Sweet Wisdom

Making predictions for this group is not too much of trouble, at least on the surface value, it is pretty straight forward. There is a team that clearly appears to be the strongest within the group, and there is a team that clearly appears to be the weakest among them. As for the second advancement spot from this group, it is not too hard to determine who will take it, even though it could 'potentially' be contended. So, without even getting into too much analysis, the following conclusion can be made: 1) England 2) USA 3) Slovenia 4) Algeria.

Not Such A Great Come-Back

For the first time in 24 years Algeria is making a come-back to the biggest stage for the sport. However, the odds of them advancing to the next stage seems to be next to none. The worse part is, it is not because they were simply put in the worst group, it is just because they are not prepared enough for this stage. They have suffered 3-consecutive losses leading up to the tournament, until they barely beat UAE. It is a good thing they are not entering South Africa with a losing streak, but can they compete against the other three teams? Only time will tell. One interesting fact is that Algeria has never played against any of the teams in their group, so maybe there are rooms for surprises [no matter how small].

Player to Watch: Karim ZIANI (MF) - This midfielder from Wolfsburg can be really dangerous when he is given some spaces in their attacking half. Ziani can provide some deadly balls to his forwards that can be easily convereted into a goal or two.

Expected Result: Group Stage

Heart Of A Lion

Will the drought be finally over for the mother nation of football? Hopefully! The last time England won the World Cup was in 1966, and that was also their only victory. Ever since then, England's performance has been, not disastrous, rather "never-good-enough-for-first". However, if any year was going to be theirs, this might be the closest one. Led by a true world-class coach Fabio Capello, this Englad team is determined to bring the gold back to the country it belongs to. The overall team composition looks great especially with fantastic midfielders who are capable of being both the spear and the shield. Also, you can never leave out the striking force of Wayne Rooney who. still at a young age, is one of the best players in the world. They should not have too much trouble advancing out of this group, and their chances for the gold does not look too bad either.

Player to Watch: John TERRY (DF) - With the recent injury to the captain Rio Ferdinand, England is in some serious trouble in terms of their defence. This is where Chelsea's captain - John Terry - will have to step it up and maintain a strong wall of defence to protect the goal from any of their opponents. He is definitely one of the best defenders in the world, it's time for him to prove his worth.

Expected Result: Semi-Finals (3rd place)

Barely Made It! Can They Barely Make It Again?

Slovenia is not exactly a team I am too happy with. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against them, I am just bitter because Slovenia beat Russia in the play-off round of European qualifications. I personally think Russia is the team that is more deserving to play in the World Cup, but since they are here, let's give them a benefit of doubt. But, the point is, they barely made it to the tournament on the aggregate, worse yet, they made it through thanks to an away goal advantage. So, their road to the World Cup was not exactly was not smooth, and it would appear their group stage will not be too smooth for them either. So, we'll have to wait and see if they can somehow make it through the the Round of 16 from this group. Perhaps on goal differentials?

Player to Watch: Rene KRHIN (MF) - He might only be a 20-year old youngster entering the tournament for the first time. But this Inter Milan midfielder is full of potentials, and it'll be interesting to see how much he can grow through out the tournament.

Expected Result: Group Stage

USA, USA, USA

Ah, another nation that is on the verge of being "good", and it kind of eats me up. With all the jokes aside, USA is definitely becoming a force to be reckoned with, even though they definitely cannot be considered to be a world-class team. They have a pretty solid team, and their win over Spain during the Confederations Cup [yes, against all odds, it happened] will prove that this team can pull off some amazing stuff when they need to. Fortunately enough for them, they are not placed in a group with too much competition, thus their advancement to the next round is not too far away from their reach.

Player to Watch: Clint DEMPSEY (FW) - This striker for Fullham can be fatal for the opponents if he gets the ball within the penalty box. His accurate shots will make the opponent goaltender look like a fool. Oh, and by the way, he is not too shabby just outside the box as well, so yeah, watch out for that!

Expected Result: Round of 16


Match-Ups:
ENG vs USA - 2:0
ALG vs SVN - 0:2
SVN vs USA - 1:2
ENG vs ALG - 4:0
SLV vs ENG - 0:3
USA vs ALG - 3:1

Team	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
England	3	0	0	9	0	9	9
USA	2	0	1	5	4	1	6
Slovenia	1	0	2	3	5	-2	3
Algeria	0	0	3	1	9	-8	0

This group does not appear to be a group that is hard to make predictions for, even though at any given moment anything unexpected can happen. (That is the beauty of the game.) With that being said this group consists of fairly strong teams, but not a team I would consider to be a top competitor in the later stage of the tournament. So, let's take a look.

Pride of the Host

For an obvious reason, South Africans will hope their team will perform great, especially considering the history of the World Cup, where the host nation very often perform nice enough to pass through the group stage, in addition to the fact that they, among the nations in Group A, are the team that is most prepared for the climate. However, it appears very unlikely for South Africa to perform better than the other 3 teams to move forward.

Player to Watch: Steven PIENAAR (MF) - This midfielder from Everton is the player that will open up the ways for the South African Offense. If South Africa scores in this tournament, this is the player that will start the movement.

Expected Result: Group Stage

High Expectation, Low Quality

On another hand, France is one of those teams that always enter the tournament with high expectations. There are very few teams for whom anything less than winning-it-all is less than satisfactory, and France is definitely one of those teams. However, I just do not believe this is their year. This team does consist of rising talent for Les Bleus, but they are just not there yet. They do not have the team that they had for 1998 and they do not even have the team they had for 2006, event though there are players who participated on both of those tournaments still remaining on the squad.

Player to Watch: Yoann GOURCUFF (MF) - There are many world-class players on this team, but the player that will shine in this tournament is this Bordeaux midfielder. Though he might not be as well known as some of his teammates, he is a force to be reckoned with in the midfield. His strong presence and sharp passes will definitely bring badass-ness to Les Bleus' offense.

Expected Result: Quarter Finals

The best of CONCACAF

Mexico is without a doubt the strongest team in North, Central America and Caribbean, even if the Americans disagree, the fact speaks for itself. This is also a nation that has very many young talents who can create magical touches on the field. Overall, this team might not be what you would call a World-Class team, but at the same time you cannot count out this Mexican team. Composed of experienced players such as Blanco, who participated in 1998 World Cup and rising talent such as Giovanni Dos Santos who, only a couple of years ago, was the biggest star of their youth team, Mexico is not coming to South Africa, just to "chill-out" and participate. But, will they be able to hold the cup on the last day of the tournament? Not likely.

Player to Watch: Carlos VELA (FW) - This young striker from Arsenal is definitely one of the super-stars of this Mexican team, despite only being young-age of 21. In recent friendly matches, he has definitely proven the value of his presence on the field. Especially along side Giovanni Dos Santos, this Mexican forwards will definitely provide a few goal ceremonies their fans can enjoy.

Expected Result: Round of 16

Former Glory

Here is a nation, that was once very strong and renowned for their great football team. Uruguay is one of a few nations in the world who has held the World "Cup". As the matter of fact, they have done it twice. That is double the record of France. However, those victories came a LONG time ago. In recent tournaments, they were just happy to be participating. So, the question is will they be able to bring the gold and glory back to their nation or will they remain to be that "less-than-good" modern Uruguayan team? While, I do recognize strong talents on their team, I think most of the world already knows the answer is leaning towards the latter.

Player to Watch: Diego FORLAN (FW) - Do you remember that guy, who was the back-up striker for Manchester United, but was not really good enough and was sold-off to Villarreal and all of sudden became a top striker in La Liga? Yeah, this is that guy! He is a phenomenal striker, and even though he has not be as successful with his new team Atletico Madrid, he still is a player who can surely score goals!

Expected Result: Group Stage

We are now only exactly one week away from the biggest sport event in the world, World Cup [2010 South Africa]. It is very exciting for a few reasons: 1) It is the World Cup, 2) It is the first time this event is hosted by an African nation, and 3) well, didn't I tell you? It's the World Cup!!! With that being said, as a HUGE football(soccer) fan, what better way is there to start the count-down than doing a pre-analysis and making predictions. So, starting from today, I will post analysis and prediction for each group per day leading up to the World Cup [only thing is one of those days, I will be making a post for 2 different teams.]

The analysis will consist of my thoughts on how each team within the group will perform, a little bit of their history, the best result [I believe] they will get in this tournament, and a player to watch from the team. The prediction will include how I think each match-up is going to turn out, and how the table will look like at the end of the group stage. Pay more attention to the Win-Draw-Loss, rather than the score line, since my predictions for the scores are going to be very arbitrary. [It is there because I believe the result of certain groups might come down to goal differentials.]

So without further wait, here it is! Group A