Quality group game predictions and expert insight. Teams listed in the order I expect them to finish the group.
Group A - France, Mexico, South Africa, Uruguay
France are the certain favourite, despite barely qualifying for the finals (they probably need to go back and take a second look at all of the titles Thierry Henry has won, to make sure there was no other evidence of cheating). They've still got quality players that play in the top leagues, although I don't understand why Anelka is their starting striker.
The Mexicans should be good enough to get past the home-team advantage of the Bafana Bafana's and Uruguay lost to Australia once, so they've got no chance.
Group B - Argentina, Nigeria, Greece, South Korea
No doubt Argentina wins this group - Messi, Higuain, Tevez & Milito, how can they go wrong ? Nigeria have one of the stronger African squads, which should be skilled enough to beat a poor Greek team (how did they ever win the European championships) and South Korea. Based on the Australian and Japanese teams, I'm writing off the rest of Asia and Oceania automatically.
Group C - England, USA, Slovenia, Algeria
England are easily the best team in the group, but I just don't see how they can go on to win the tournament or even go close. Heskey and Crouch as second strikers, a lack of depth in defense - it's a bit of a sad indictment for the country that lays claim to the best league in the world. And that's the problem, too many imports, not enough training and development of young, local players.
USA rely on a few good players, much like Australia, but with pretty weak opponents that shouldn't be a problem. I think most people still haven't worked out which continent Algeria are from. Maybe they meant Albania ?
Group D - Germany, Ghana, Serbia, Australia
Australia - no chance. Now for the rest. The Germans always perform, even when they don't look likely. I just wish they wouldn't claim guys like Klose are superstars every time a world cup comes around. Yeah he's scored a few header goals, so what.
I've gone for Ghana slightly ahead of Serbia, they have a good group of Premier League players, only they'd be much better placed if Essien and Muntari were playing.
Group E - Netherlands, Cameroon, Denmark, Japan
I suppose the dutch 19 game streak in qualifying it something to take notice of. For some reason when I see the squad they look to have one of the former fitter and athletic lineups ? Or maybe it's just the orange outfits. Anyway, second place here was one of the toughest calls. I've gone with Cameroon with no real explanation, so yeah.
Group F - Italy, Paraguay, Slovakia, New Zealand
Italy first, New Zealand last, that's the easy part. Paraguay also seem to perform strongly in the South America qualifiers in recent times, and with Argentina and Brazil around you can't completely look past that.
Group G - Brazil, Portugal, Ivory Coast, North Korea
I actually know very little about this current generation of Brazilian players, but like Germany you always know they are going to put on a good show. I was undecided between Portugal and Ivory Coast until Drogba went down, not it's a bit of an easier decision. Don't really care what happens with C Ronaldo since he left Man Utd, but my prediction is he under performs once again, and perhaps blames the stupid Jabulani.
Group H - Spain, Chile, Switzerland, Honduras
Here's another of those groups with a clear best and worst team, and then two stuck in the middle. To be honest I have no faith whatsoever in Chile, I think they were just ranked higher, or had better gambling odds - one of the two.
So assuming that all goes perfectly, which it won't, this would be the matchups for the next round.
France vs Nigeria
England vs Ghana
Netherlands vs Paraguay
Brazil vs Chile
Argentina vs Mexico
Germany vs USA
Italy vs Cameroon
Spain vs Portugal
And there's only really two games there (Germany vs USA and Spain vs Portugal) that are really fantastic matchups. On with the next round then:
France vs England
Netherlands vs Brazil
Argentina vs Germany
Italy vs Spain
Finally we have a bunch of blockbuster matches, once we get to the quarter finals. After this I see Brazil beating England and Spain beating Germany, then Brazil beating Spain in the final.
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