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I have started to do more and more videos related to all things football with my buddy Nate. You can check out the channel here and a like, subscribe, or anything on the videos would be much appreciated!

My World XI for 2013

At the Ballon d'Or ceremony the FIFA World XI was unveiled, and many felt there were some huge snubs. I was among those people. The FIFA XI was as followed:

Goalkeeper: Manuel Neuer

Defenders: Philipp Lahm, Sergio Ramos, Thiago Silva, Dani Alves

Midfielders: Xavi, Iniesta, Franck Ribery

Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic, Lionel Messi

Amongst those chosen I felt too much praise had been given to the two La Liga giants again. Here is my World XI:

Goalkeeper: Manuel Neuer; No argument here. Neuer was far and above the best goalkeeper in the world last year. He was a huge part of Bayerns historic trophy haul.

Defenders: Philipp Lahm, Thiago Silva, Dante, David Alaba; Removing the La Liga duo and replacing them with two Bayern players. Dante stepped right into the Bayern starting line-up and helped transform them into a team that was near impossible to score against, just ask Barcelona. David Alaba moves into the team after basically solidifying himself as one of the top 2 left backs in the world, and he's my age.

Midfielders: Franck Ribery, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Gareth Bale; No more Barcelona favoritism people!!! Xavi and Iniesta shouldn't have even SNIFFED the world XI. I replace them with Schweinsteiger and Bale. Schweinsteiger was by far the best box to box midfielder in the world last year and he was the heart of the 5 star Bayern team. Bale is the most debatable here. While having a great season it would be easy to leave him out and throw someone else in, but just by the eye test Bale was quite possibly the best player in the world not named Ronaldo or Messi towards the end of last year. His health was an issue, but his quality is nothing to scoff at. 

Forwards: Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic, Messi; I mean, c'mon. 

So there you have it, my World XI. We need to acknowledge that last season the spanish teams weren't the best in the world and don't deserve to have a crazy amount of players in these teams! Let me know what you think of the replacements. Who deserves to be in it, who doesn't, and why should your player be in instead!

The Boot Room Video Blogs

Hey everyone, just wanted to let you know you can check my buddy Nate and I out on YouTube at youtube.com/clsoccer2012 making our weekly video blog for The Boot Room, my more professional site!

Here is this weeks video, if you like it please thumbs it up, subscribe to the channel, comment, and share the link!

Potential Young Stars, Revised

A few days ago I made a post with players that have the potential to have huge breakout years this upcoming season. To expand on that post I came up with a data sheet with all their past data from pass completion percentage to average match rating. I also added a few names onto the list that weren't in the post. To see the original post go here: http://theinformsoccer.blogspot.com/2013/06/potential-20132014-season-breakout-stars.html

Player Name	Pass Success	Shots on goal	Clean Sheets	Avg Match Rtg	Tackles Won	Dribbles Completed	World Class Potential
Thiago Alcantara	91.9	0.8	N/A	7.25	1.5	1.6	Yes
Paul Pogba	82.5	1.8	N/A	7.21	2.4	1.5	Yes
David Alaba	88.8	1.2	N/A	7.3	1.9	0.7	Yes
Isco	85.6	1.9	N/A	7.17	1.2	2.2	Yes
Thibaut Courtois	47.3	N/A	20	6.82	N/A	N/A	Yes
David De Gea	60.3	N/A	11	6.83	N/A	N/A	Yes
Julian Draxler	81.7	2.1	N/A	7.39	1.4	2.7	Yes
Stephan El Shaarawy	84.2	2.6	N/A	7.16	1	1.1	Maybe
Kevin De Bruyne	76.8	2.7	N/A	7.58	1.5	3	Maybe
M'baye Niang	76.5	1.2	N/A	6.6	1.3	1.2	No
Raheem Sterling	84.1	1.2	N/A	6.77	1.5	1.5	No
Marc-Andre ter Stegen	63	N/A	9	6.86	N/A	N/A	No

I made this list of players that are some of the hottest young commodities I could think of and looked up some key stats that pertain to players and used those stats along with the "eye test" of how well they play when you watch them to determine if they can be considered world class one day.

Players that got a "Yes" in the World Class Potential category did so because they have shown that they can be great players on the biggest stages, and are at a young stage in their careers at which they are still improving. Not only did the players with a "Yes" have pretty good statistics this past season, but during the eye test it was clear these players had what it takes to become truly great.

Players that got a "Maybe" still have some question marks about them. The standout of the two will probably be El Shaarawy. Now I absolutely love El Shaarawy but he fell into the "Maybe" category for reasons mostly due to becoming second fiddle to Mario Balotelli, which raised question marks for me if AC Milan saw something we didn't in that maybe he isn't a viable number 1 option. But instead of dropping him in the "No" category I had to give him a "Maybe" because last summer I saw him play in person against Chelsea in Miami and the kid had a flair and confidence about him that looked like no other on the field.

Lastly we have the players that got a "No" and that doesn't necessarily mean I don't think they will be world class level, but it means at the moment from what I have seen I can't give them a "Maybe" or a "Yes" because their body of work just isn't enough to make that judgement.

So what do you think? Should we weigh the potential of players on stats and the eye test alone? One more than the other? And what do you think of the list? Let me know!