Alternative XI: Euro 2012 Overachievers

As is usual for a major tournament, Euro 2012 has allowed us to witness the full spectrum of players from World's Best to those who walk a matter of metres to the ground that's always been their home. This tournament, we've had the opportunity to see players previously anonymous make a stamp on the football world – in fact, many of the best performed players aren't paid by Real Madrid, Liverpool or Juventus, but by smaller clubs. The tournament is made brighter by those who rise from anonymity.

Here's a previously relatively-unheralded XI who've made their name at Euro 2012:

GK – Przemyslaw Tyton (Poland): Despite entering the year the fourth-choice Poland keeper, made himself a home-country hero by saving a penalty with his first touch of the tournament. Whether he is replaced by the shaky but better-credentialled Wojciech Szczesny is now a legitimate question, a prospect unthinkable before the tournament.

RB – Theodore Gebre Selassie (Czech Republic): Kills the grass on the right side of the pitch at Slovan Liberec, who will compete in the 2012-13 Champions League after winning the Czech Gambrinus Liga. The might do so without their right back, who will doubtless have admirers after his two performances so far at Euro 2012.

CB – Mats Hummels (Germany): How can the most desired young centre-back in world football, playing for the second-best attended club in Europe, be classified as an emerging player? Simple: Mats Hummels is elegant on the ball and resolute off it and gets his work done with the absolute minimum of fuss without courting attention at all. Releasing him will haunt Bayern Munich for years.

CB – Damien Perquis (Poland): Perquis came so close to snatching a win for Poland against Russia while keeping the tricksy combo of Dzagoev and Arshavin from wreaking havoc in the Poland defence. He'll should be acquired by larger French club from Sochaux on the back of his impressive Euros.

LB – Vaclav Pilar (Czech Republic): Pilar has scored twice so far at Euro 2012 and looks to be another smart piece of scouting by Bundesliga club Wolfsburg, who have already arranged for his transfer from Viktoria Plzen.

RM – Mathieu Debuchy (France): It's no wonder he's been linked with clubs as storied as Manchester United and Barcelona. Although typically a right-sided defender, he plays with such attacking zest he fits in well here in the midfield. He was probably the player of the match in France's first match against England despite flying under the radar until Lille's emergence last season.

CM – Roman Shirokov (Russia): Practised Russian football observers such as James Appell tipped the thirty-year old as Russia's breakout player. He lasted all of one match at Euro 2008 at centre-back, but links the beaters in defence (Berezeutsky and Ignashevich) with the seeker in attack (Arshavin and Dzagoev).

CM – Niki Zimling (Denmark): His injury in Denmark's second match allowed the Portuguese a much easier run in the midfield than Danish coach Morten Olson had hoped. Regaining him for their crucial encounter with Germany will be crucial Danish hopes of advancing

LM – Andriy Yarmolenko (Ukraine): The resounding flop of Andriy Shevchenko at Chelsea may have previously kept “the new Shevchenko” at Dynamo Kiev. After wrong-footing a redoubtable Sweden defence on many occasions in the Ukraine's first match, he's unlikely to be playing domestic ball for much longer.

AM – Michael Krohn-Dehli (Denmark): Fizzed the ball between Dutch 'keeper Maarten Stekelenburg's legs to win the Danes their first game of the tournament and leave the Oranje reeling. A constant worker so far this tournament and able to put together moments of brilliance despite middling club form at Brondby.

FC – Mario Mandzukic (Croatia): Took two quality goals in Croatia's first match against Ireland to put the Balkan nation in a great position in a tough group. Another discovery by the tireless Wolfsburg scouting system, he doesn't get much press despite scoring twenty times last season.  

Ukraine heat a portent of 2022 World Cup

While England and France slugged out a draw in Donetsk, much the same occurred two days prior some distance from the Ukraine. The likes of James Milner appeared totally spent with temperatures reaching 33^o celsius in oppressive conditions.

On Saturday, the Australian Socceroos played Oman in their first 2014 World Cup Qualifier. The match was played in Oman, a hope, skip and Ashley Young dive away from Qatar – the site for the 2022 World Cup. With a 5pm kickoff, temperatures reached a rash-inducing 41^o celsius. The argument that "it's a dry heat" is quite nonsensical: when the Weather Channel says it feels like it's 46° outside, it doesn't matter whether the humidity scale is at 6% or 60.

In the first eleven days of June, Muscat recorded eight days where the mercury raised above 37^o; the lowest maximum temperature was 35^o. The average June temperature in Muscat is 39^o. Even more amusingly, 75% of June days are officially categorised as “hot”; the rest (24.6%) are officially classified as “sweltering”.

In news likely to cause players from cooler climes to melt like so many Wicked Witches of the West – I'm looking at you, Scotland – the maximum temperature in Donetsk today did not reach the minimum temperature in Muscat.

It's summer in the Northern Hemisphere. It's hot. Players expect to play in uncomfortable conditions and expect a quick turnaround time between games. However, hosting a major tournament in heat such as this is patently ridiculous, as is moving the tournament to winter to accommodate its fabulously wealthy hosts.

Never mind tough laws, designated drinking zones and the occupational health and safety of players, but fan health simply must have been more of a consideration before FIFA awarded Qatar the Cup.

If you can't take the heat, keep the World Cup out of the Gulf States.

Euro 2012: Easier to win than the World Cup?

Conventional wisdom suggests the European Football Championships are harder to win than the World Cup. There's reason behind this: despite increased familiarity with staff and styles, all teams come from a strong FIFA confederation and this means fewer easy wins and more Groups of Potential Fatality.

We can take a look at the final set of FIFA World Rankings before a tournament to suggest the quality of each field. These rankings are about as foolproof as a Bond villain's plan or FIFA's internal governance, but they are still the best mathematical evaluation available. (Even still, I won't ever believe the United States were ever the fourth-best team in the world). Also, given they are chundered out by computer according to wonderfully complex formulae each month, in theory they are equally uneven.

The table below suggests how powerful each tournament since the start of the millennium has been, using average and median FIFA ranks as a guide. A low average suggests a stronger field, a low median suggests that more of the world's elite teams took part.

Tournament	Teams	Average FIFA rank	Median FIFA rank	Alleged Easybeat
Euro 2000	16	15.3	12.5	Slovenia, rank 45
2002 World Cup	32	21.8	21.5	China, rank 50
Euro 2004	16	20.8	17	Latvia, rank 52
2006 World Cup	32	33.5	24.5	Togo, rank 61
Euro 2008	16	20.4	11	Austria, rank 101
2010 World Cup	32	26.0	19.5	North Korea, rank 105
Euro 2012	16	16.6	11.5	Poland, rank 65

As you can see, the average FIFA rank for the past two World Cups has raised markedly as more nations outside FIFA's top 20 obtained qualification. This of course doesn't take into account home-field advantage, which will surely serve Poland well in this tournament. These numbers are also somewhat swayed: each team wins games in order to qualify, which in turn boosts their world ranking.

According to FIFA's boffins, Euro 2012 could be the strongest tournament since Euro 2000.