204 nations entered the qualifications which started August 25th 2007 and after 848 matches and a total of 2337 goals scored in the qualifiers that ended on November 18th 2009 the 31 qualified nations will join the host South Africa in the battle for the FIFA World Cup Trophy in the 19th World Cup. It`s the first time that the World Cup (WC) will be held on African soil. Italy will enter the tournament as reigning champions; they won a dramatic final in Berlin 2006 on penalties against France. While Italy are the reigning champions, Brazil are the most successful nation with five WC titles and also the only nation that has participated in every World Cup to date. Below, I thought to give you my predictions on the World Cup 2010. Please notice that this is only my personal thoughts and since I have my particular expertise in other areas this review should only apply as a basic introduction to this fantastic event.
Group A
1.South Africa
2.France
3.Mexico
4.Uruguay
A difficult group to predict. South Africa or Bafana Bafana (a term of endearment which means 'the Boys') as they are called are the host nation and a host nation have never failed to reach the 2nd stage. As a matter of fact the host team reaches the final four in two out of every three tournaments. I don`t think that South Africa will reach the semifinals, but I really think they have a good chance to reach the second round. They are not the strongest team on the paper, and their experienced Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira left their maybe most known player out of the squad, Benni McCarthy. But they have a very united squad. South Africa has only participated in two WC: s (1998, 2002) they were banned from FIFA during the years of 1966-1990 because of Apartheid. Watch out for this South African team, they have strength, pace and the 12th man behind them. It´s difficult to predict who will fallow Bafana Bafana to the 2nd stage.
France have big names, but they haven`t impressed in the friendlies and they have a much criticized coach in Raymond Domenech. I think the French team is a bit overrated and Les Blues could find it hard to go through this group. Mexico has a very interesting team, a fairly young team with a lot of pace. But I think they are hard to evaluate because they don’t face especially tough teams in the CONCACAF. But absolutely a team with a lot of talent, big names like Giovani Dos Santos, Carlos Vela is great but they have had some internal problems. When the final squad of the 23 players were announced their biggest star Giovani Dos Santos were so upset when his younger brother Jonathan was left out that he threatened to reject his call-up and stay in Mexico during the World Cup. Of course that won’t happen, but there is a crack between coach Aguirre and Tottenham`s 21 year old striker. Uruguay have won the WC at two occasions (1930, 1950) and is currently placed 16th on the FIFA ranking. They have a great attack in the lethal duo Forlan, Suarez. They also have former Hammarby and AIK player Eguren in their squad. They knocked out Costa Rica with the total score of 2-1 in the qualifying play-off. A relatively young squad that I think will find it hard to go through. I think that they will finish last in group A.
Prediction; South Africa group winners with France as runners up.
Group B
1.Argentina
2.Korea Republic
3.Greece
4.Nigeria
Argentina of course clear favorites in group b, few if any nation in the WC could present such a strong team offensively where they have superstars like Messi, Tevez, Milito, Agüerro. In midfield they have one of my favorite players, Angel Di Maria who I already predicted to be picked for the WC All-star team. Overall a good team, my only concern is the coach. Diego Armando Maradona, is he a coach that has the tactical knowledge to change a game during play? I also think that too much of the news concerning Argentina is about Maradona. With that I mean that I feel like much of his decisions to exclude Cambiasso and Zanetti is decisions to make people talk about Maradona and not of the team. With another coach I could see Argentina winning this WC, but not under Maradona. Argentina really struggled to reach the WC, Bolatti scored the winning 1-0 goal in the 84th minute away to Uruguay in the last round and that secured their direct place to the WC. One can notice that they were trashed 6-1 away to Bolivia in April 09. So who will fallow Argentina to the second round?
I think it will be Korea Republic who is a team with a lot of speed, endurance and discipline. Greece is an underdog, and we all know what Greece can do as an underdog. Coached by the tactical mastermind of Rehhagel. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Greece win over Argentina and lose against Nigeria and Korea Republic. Greeks that I have talked with concerning the Greek team are not too positive. They have only participated in the WC once (1994) and they are still waiting for their first ever WC points. Nigeria coached by the former coach of Sweden, Lars Lagerbäck have a massive absence on one of their key-players just a few days ago, Chelsea midfielder Obi Mikel won`t be able to help his country in this WC because of a knee injury. I have watched them a few times and I think they look really slow, don’t work well as a team. I think both Nigeria and Greece will have big trouble against the "speedy" Korean team. Nigeria to finish last in group b.
Prediction; Argentina group winners with Korea Rep as runners up.
- M@tteo