless attracts an endless stream of incredible athletes. Bigger, faster and stronger than they have even been, the best of the best create an almost impenetrable wall for the attackers. In a soccer scoreboards feature, I have taken a look at who I consider to be the top 5 defenders in the World, in no particular order.
Nemanja Vidic
Vidic is the captain of the Manchester United and leads his national side Serbia as well. His week in week out performances are demonstrate why he deserves both these positions in each team. The soccer scoreboards show that he has played a lot for Manchester United and has played a key role in his team’s success in the last 4 years since his arrival. With him at the back, the team has won the Champions League, the Premier League and the team of the year award several times. He has proved everybody wrong who thought that he wouldn’t be able to perform to the high standards that he reached last season by leading his side to an exorbitant run in this season, especially in the Champions league. The triple is still on, and Vidic may just take them there!
Gerard Pique
Barcelona’s defender is unarguably one of the best defenders in the game. At 24 he has many awards to his name including the Don Balon award for the best breakthrough performance in 2009, and with his current level of performance he may still earn many more awards for himself. His national team, Spain is the World Cup champion and he played an important role alongside Puyol in bringing the cup to Spain for the very first time.
Philip Lahm
This German player plays for Bayern Munich and was named as the captain of Germany in the World Cup in the absence of Michael Ballack. He did justice to the confidence that the team management had in him and was a key player in bringing the team’s run to the semifinals of the World Cup. His edge over other defenders is his positional sense, attacking capabilities and nimbleness. He is somewhat underrated, and in my opinion deserves more credit, and the title of “best left sided defender in the world.”
Carles Puyol
This man needs no introduction. He was part of Spain’s World Cup winning squad and is quite probably the hardest defender in the world. He has been with Barcelona since 1999 and has completed 350 matches with the club. At 32 his performances remain unmatchable. He does, though plan to retire sometime soon. He has mentored his partner in crime Pique over the last 3 years, which is the main reason behind Pique’s robust performances.
Lucio
The Brazilian captain is one of the greatest defenders of the last decade. He plays for Inter Milan, and was part of the Inter Milan Champion League’s winning squad last year. The great defender has a record for playing the most minutes without committing a foul i.e. 386 minutes.
For more information on Lucio, go to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%BAcio