Top defenders: Many teams in Qatar have maintained a clean sheet thanks to some outstanding individual efforts.
This “allfootballleague” feature highlights the top defensive performers from Game Day 1.
10. Thiago Silva (Brazil)
Thiago Silva didn’t have much playing time against Serbia, but he did a good job while on the field, especially in shutting down Aleksandar Mitrovic.
9. Luke Shaw (England)
Going into the World Cup, there was a concern that Shaw would be England’s weak link, but he didn’t play like it against Iran, contributing an assist and setting up several other scoring opportunities.
8. Diego Godin (Uruguay)
Godin was great for Uruguay against South Korea, and a great header that hit the post almost gave his team the win. The old dog still has life in him.
7. Jesus Gallardo (Mexico)
Gallardo was one of the few players who made the game interesting. Mexico left back, played good defense, and was a real threat going forward.
6. Josko Gvardiol (Croatia)
Gvardiol is considered one of the best young center-backs, and he showed why in his World Cup debut when Croatia drew 0-0 with Morocco. He did well both on and off the ball.
5. Angelo Preciado (Ecuador)
In Ecuador’s first game, Preciado set up one of their two goals and gave Qatar a lot of trouble in other ways. He was also great in the back.
4. Jordi Alba (Spain)
After losing his starting spot at Barcelona to Alejandro Balde, many people were surprised when Alba started ahead of Balde in Spain’s first game. However, Alba showed why he should have done so by setting up one goal and several other offensive moves.
3. Hernandez, Theo (France)
When he came on for his hurt brother, he would have liked things to be different, but Theo changed the game after that. He got an assist and made it chance after chance.
2. Toby Alderweireld (Belgium)
Alderweireld probably hoped and expected a quieter night against Canada, but he handled the surprise attack well, making 12 clearances, and set up the only goal of the game with a beautiful pass.
1. Hassan Al-Tambakti (Saudi Arabia)
After seeing Saudi Arabia upset Argentina, we couldn’t help but wonder why no one had mentioned that they had a reincarnation of Paulo Maldini on their roster in any of the tournament forecasts we’d read.
Al-Tambakti was a big surprise. He stopped attack after attack from the favorites in the tournament.
So these are the top defenders of the FIFA 2022 World Cup.
