FIFA World Cup 2010|Kolkatafootball.com | Indian Football Capital

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Here we go! The World Cup begins. Group A Analysis....
On the 18th of November 2009, a 1-1 draw at the Centenario stadium in Uruguay, helped the host nation seal its place at the 2010 World Cup finals at South Africa completing the standings and the roster of 32 teams for the world’s greatest event. 17 days later, the die is cast and the group opponents for each are now decided as the world cup draw took place on this fateful day for the 32 nations. As expected, it was a red hot draw (also with the obvious presence of Charlize Theron as the host doesn’t help make it any cooler) and now we have the matches in front of us. So, what was the spice of it? Well a so called “group of death” involving Brazil, Portugal, Cote d’Ivoire and the little known Korea D.P.R, a relatively easy group for Spain, Netherlands and Italy considering their standards and a tricky Group A involving the hosts South Africa, France, Mexico and Uruguay.

Now let us analyse the groups one by one starting with Group A from today.
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Group A: France, South Africa, Uruguay and Mexico

This looks to be the most competitive group if not the “group of death”. Although for some it can be considered a group no less tougher than the group of death. In any major soccer event over the past decades, the host nations have often ruled the roost. Look for yourself, 1990 World Cup Italy, Italy comes third, 1994 USA, USA knocks out Valderama’s Colombia and gives Brazil a run for its money before bowing out, 1998 France; France emerge World Champions, 2002 Korea and Japan; South Korea become fourth beating the likes of Poland, Portugal, Italy and Spain on their way to the semis and 2006 Germany, Germany comes third.

After looking at their performance in the Confederations cup earlier this year, everyone should be prepared to see South Africa spring up few surprises. With Benny McCarthy back for the bafanas along with Steve Pienaar, we might have a few upsets on the cards. The Bafana bafanas have a strong and well knit outfit that can displace even the best. France are favourites to top the group on paper but football is not played on paper, Is it? Going by the current form, the way they qualified and “the management” of Mr. Raymond Domenech, there is a possibility of France slipping. Although they will have Ribery back (hopefully without another injury lay off) and Henry using his feet this time to do what he does best, they will have to work very very hard.

Mexico are a rejuvenated side. They have a genuine leader in form of Aguirre who has been able to turn their fortunes after the exit of Sven Goran Eriksson. With Andres Guardado in form and young stars as Dos Santos, Vela and Villaluz coming good with the experience of players as Marquez, the evergreen Blanco and Omar Bravo, Mexico looks to be the side to be beaten. They stand as favourites along with France to get through. In fact, if they play to their potential, they can top the group beating all of their opponents. Uruguay have been the most unpredictable side in the history of World football so much so that at a time they went on to win 2 world cups and also lose to unseeded sides in the past to crash out of qualification. This year they have some tough competitive players. Eguren, Caceres and skipper Lugano will be rock solid in midfield and defence whereas Abreu and Forland will spearhead the attack. Uruguay surely can send either Mexico or France packing out of the competition on their day.

The first day matches will hold the key for all the four teams. Even now group openers are so very crucial for any team regardless of their rank and form for building momentum that often it decides the group standings in the end. Coaches often underestimate the value and significance the first matches and sometimes it results in early exit. We have seen that for France in 2002 and Argentina 1990 although Argentina recovered and made it to the finals then. Watch out for France vs Uruguay, the late kick off, as it will have a massive impact on the group results overall. A result in the other match for either SA or Mexico can be a big blow for France and Uruguay if either of them lose or draw. Although being the host nations, South Africa will have minimal pressure, low expectancies and big support which will boost their morale like anything.

South Afria will look to target either Uruguay or Mexico for full points as a win against either of them and a point against 2 other sides might prove to be enough to take them through at the cost of the big ones. Mexico also should target South Africa for full points as it’ll not only put them on top morale wise but also give a upper hand in their second match if they are playing a loser of the other match between France and Uruguay. On paper, at the end of the first round, the group is expected to have France 1st, Mexico 2nd, South Africa 3rd and Uruguay last. However my prediction is France 1st , South Africa 2nd, Mexico 3rd and Uruguay last with the hosts and the French moving ahead and the latinos crashing out.

GROUP-A (FIXTURES)

South Africa | Mexico | Uruguay | France

11 June 2010       South Africa   VS   Mexico   (19.30 PM IST)
11 June 2010       Uruguay   VS   France   (24.00 PM IST)
16 June 2010       South Africa   VS   Uruguay   (24.00 PM IST)
17 June 2010       France   VS   Mexico   (24.00 PM IST)
22 June 2010       Mexico   VS   Uruguay   (19.30 PM IST)
22 June 2010       France   VS   South Africa   (19.30 PM IST)
Pushpargha Chatterjee :MBA, Football Marketing and management VIU, US/Canada
Masters of Science in International Business, Sports Marketing
University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom.
"Easy" is a relative term. Although grammatically “easier” should be the word but I think Argentina have an easy group considering their recent performances on their way to qualification. Well honestly, nothing comes easy but may be, in this case scenario, we can use the word for Argentina because they have managed to avoid teams like France, Portugal, USA, Denmark and Ivory Coast. Argentina is a team that should not be concerned about qualification but they should be more concerned about reaching the semis and finals in World Cups. Sadly however, such is the state of the team that the draw for them will give Diego and co a sigh of relief. Yes, they are still favorites to go through to the next round but will the likes of South Korea, Nigeria and Greece make it easy for them. No way!

Messi has been named the best player in planet but for Argentina he remains a question mark. There is a difference between Club football and International football. Often stars have literally struggled to cope up with the pressure of playing for their nations and there have often been buzzes of their loyalties, dedication, and commitment while questions have been raised about money and professionalism being a part of the players’ success and failure for club and country respectively. Anyways, I don’t think it has been the case with Messi. He is a young lad who has achieved a lot at 22 and still has a long way to go. There already is immense pressure on him to deliver for club and country and everytime he achieves something, the pressure and expectancy increases so it’ll not be surprising if he falters at this stage. The fact that he won the FIFA Footballer of the year award only doubles the pressure and expectations. All the eyes around the footballing world now will be on him hoping he will pull out a piece of magic and win the cup single-handedly which is not fair but that is football and life.

The reason for Argentina’s worries has been nothing more than poor team chemistry. The players don’t know where to play, how to play, what to do, which way to go, and I think if anyone is to be blamed at all then it has to be Diego. His management system has been put into question by not only the media but also footballing experts and it doesn’t look good for Argentina. Simply put, Messi and others have been misused. But in the end of it all, Argentina is Argentina and Maradona is Maradona. How often have we seen that the team that struggle to qualify achieve glory in the end. Although Argentina and Diego can’t thrive on this but they can still start fresh and be positive about it.

Argentina have some fantastic players in the form of Tevez, Messi, Kun Aguero, Higuain, Di Maria and Pablo Aimar but they will still miss Riquelme and his playmaking abilities if he is not available for the cup which looks very likely. Greece looks like the team to give Argentina the biggest problem. Their compact and defensive style of play will make the Argentines work doubly harder with some rash challenges coming in and some physical play. Greece’s closing down style of play will make it very difficult for the Messis and Agueros to find space to run which has been their biggest strength with low centre of gravity as they will be cramped and will be involved in a cagy fight and Argentina historically have struggled in such cagy fights.

Once you close down spaces to players like Messi, Aguero and Tevez, half the game is won as these players cannot fight for the ball physically with the tall and strong Greeks with no place to run. One on one duels will be tough to fight in as in modern day football, there is very little time to breath, forget make a move. Although Messi is special and may be he can do something about it. The physical approach will be hard to deal with whereas long ball play, which is often sought as a remedy for tackling the closing down approach might not suit well for the Albicelestes for the same reason that most of their players are short with an average height of 178 cms compared to 187cms to that of the Greeks and therefore a playmaker of Riquelme’s calibre would be sorely missed who could orchestrate the game from the midfield without much running to do and could pass and skillfully play around with the ball in very short and tight spaces with some beautiful tricks.

Moreover, they will also have to be careful at the back with the lingering threat of Charisteas, Gekas, Samaras and Salpigidis in the penalty area. Greece do have some very good players in their side with teenage sensation Soitiris Ninis being the one to watch out for. His devastating runs with pace on the right hand side and clever cut-ins will be troublesome for any side. Karagounis will be in charge of all the playmaking duties whereas Kyrgiakos, Seitaridis and Torosidis will be rock solid at the back. Nigeria will fancy their chances as the third team and might sneak through with the homely atmosphere of Africa all around. They have good players as Aiyegbeni Yakubu, Obafemi Martins and Obinna upfront and Joseph Yobo and Shittu in defence. Odemwingie will be a special player to watch out for with sudden burst of pace and tricks alongside the evergreen and reliable Kanu whereas John Mikel Obi will be the midfield orchestrator. The only problem that Nigeria currently are facing is having an able coach to guide them to the success path as Shaibo Amodu the current coach has not been very impressive.

South Korea is the weakest team in the group. This is a world cup played in Africa and not Korea and 2002 is long gone when they finished fourth. South Korea are no longer the same side they used to be and history will definitely not repeat itself. There will be not dubious decisions by referees for god’s sake and we won’t have any upsets from Korea this time. They have not performed very well in Qualifiers and many a times have looked dismal and I don’t see that changing. Park Ji Sung will be the key player but other than him, the side doesn’t possess any form of inspiration.

It will be a tough group phase for them and they are very likely to go home with no points. The key matches in the group would obviously be between Argentina and Nigeria and also Argentina and Greece. Meanwhile Greece vs Nigeria would probably determine the second team to go through alongside Argentina. My prediction from this group might come as a surprise to many as I would say Nigeria finishes top with the home like atmosphere all around, drawing Argentina and winning the other games with 7 points and Argentina sneaking through in second with a draw against Greece and the super eagles and beating South Korea with 5 points.

Teams to go through ::Nigeria 1st and Argentina 2nd

GROUP-B

Argentina
Nigeria
Korea Republic
Greece

12 June 2010    Argentina   VS   Nigeria  (19.30 PM IST)
12 June 2010    Korea Republic   VS   Greece  (17.00 PM IST)
17 June 2010    Argentina   VS   Korea Rep  (17.00 PM IST)
17 June 2010    Greece   VS   Nigeria  (19.30 PM IST)
22 June 2010    Greece   VS   Argentina  (24.00 PM IST)
22 June 2010    Nigeria   VS   Korea Rep  (24.00 PM IST)

This is what one of the leading sports newspaper in London read as its headlines. It read EASY, easy for England. Well, I don’t think so. Nothing is easy in this world as it comes. May be on paper it is. When will people realize that the team on paper doesn’t win you matches? It is their performance on field at that very point that determines and proves a side’s strength and dominance. Other than Spain, England, no doubt, stands as the strongest team in the competition on paper. I can go a step ahead and argue that England is, in fact, a better team than Spain. They are more balanced considering the three aspects of the game i.e. Attack, Midfield and defence. Although Spain has the strongest midfield but if you take a look at England you will realize why I would consider them as a favorite more than Spain to win the World Cup.

The first and foremost thing that is to be seen is that England have probably the best manager in the world considering the experiences and track record over different clubs and nations for a long period of time. There has been nothing so far that Fabio Capello has touched and it has not turned to gold. He is the only manager to win domestic league championships with four different clubs (A.C. Milan, A.S. Roma, Juventus and Real Madrid) and all of them, considered to be the giants of the business. He became the manager of A.C. Milan and lead the likes of Maldini, Baresi, Van Basten and Gullit known as the invincibles, to four Serie A titles in 5 years. He then went on to rout, the then favorites, Barcelona 4-0, in the final to win the UEFA Champions League making Milan one of the great sides in the modern era. After which he went on to win the La Liga with Real twice(1997 and 2005) in a gap of almost 11 years as he had other spells in charge with other teams in between, the 2001 Scudetto with Roma and then scudettos with Juve in 2004/05 and 2005/06. The records with the experience says a lot but alongside those factors, the fact, he being a strict disciplinarian a shrewd and a no-nonsense manager, makes him a perfect choice for the English national team which although, over the years, has produced some outstanding teams and players for the World Cup and at present boasts of the best domestic league in World but quite typically it has failed to win anything.

Talking about the players, the defence looks rock solid, comparable to or even better than the Italians. With John “The Rock” Terry and Rio Ferdinand at the back, backed up by the dynamic Jonathan Woodgate and Matthew Upson, well supported by the attacking wing backs like Ashley Cole, Glenn Johnson, Leighton Baines and Wayne Bridge, this team has a water-tight defence. Moving on to midfield, we have Stevie.G (Gerrard), Lampard, Joe Cole, Aaron Lennon, Gareth Barry, Michael Carrick, James Milner and the evergreen, outstanding and Mr. Consistency David Beckham. Although Becks’ position is still not assured, but a player like him should always make it to the squad. Upfront, the team has, according to me, currently the best player in the world, Wayne Rooney, the only player in the world for whom the word “form” in the football pitch doesn’t exist. He considers football as an all round game. He doesn’t believe in only scoring goals being a forward himself as he can cover almost every part of the ground and play the game in every position as perfectly as one can. If he is unable to score goals upfront, he comes back in midfield and plays midfielder, goes right or left as winger, comes behind and defends, plays right back, left back wherever not. According to me, he is the only player of the present generation who can be called as the Ruud Gullitt of the present world and he is well supported by Crouch, Heskey, Bent and Carlton Cole. This team looks like a million bucks but you never know.

Algeria and Slovenia will look to get a result against each other in order to stand a chance of progressing through as beating England or USA looks unlikely. Algeria have a moderately decent side but their performance on the pitch will tell you that football is all about playing well on the pitch and not having big names. They are a strong side on pitch, will not give you much space to run, will commit fouls if necessary and do have two excellent wingers in form of Nadir Belhadj and Bouazza who can run channels against any team in the world and cause danger. Slovenia will also look to pose a challenge however they look the weakest in the lot. Their performance have been good as they beat Russia to qualify however it was more due to Russia’s complacency and lethargic performance than their own effort. Slovenia should be easily brushed aside by England and the US but the Algeria – Slovenia match will be a crucial fixture for both. Slovnia will look to Novakovic to give them as many goals as possible and also Dalibor Stevanovic in the midfield for all the playmaking.

The last comes the “Yankees”, United States of America, the only team in the group that can beat England on their day. Their Confed cup performance cannot be forgotten which saw them beat Spain in semis and almost beat Brazil. With Landon Donovan leading from the front and supported by Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey, USA doesn’t look short of goal scoring power. However interestingly the player to watch out for in the side would be the son of the National team’s manager/coach, Michael Bradley. The father son duo can be extremely lovable to watch and yet dangerous. Michael Bradley is one of those rare species of player who can control the midfield in both attack and defence and has been tagged as the scorer of the most important goals for the country or in short “the crisis man”. The other stars in the side are Freddy Adu, Eddie Johnson, Bocanegra and the towering Onyewu. United States look favourites to go through, along with England, in the next round finishing second however they can even better by beating England and finishing top. The matches to watch out in the group would be England-USA, Algeria-USA and England-Algeria. However, my favorites to finish the group top would be England certainly and USA finishing second. Slovenia finish last while Algeria, the only team to give US and England a run for their money.

GROUP-C

England
United States
Algeria
Slovenia

12 June 2010    England   VS   United States  (24.00 PM IST)
13 June 2010    Algeria   VS   Slovenia   (17.00 PM IST)
18 June 2010    England   VS   Algeria  (24.00 PM IST)
18 June 2010    Slovenia   VS   United States   (19.30 PM IST)
23 June 2010    United States   VS   Algeria   (19.30 PM IST)
23 June 2010    Slovenia   VS   England  (19.30 PM IST)

Will Be Back with GROUP 'D' Analisys soon...
Pushpargha Chatterjee :MBA, Football Marketing and management VIU, US/Canada
Masters of Science in International Business, Sports Marketing
University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom.

GROUP-D

Germany
Australia
Serbia
Ghana

13 June 2010   Germany   VS   Australia   (24.00 PM IST)
13 June 2010   Serbia   VS   Ghana  (19.30 PM IST)
18 June 2010   Germany   VS   Serbia  (17.00 PM IST)
19 June 2010   Ghana   VS   Australia   (24.00 PM IST)
23 June 2010   Australia   VS   Serbia   (24.00 PM IST)
23 June 2010   Ghana   VS   Germany   (24.00 PM IST)

GROUP-E

Netherlands
Denmark
Japan
Cameroon

14 June 2010    Holland   VS   Denmark   (17.00 PM IST)
14 June 2010    Japan   VS   Cameroon  (19.30 PM IST)
19 June 2010    Holland   VS   Japan  (17.00 PM IST)
19 June 2010    Cameroon   VS   Denmark  (24.00 PM IST)
24 June 2010    Denmark   VS   Japan  (24.00 PM IST)
24 June 2010    Cameroon   VS   Holland  (24.00 PM IST)

GROUP-F

Italy
Paraguay
New Zealand
Slovakia

14 June 2010    Italy   VS   Paraguay   (24.00 PM IST)
15 June 2010   New Zealand   VS   Slovakia  (17.00 PM IST)
20 June 2010   Italy   VS   New Zealand   (19.30 PM IST)
20 June 2010   Slovakia   VS   Paraguay (17.00 PM IST)
24 June 2010   Paraguay   VS   New Zealand  (19.30 PM IST)
24 June 2010   Slovakia   VS   Italy  (19.30 PM IST)

GROUP-G

Brazil
Korea DPR
Ivory Coast
Portugal

15 June 2010    Brazil   VS   Korea DPR  (24.00 PM IST)
15 June 2010    Ivory Coast   VS   Portugal  (19.30 PM IST)
20 June 2010    Brazil   VS   Ivory Coast   (24.00 PM IST)
21 June 2010    Portugal   VS   Korea DPR   (17.00 PM IST)
25 June 2010    Korea DPR   VS   Ivory Coast   (19.30 PM IST)
25 June 2010    Portugal   VS   Brazil   (19.30 PM IST)

GROUP-H

Spain
Switzerland
Honduras
Chile

16 June 2010    Spain   VS   Switzerland   (19.30 PM IST)
16 June 2010    Honduras   VS   Chile   (17.00 PM IST)
21 June 2010    Spain   VS   Honduras   (24.00 PM IST)
21 June 2010    Chile   VS   Switzerland  (19.30 PM IST)
25 June 2010    Switzerland   VS   Honduras   (24.00 PM IST)
25 June 2010    Chile   VS   Spain  (24.00 PM IST)



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