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Brazilians, Frenchmen dominate All-Stars
PARIS (AP) -- Eight players who will appear in Sunday's World Cup final, including Brazil's Ronaldo and France's Marcel Desailly, made the FIFA all-star team for France 98.The 16-man team, chosen by the FIFA Technical Study Group and sponsored by MasterCard, also has three players from the Netherlands, two from Paraguay and Denmark and one from Croatia.
Ronaldo, a striker for Inter Milan, and Desailly, a defender-midfielder from AC Milan, often have faced each other in Italian league play. In the championship game, they'll be matched once again as Brazil seeks its fifth title and France goes for its first.
"We recognized players we think brought dimension to the competition or added value to their teams' performances," Gerard Houllier of the technical committee said at the announcement Friday. "We are aware many other players could have been in this group."
Joining Ronaldo from Brazil are defender Roberto Carlos and midfielders Rivaldo and Dunga. The other French players were goalkeeper Fabien Barthez, defender Lilian Thuram and midfielder Zinedine Zidane, who was selected despite missing two games with a suspension.
The Dutch selections were striker Dennis Bergkamp, midfielder Edgar Davids and defender Frank de Boer.
Paraguayan goalkeeper Jose Luis Chilavert and defender Carlos Gamarra also were chosen, along with Danish brothers Michael Laudrup, a midfielder, and Brian Laudrup, a striker, and Croatia's Davor Suker.
Pele, a spokesman for MasterCard -- which will donate $50,000 in the names of the players to SOS Children's Village, FIFA's official charity -- said the matchup of Ronaldo and Desailly "should be wonderful" because they have been such standouts during the tournament.
"Ronaldo started with physical problems, but his performance has grown and he has showed that in the last two games," Pele said. "Desailly has been the best defender in the World Cup."
Suker is tied for the goal scoring lead with five, while Ronaldo has four. Bergkamp and Rivaldo each have three each, with Bergkamp scoring perhaps the finest goal in the tournament on a long pass from de Boer to beat Argentina in the dying moments.
Thuram had both of France's goals in the semifinal victory over Croatia.
Pele mentioned the leadership of such players as Dunga, the Brazilian captain, and de Boer, the Dutch captain, as being a factor in choosing an all-star squad.
"You need players who organize," he said. "Dunga is like a player who brings up the confidence in a team. He will shout at players, fight with them to push them to do their best.
"This is important to a team. You must have someone who takes those opportunities."
Dunga is the only repeat from the 1994 team, on which Bergkamp was an honorable mention.
Six players were chosen as reserves and Houllier said the committee had its eyes on the future when it made those selections: goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar of the Netherlands; midfielders Jay Jay Okocha of Nigeria and Juan Veron of Argentina; and strikers Christian Vieri of Italy, Michael Owen of England and Thierry Henry of France.
All Stars
PARIS (AP) -- The FIFA All-Star Team for the 1998 World Cup, as selected by FIFA's Technical Study Group. GoalkeepersFabien Barthez, France; Jose Luis Chilavert, Paraguay.
Defenders
Lilian Thuram, France; Frank de Boer, Netherlands; Marcel Desailly, France; Carlos Gamarra, Paraguay; Roberto Carlos, Brazil.
Midfielders
Dunga, Brazil; Edgar Davids, Netherlands; Rivaldo, Brazil; Zinedine Zidane, France; Michael Laudrup, Denmark.
Strikers
Dennis Bergkamp, Netherlands; Davor Suker, Croatia; Brian Laudrup, Denmark; Ronaldo, Brazil.
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RESERVES
Goalkeeper
Edwin van der Sar, Netherlands.
Midfielders
Jay Jay Okocha, Nigeria; Juan Veron, Argentina.
Strikers
Thierry Henry, France; Michael Owen, England; Christian Vieri, Italy.
NEXT ROUNDS: Round of 16 || Quarter-finals || Semi-finals
GROUP A: Brazil, Morocco, Norway, Scotland
GROUP B: Austria, Cameroon, Chile, Italy
GROUP C: Denmark, France, Saudi Arabia, South Africa
GROUP D: Bulgaria, Nigeria, Paraguay, Spain
GROUP E: Belgium, Holland, Mexico, South Korea
GROUP F: Germany, Iran, United States, Yugoslavia
GROUP G: Colombia, England, Romania, Tunisia
GROUP H: Argentina, Croatia, Jamaica, Japan