2010 World Cup Group F Breakdown

by Slate Quicksilver

Group F is looks likely to be the most “blah” of all of the groups in this upcoming World Cup final. Italy headlines the group and expects to win. Paraguay and Slovakia won entry through tough trials in qualifying. New Zealand is happy to be there. However, after a few strange roster maneuvers by the Italian squad, this group is perhaps a bit more open than appears.

Italy:

Make no mistake about it, Italy is a team that should not be taken lightly. They won the whole thing in 2006, but this World Cup has seen less buzz for the Azzurri. They easily won their qualifying group with no bumps along the way. They are lead by their bulldog captain Fabio Cannavaro and their other worldy goalie Gianluigi Buffon. But on the attack the Italians left off several big time scorers. This Italian team is younger than most in the past, so question marks will be abound if this younger model will perform up to the ludicrous standards put forth on this team. On 6/3, Italy lost to Mexico 2-1. It’s not that Mexico is a bad team (certainly not), but beating a team like Mexico will be absolutely necessary in the knockout stages not once, but 4 times. The Azzurri didn’t just lose, they were one minute from being shut out and they were dominated for most of the game. As a result, Mexico’s stock rises at the cost of Italy’s stock. The Italians were considered “unfit” and “disinterested.” Those are not words you want a team who should contend for a final game berth. Italy should win the group, but not as handily as some think.

New Zealand:

It took New Zealand nearly 30 years to return to the World Cup finals thanks to the same plight Australia had: playoff-after playoff-after playoff. But unlike Australia, who bolted for Asian qualifying, New Zealand still had to play in one playoff to get in. They dominated qualifying over a bunch of Pacific Islands you’ve never heard of to get to a 2 leg playoff against Bahrain, which they took 1-0. The All Whites are rewarded by coming to the World Cup being ranked dead last by almost every single person who has an opinion on the matter. New Zealand is strong at the backline and looked quite competent as they beat Serbia 1-0 on the heels of the finals coming up in 2 weeks. But the question is, will they be able to hold off Paraguay and Slovakia’s physicality and will they be patient enough to handle the Italians’ methodical approach to the game. My bet: No. New Zealand may perform better than most expect, a draw with Slovakia or Paraguay is certainly possible. But in the end the All Whites will be a doormat on the way to the knockout stages.

Paraguay:

Paraguay has tasted success before. In 1998 and 2002 they got out of the group stages only to lose to teams on their way to the Championship games, which is bad luck more than anything. This time around, Los Guaranies electrified CONMEBOL qualifying tying for the most wins (10) and finished just behind Brazil and Chile and they won 7 of their home games. Sadly, they won’t have their best striker, Salvador Cabanas who was literally shot in the face in Mexico. He survived somehow, but won’t be joining the team on the field any time soon. But Roque Santa Cruz is an excellent backup plan, who is just off an excellent year in England. In 2006, Paraguay’s problem was scoring goals. They only scored 2 goals, both against little Trinidad and Tobago. That may not be a problem this time around, as they are better than ever up front and have a solid backline as well. Paraguay should take care of New Zealand and the game against Slovakia will be their tournament.

Slovakia:

Slovakia turned UEFA qualifying on its head this go around by winning group 3 over the Czech and Polish teams, who were expected to finished 1 and 2. That’s a big deal considering Slovakia’s battered history with the two other countries. Moving forward, Slovakia shows a team that is battle tested and won’t back down. On the last day of qualifying, the team beat Poland 1-0 to give them a win. A loss would have placed Slovenia on top of the group and sent Slovakia to Russia, another historic foe. While there isn’t a certain play would will attract legions of stories and reporters, Martin Skrtel of Liverpool is on a solid defense. We can’t really go on history for the team itself, as this is the first major international competition they’ve ever been in, but when combined with the Czechs, they were runners up twice and went to the quarterfinals in 1990. Slovakia will need to beat New Zealand and play Paraguay as well as they can in hopes of making it out of this group. Unfortunately for them, I don’t see it happening.

Predicted Tables:

Italy 2-0-1

Paraguay 2-0-1

Slovakia 1-2-0

New Zealand 0-3-0

2010 World Cup Group D Breakdown

by Slate Quicksilver

If Group G is considered the Group of Death, Group D is a relatively close second in that category. Germany anchors the group along with African power Ghana, “Asian” strongmen (in a geographic mystery to be solved later in this breakdown) Australia and an improving Serbia. Germany looks to be the leader in the clubhouse, but second place will be a dogfight between three very good teams.

Australia:

Australia cruised through Asian qualifying surrendering only 4 goals in 12 games. If you are wondering why Australia, generally considered to be its own continent, didn’t play in its qualifying and instead plays in Asia, the answer is simple. Fed up with having to play playoff after playoff and just barely getting edged by a CONCACAF or CONMEBOL team, Australia decided to move to a more powerful Federation where doing well meant qualification. (Note to all other teams in Oceania: Do the same. Our secret dream of a Tahiti – Vanuatu Cup Final in 2034 could come to fruition…) 2006 was the Socceroos first foray into the World Cup in more than 30 years and they did quite well. Australia beat Japan handily, lost to Brazil and tied Croatia. They went on to the Round of 16 and lost to Italy in a very very controversial 1-0 Italian win wherein the Italian player, Fabio Grosso, clearly took a dive inside the Australian penalty box. The ensuing penalty kick was converted and Italy moved on (Ed. Note: It was seriously a complete joke. American sport fans can relate this to Don Denkinger blowing the call in the ’85 World Series. If you need more a reason to hate the Italians, that is one of many). Australia has a few world class players including Tim Cahill, Brett Emerton and goalie Mark Schwarzer is one of the finest backstops in the world. Australia will need a great deal of skill and luck to get out of this group, making the match against Serbia to close the group extremely important.

Germany:

Germany obliterated all in their path to the World Cup this time around, save for 2 games against Finland. Those two games were ties, and were relative puzzling, seeing as how Germany crushed the rest of the group with style and ease. Along the way, they even defeated Russia on Russian turf to give them their first loss on home soil in Cup qualifying ever. The Germans bring in several big time players to the table. Superstars Michael Ballack and Miroslav Klose bring the firepower at the front end, while Philip Lahm will man the defense. The only question mark hanging over the Germans is how they will deal with this group. There is no easy game in this group, unlike in 2002 or 2006. 2002 gave Die Mannschaft a group of Ireland, Cameroon and Saudi Arabia; all of whom they dealt with easily. 2006 saw them play against lower end teams such as Costa Rica and Ecuador, and they were at home. 2010, as mentioned before does not yield a cake-like substance of a group. Winning the group is the most likely scenario, but Australia and Ghana are not to be trifled and Serbia won their group over France in qualifying, which is no small feat. Germany will not be able to take a minute off in this group, and if they don’t, winning the group will be the prize.

Ghana:

If there is an up-and-coming team in the World, it is Ghana. This is only their second trip to the tournament, but they have been soaring in other parts of the game. They won the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2009 and have numerous players abroad playing, and starting, for some of the biggest clubs in Europe. Despite two awkward losses to Gabon and Libya earlier in qualifying, the Black Stars qualified easily in African qualifying. Michael Essien anchors the star studded lineup at midfield while Matthew Amoah and Junior Agogo (awesome name) light up the nets on the attack with regularity. Goalie Richard Kingson looks to be the man who will either clinch or kill Ghana’s chances to get out of this group as he will be busy fighting off the impressive attacks of the rest of the group. Experience is something that Ghana has in spades. In Germany 2006, Ghana was the youngest team (avg. age: 24). Many of those players return. This experience will be a necessary commodity in this group. For Ghana to qualify, they must come out swinging. They don’t play Germany until the last day of group play. An already qualified German team could help a Ghanaian team who will need to win at least one game against Australia or Serbia, and then tie the other team.

Serbia:

Yugoslavia, as the maps show, does not exist anymore. In its wake, two teams qualified for the 2010 World Cup: Slovenia and Serbia (Bosnia and Herzegovina lost 2-0 agg. to Portugal in the UEFA playoffs). To bring this statement home, Serbia did not have a team of its own until late 2006. It took no time at all to get back to the success that Yugoslavia had for decades. The Beli Orlovi bumped Group 7 favorite France without even beating them (0-1-1) by playing stellar defense and winning five straight games in the qualifying stage. Considering the short amount of time Serbia had for this, it was a wonderful victory for the country as France was forced into the playoff against Ireland while their home team got to sit at home and watch the French cheat their way slip past the Irish. Fueling the great defense is Man U’s Nemanja Vidic, who was the 2008-09 English Premier League’s player of the season. Success is certainly not guaranteed, however. Winning their group was impressive, but Ghana cruised their group, Australia didn’t break a sweat and Germany could have played on one foot and still qualified thus getting out of this group will be a great challenge. Likely, a loss is going to be delivered by Germany, but the game against Ghana and Australia is going to be their tournament. A win over Australia could happen, but a rapidly improving Ghana may be a tough matchup.

Predicted Tables:

Germany 2-0-1

Ghana 1-0-2

Australia 0-1-2

Serbia 0-2-1

2010 World Cup Group C Breakdown

Group C, on paper, looks to be have the biggest difference between the “haves” and “have nots.” Soccer superpower England is the marquis team in the group and World Cup regular the United States will look to get out of the group stage, but the other two teams, Slovenia and Algeria promise to make the group interesting.

Algeria:

The Desert Foxes (a very cool name) were the most dominant team in Africa during the 1980s. They qualified in 1982 and even upset West Germany 2-1. What followed was one of the worst acts ever done in the tournament’s history, when in the last game of the groups stage, Germany and Austria played each other. A 1-0 win by Germany would ensure that they would go to the group stage with Austria, who already clinched their spot. That is exactly what happened with Austria giving up an easy early goal 10 minutes in followed by 80 minutes of enthusiastic passing and kicking the ball out of bounds. In 1986, Algeria went to the World Cup again but was stuck in a group with Brazil and Spain. It did not go well for them. Unfortunately this year’s installment, Algeria disappeared from the world scene becoming a cellar dweller in Africa. Making the Cup in Africa isn’t what it used to be, it is very challenging to do so and Algeria should be commended for qualifying, but to qualify, Algeria needed to play a tiebreaker with Egypt to make it in. They won every game at home, but they were less than stellar on the road. Unfortunately for the Desert Foxes, the World Cup is not being played in Algeria. They look to have trouble against England and the US and will race Slovenia for last in the group.

England:

New coach Fabio Capello looks to have his squad more than ready to come into the 2010 World Cup with success in mind. In qualifying, they lit up opposing teams in their group for a UEFA zone high total of 34 goals in ten games. They only lost once, to the Ukraine, well after they had qualified. The group stage was kind the Three Lions, with their biggest competition in the group being the US. England has no shortage of incredible players. Names like Rooney, Lampard and Gerrard will certainly be the cornerstones of the English effort names like Jermaine Defoe could be the X factor who could spearhead their success. The only concern is recent play on the big stage. Putting it lightly, they have underwhelmed at world’s biggest tournament. They haven’t won a Cup since 1966, when they hosted it, and in 2002 and 2006, they fizzled out in the quarterfinals (though in 2006, terrible officiating may have helped that). There is a great deal of pressure, as always, on this team. And recent events with a certain player and a certain player’s wife (and certain goings ons) may have lead to instability. Getting to the round of 16 should be no problem. Taking out Algeria and Slovenia should be easy tasks, and the opening game against the United States will likely decide the group winner.

Slovenia:

Considering before 1991, Slovenia did not have a team at all, they should be applauded for making the Tournament for the second time. They should be applauded even more for taking out solid teams like the Czech Republic, Poland and Russia along the way. To get by Russia, they needed to play a 2 leg series with the Russians and beat them on away goals. They scored one in Moscow late in the game, and then shut out the Russians at home giving an aggregate of 2-2, but with Slovenia scoring the coveted away goal. This shouldn’t be so surprising considering how they qualified. Slovenia gave up an amazing 4 goals in all of qualifying. This stalwart defense is what they will rely on in South Africa for success. And they will be called upon playing against England’s strong attack and the US’s athletes. Despite their impressive route to qualification, it is unlikely that they will perform well enough to get by England of the United States. But a victory against Algeria would not be at all surprising.

United States:

The United States, in 2006, had an incredible amount of promise going into the World Cup. They had a top 10 FIFA ranking, but got places in the group of death. A crushing loss to the Czechs followed by a tough loss to Ghana lead to their early exit. Success on the international stage is crucial, many people believe, for the United States to finally embrace the sport as it is embraced abroad. Success in 2010 is tangible, but not guaranteed. The Stars and Stripes cruised through qualifying, but with Mexico being the only other power in the region, this was no surprise. Players going over to Europe to play have brought back solid play and have raised the level of play of their team. The 2009 Confederations Cup saw the US bring down #1 in the world Spain and then almost take away first place until Brazil mounted a massive comeback. What is usually the problem for the team is scoring. The team plays a physical brand on defense but has issues putting the ball in the back of the net. Playing teams like Slovenia and England will not help fix that fact. A win over Algeria should come, and a win against Slovenia could come if patience is shown. The game against England, on June 12^th to open their campaign will be a tough start. Playing intelligently could lead to a draw. Drawing with England would be hailed almost as victory and building on that momentum could see a run deep into the tournament. Or they could do what they did in 2006 and lay an egg. Patriotic feelings are stirring to hope for the first option.

Predicted Tables:

England 2-0-1

United States 2-0-1

Slovenia 1-2-0

Algeria 0-3-0

2010 World Cup Group B Breakdown

by Slate Quicksilver

Group B in the 2010 World Cup promises one thing: Anarchy. Argentina is the headliner in the group, but deciding a number two team between South Korea, Greece and Nigeria is not an easy task. Nor will it be easy to qualify in this group, as there is no team that is an easy target to destroy.

Argentina:

Lead once again by their country’s biggest sports hero, Diego Maradona, the Argentineans look to be primed to win this group with style and ease… but that is only on reputation and talent. Looking at Argentina's qualifying, you'll see that they needed to scrap together 2 wins to qualify for the World Cup for the 10^th time in a row after dropping games late in qualifying to Paraguay and Brazil and they suffered positively crushing (and confusing) loss to Bolivia 6-1 earlier in process. Argentina, like France, is a team loaded with talent who only needs to qualify to be a potential winner, so we will leave their qualifying woes at that. We will also ignore international super duper mega star Lionel Messi’s lack of success on the international field (he is a destroyer of worlds for Barcelona). Putting it plainly, Argentina will require Messi to retain his form from league play and Maradona needs to get his players in line for the month long tournament. In a country that lives and breathes for their home team’s success, perhaps Maradona is the perfect coach for the team as no one else knows about success in the magnifying light of the world’s biggest event. They will cruise to the round of 16 in style.

Greece:

After winning the 2004 Euro Cup, Greece had high hopes for 2006’s World Cup. Those hopes were not even remotely realized thanks to a pitiful qualifying campaign. 2008’s Euro Cup was not much better. Now that Greece has qualified for the 2010 Cup (their first since ’94), they are hoping to spark whatever created their run in 2004. Greece’s qualifying wasn’t pretty, but they qualified after dispatching the Ukraine in the playoffs 1-0 (agg). Greece will certainly be looking toward erasing their first and only trip to the World Cup from the history books with a successful run. In 1994, Greece laid an egg by losing to Bulgaria, Argentina and Nigeria by an aggregate of 0-10. Yes, zero goals scored, ten goals surrendered. Greece is far better now, and they have to be inspired by the recent fracturing of their country thanks to miserable economic issues, and even more they would surely like some Cup revenge against Argentina and Nigeria. They feature the highest scoring player in Euro qualifying, Theofanis Gekas, and their coach Otto Rehhagel is most certainly not short in experience. Greece has the ingredients for success, but will they put it together like in 2004. Argentina will likely roll over them, but Nigeria and South Korea will be firefights. In the end, it’s hard to see them beating both Nigeria and South Korea, but at least this time… they’ll score a goal.

Nigeria:

In 1994, Nigeria shocked the soccer universe by beating Bulgaria 3-0 to open up the ’94 World Cup and then going on to come within 1 minute in qualifying time to make it to the Round of 8. In 1998, the Super Eagles had another successful run. Unfortunately in 2002, they got drawn into the group of death and didn’t make it out. In 2006, they didn’t qualify. They hope to see a reversal of this downward arc in 2010. Qualifying didn’t make that feeling strong in any way, shape or form. They needed a semi miraculous upset of Tunisia by Mozambique to bail them out from a slow start in the final round of qualifying and a come from behind 3-2 win in Kenya to seal the deal. Nigeria has plenty of European based talent to build upon on their squad, but youth may be an issue. The old guard who took them to 3 straight Cups are almost all gone at this point, so the Super Eagles will need to be held steady as they play superpower Argentina to open the tournament. If Argentina were to flex their muscles, it will be on their veterans to keep the wheels from falling off the bus. Success is hardly a guarantee, but a win and a draw against the smaller teams in their group could lead to a backdoor to the Round of 16. And seeing as how this is Africa’s first Cup, there is no telling if Nigeria will become a secondary favorite by the locals. That would be a huge boost to this young team.

South Korea:

If forced to guess how many times consecutively South Korea has qualified for the World Cup, how many guesses would it take for you to get to seven? It’s not that this team lacks talent, it’s that other than their homegrown super run in the 2002 World Cup (played in their backyard and they got a little help from blind refs), the Taeguk Warriors had a tendency to get steamrolled before their successful run. 2006 saw a near miss to the Round of 16, so being South Korea appears to have shaken the jitters plaguing them in previous campaigns and they will look to keep it going in 2010. They qualified with ease but they had 3 ties with their eternal enemy, North Korea, who also qualified (but they are expected to get obliterated out of the tournament to the point where one expert said the best case scenario for them “not to come in dead last place.” More on that in group G). Korea has been sending more players abroad and the quality of their play is directly correlated to that, but will they be able to secure a victory from Nigeria or Greece? I vote no. This group is not a good matchup for the Koreans, like in 2002 where they had the Americans and a weakened Portugal to get by, and their results will reflect that.

Predicted Tables

Argentina 3-0-0

Nigeria 1-1-1

Greece 0-1-2

South Korea 0-2-1