Nelsen earned his place by “defending defiantly throughout the tournament and heroically against Italy,” it said.
Last month, international football website goal.com named Nelsen its world player of the week for “inspiring his side to two draws (against Slovakia and defending champions Italy) and giving the All Whites a shot at last 16 qualification.”
ESPN’s Best 11 were:
Goalkeeper, Eduardo (Portugal); rightback, Philipp Lahm (Germany); centre backs, Carles Puyol (Spain), Ryan Nelsen (New Zealand); leftback, Carlos Salcido (Mexico); centre midfield, Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany), Xavi (Spain); right wing, Thomas Muller (Germany), left wing, David Villa (Spain), attacking midfielder, Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands); striker, Diego Forlan (Uruguay).
Substitutes: Justo Villar (Paraguay), Maxi Pereira (Uruguay), Lucio (Brazil), John Mensah (Ghana), Fabio Coentrao (Portugal), Mark van Bommel (Holland), Xabi Alonso (Spain), Arjen Robben (Netherlands), Mesut Ozil (Germany), Robinho (Brazil), Miroslav Klose (Germany).
Manager: Joachim Low (Germany).