FENIX'S WORLD CUP BONANZA!!1!!!1
You know what time of the year it is flist! IT'S FIFA WORLD CUP SEASON (shut up, you knew this information in advance and that's final) and so it's time for me to get all footy nerdy and write a huge article predicting who will advance from the group stages.
I'll try to keep it easy to read for those who aren't truly interested in footy......aw who am I kidding only superbus cares about footy on my flist anyway. :(
So in order to spice things up, I'm going to quote superbus' world cup predictions that for some reason he made back in December before anyone knew the final make-up of the teams and we can all laugh at how wrong his predictions are.
Everyone loves to laugh at Chris, right? If that's not incentive enough to read under the cut than I just don't know what to do with you.
WHO I THINK WILL QUALIFY:Mexico and Uruguay
WHY WILL THEY QUALIFY: Because France are a complete mess right now. They only qualified for the world cup through a playoff game with Ireland which they had to cheat to win causing a huge scandal and their coach Raymond Domench is horrible.
Still, only one month ago I would still tip them to go through the group stages but then the big scandal hit.
About half of the French national team boned the same 17 year old prostitute. Yes, 17. That means they're all under investigation for having sex with a minor. The judges decided to delay the investigation till after the world cup. Obviously playing in a World Cup with the threat of 3 years in jail afterward isn't the greatest incentive so they'll play like ass probably.
As for the other teams, Mexico are always solid and they should go through.
Uruguay are perennially underrated but they play as a good solid unit and though they barely managed to qualify from the South American qualifiers it just goes to show how fierce the competition is down there. They even managed to give the mighty Brazilians and Argentinians a run for there money. Plus, I wouldn't bet against their star striker Diego Forlan not banging in the goals.
South Africa? They're okay I guess but not going to make it out of this group. Sure, they did well in the FIFA Confed cup but look at their results: 0-0 vs Iraq, 2-0 vs New Zealand and losing 2-0 to Spain. Sure after that they managed to put good performances in front of Brazil and Spain again but they still lost. Almost only counts in horseshoes I guess.
WHO DID SUPERBUS PICK?: Mexico and France
WHY IS SUPERBUS WRONG?: Because he didn't get to see the french team implode as they did for the scandal. To be fair to him though he wasn't 100% France were going to make it through and gave Uruguay a fair shake.
WHO I THINK WILL QUALIFY: Argentina and Greece
WHY WILL THEY QUALIFY: As much controversy surrounds Argentina and their coach Diego Maradona, it seems to have died down a bit and if recent friendly games show, it seems he finally stopped experimenting and settled on a decent team. Plus, any team that has fucking Lionel Messi (aka the greatest player of our age aka El Nino aka the fucking Messiah) has to make it out of this group. Fuck, We can have a team made up of just the people on my flist plus Leo Messi and we still have a chance to make it out of this group, he's THAT damn good.
Nigeria Are SHIIIT. Their golden age in the early to mid 90s is long gone. "BUT FENIX! They got third place at this years African Cup of Nations" Let's look at how they got there : First they lose 3-1 to Egypt, then barely beat Benin 1-0 because of a lucky penalty and then they manage to win 3-0 against minnows Mozambique. They qualified and faced Zambia and the match ended 0-0 and they barely won by penalties, then they lost to an inspired and young GHANA side 1-0 before barely beating a demoralized Algeria 1-0 to clinch third place.
THEY LIMPED into third place through luck of the draw. They'll be lucky if Messi doesn't put 6 goals past them.
South Korea Are organized and tactical team centered mostly around the inspirational Park Ji Sung of Manchester United and you can be sure if they manage to beat Greece then they have a VERY good shot of making it into the last 16. My only fear is that they seem to be relying on a lot of the same players that brought them glory in 2002 (Ahn Hung Jwan..etc) and they may be too old now but hey, it almost worked when France called up the Veterans for the 2006 World Cup so maybe it will work for Korea also?
Greece Are very strong defensively and as a unit and they work hard. They're boring as fuck but they can grind out results like pros which is why I think they can just edge out Korea Republic for the second ticket.
WHO DID SUPERBUS PICK?: Nigeria and Greece
WHY IS SUPERBUS WRONG?: Because his hate for Maradona has blinded him to the fact that HEY! Argentina are still a pretty decent side.
Plus, when he wrote his predictions in December he couldn't have seen how shitty Nigeria was in the African Cup of Nations (which took place in January).
But at least we are in agreement on one thing: Greece are boring as shit.
WHO I THINK WILL QUALIFY: England and US of A
WHY WILL THEY QUALIFY: Because the two other teams are not very good.
England are always one of the biggest sides in the World Cup but they're the biggest chokers in the world and I don't blame them, the tabloid frenzy and pressure to preform is beyond intense. Even so, their players are in good form, especially star striker Wayne Rooney of Manchester United (He's so good he makes superbus gay for him)and midfielder Frank Lampard. Their coach,Italian Fabio Capello, is also very excellent and good at managing egos. Their biggest weakness is in defense and goalkeeping, it turns out former captain and Paragon John Terry likes to sleep with other footballer's wives and his defensive partner Rio Ferdinand is flaky at best, sometimes good sometimes shit.
They also don't know who is going to be first choice goalkeeper, the situation is so bad they're probably going to choose 37 year old keeper David James of Portsmouth to be keeper. He's a solid if unspectacular choice but it just goes to show the utter lack of decent young keepers in England.
Still, with weak teams like Slovenia and Algeria, England will progress.
USA....What can I say about them? They're organized, they play good football and Landon Donavon is great. They're solid team, no frills or anything and they should easily progress. They might even beat England if they play with confidence!
Algeria Algeria had a really ugly series of matches with their big rivals Egypt with the heads of states of both sides insulting each other and opposing fans bringing knives and weapons in the stadiums, that filtered onto the pitch in their last game in the African Cup where the Algerian players started acting like thugs and went in with very cynical fouls and got two red cards. They're shaken and they're in a bad spell. This can be one world cup to forget for the Algerians.
Slovenia......I can't name a single player on the Slovenian team. That's how obscure they are. They'll probably only be able to grab a single point from a dour draw with Algeria.
WHO DID SUPERBUS PICK?:ummmm England and USA
WHY IS SUPERBUS WRONG?: Not even Superbus can mess this one up. :P
WHO I THINK WILL QUALIFY: Germany and Ghana
WHY WILL THEY QUALIFY: Germany is Germany. No matter how poor their national side gets, they always pull together for a world cup or any other major trophy. They're like the opposite of Spain and England (They're super talented sides who always underpreform, Germany are okay talented side that always overpreform). Keep your eyes on Mario Gomez, I think he's going to make the difference for Germany (now everyone laughs at my silliness for picking Mario Gomez).
Ghana REALLY impressed me at the African Cup of Nations. They made it all the way to the finals with most of their star players (Like Micheal Essien) missing. Who stepped up? Why, the Ghana Under-20s national team that just won the FIFA U-20 World Cup! With a mix of experience and and young talent plus being on home soil in Africa, they'll have a great world cup. Keep your eyes on youngster Dominic Adiyiah, who has a bright future ahead of him.
Serbia Are a tough defensive side, also very boring like Greece but unlike Greece, they're up against some more competitive sides. Nemanja Vidic will be their defensive rock but they don't have much options going forward and have to rely on the one two punch that is their captain Dejan Stankovic (Who is an awesome long range shooter and playmaker) and 6 foot 7 inch tall forward Nikola Zigic. This leaves their attack looking one dimensional and lacking.
Australia are good performers under pressure and have a lot of experienced campaigners like Tim Cahill and Lucas Neill. But the problem is that most of these experienced dudes are playing Europe and only show up from time to time to qualify with the national team (usually their spots are filled in by players from the Australian league) so their could be some lack of cohesion there.
WHO DID SUPERBUS PICK?: Germany and Serbia
WHY IS SUPERBUS WRONG?: Like in group B, Superbus wrote his post before seeing the African Cup of Nations and seeing how great Ghana were in it.
But really, this is a very close group and it's hard to pick two clear winners.
WHO I THINK WILL QUALIFY:Holland and Cameroon
WHY WILL THEY QUALIFY: Because Holland are on fucking fire at the moment. Robin Van Persie, Wesley Sneijder and the fucking amazing Arjen Robben form an attacking triumvirate that is just horrifying to other teams. They also have a good spine with defensive players like Van Bommel and Nigel de Jong as well as strong defenders.
In fact, I'm going to tip Holland to win their first ever World Cup! Yes, I went there.
It's just a damn shame that the great Edwin van der Sar decided to retire internationally and not go for one more World Cup as goalkeeper. Still, his replacements are decent enough.
Cameroon are also a good side. Yes, I know that they under preformed at the African Cup of Nations but at least they didn't look as shit as Nigeria. A team with a world class player like Samuel Eto should never be counted out. But that's also their big problem,Cameroon's strategy boils down to "Pass the ball to Eto" which will work against teams like Japan and Denmark but anyone with a decent defense can shut that down and expose Cameroon's horrible backline and shakey goaltender.
Japan are a lot like South Korea in that they're very organized and tactical...but not as good. In the run up to the tournament, Japan played some friendlies against some other national teams and the results...were pretty poor. They even lost 3-1 to hated rivals South Korea. Now the Japanese can say they were missing their European based stars but the problem is they have only 4 players playing in Europe and it's looking like only two of them are going to the World Cup, Keisuke Honda of CSKA Moscow and Daisuke Matsui of Grenoble Foot 38 in France. That's all well and good but these two players, while good, can't magically turn a bad side into a good one. Their old star Shunsuke Nakamura is also a shadow of his former self
Denmark? I'm just going to quote Chris here:
Don't believe the hype on Denmark; yes, they won their group convincingly in qualifying, but it was a bad group with a French team falling apart at the seams.
Yeah I agree with that statement, if France weren't shit Denmark wouldn't be in the World Cup.
WHO DID SUPERBUS PICK?:Holland and Cameroon
WHY IS SUPERBUS WRONG?: Well....Japan don't "suck" like he thinks they do but he got this one right on the money. Holland will probably bang 3 or more goals past everyone in this group, should be fun to watch.
WHO I THINK WILL QUALIFY: Italy and Paraguay
WHY WILL THEY QUALIFY: Italy aren't really that good.It was a miracle that they won the World Cup last time around and it's nearly impossible to string two of those titles together (the last to do it was Pele-led Brazil in 1962). On paper, they look even weaker than the 2006 vintage but THEY ARE the defending champs so they're at least decent enough to make it to the second round, especially in an easy group like this.
Paraguay are a good if unspectacular side that suddenly just "clicked" and became world beaters, coming in third in the hotly contested South American qualification sector, they would be second too if Chile didn't have a superior goal difference.
A lot of people will talk up the strike force formed by Oscar Cardozo (of Portuguese club Benifica) and Roque Santa Cruz (of Manchester City) but Cruz has been on the bench for the entire season (serves him right for going to Chelski v2.0 >:( ) and is out of form.
The real star? midfielder Cristian Riveros. The box to box midfielder is the crucial link between attack and defense and drives his entire team forward.
Slovakia might as well be called "Team Marik Hamsik (Napoli soccer club)" because he's their only good player. One player does not a team make I'm afraid.
New Zealand......are fucked. Weakest team in the tournament.The only standout player is 32 year old defender Ryan Nelson (Blackburn Rovers) and he's doubtful to make the the World Cup with a knee injury.
WHO DID SUPERBUS PICK?:Italy and Slovenia
WHY IS SUPERBUS WRONG?: Because Superbus continually underestimates South American teams for some reason.
RACIST! >:(
WHO I THINK WILL QUALIFY: Brazil and Portugal
WHY WILL THEY QUALIFY: You really don't need me to explain why I think Brazil are going to go through do you? Good. :)
Portugal are a team that's been shaken by barely qualifying to the world cup despite the talent they have on show. A few months ago, I would think Ivory Coast can beat them but then Ivory Coast played crap in the African Cup and the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), showed the world why he was 2008's World Player of the Year with some fine performances for his club so the cunt Ronaldo should be able to drag Portugal into the second round.
Ivory Coast, a team that looks so good on paper but can't even beat Burkina Faso last January. They were knocked out of the African Cup by Algeria, a shitty team as I mentioned earlier. Didier "I'm a fucking disgrace" Drogba (Chelsea), The Ivory Coast's best player can never seem to replicate his club form on the national level even with amazing teammates like Yaya Toure and Solomon Kalou playing with him.
North Korea Oh god, North Korea knocked out my native Saudi Arabia from the World Cup back in the Asian qualifiers. At the time I was pissed off but now I see it was the divine hand of Allah protecting us from ending up in this hellhole of a group. KOREA WILL BE FUCKED!
Though I don't think they're as weak as everyone thinks they are. They are the masters of a tactic called "parking the bus" which invovles one thing and one thin only "DEFEND FOR GOD'S SAKE DEFEEEEEEEEEEEND". You thought Greece and Serbia were boring? Watch these guys. Star players? Probably Japanese born Ahn Young-Hak. He's the defensive lynch pin in the People's Republic of Defense.
WHO DID SUPERBUS PICK?: Brazil and Portugal
WHY IS SUPERBUS WRONG?: Because...wait....I'm agreeing with superbus a lot......NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOD WHY?!
WHO I THINK WILL QUALIFY: Spain and Chile
WHY WILL THEY QUALIFY: Spain Is the football world's greatest underachievers. They have some amazing talent but ALWAYS choke on the big stage. The best they could come up with was a fourth place finish back in 1950!. Still, they got a pretty easy group and should qualify even with the world's best passer, Xavi Hernandes (Barcelona) possibly out injured. I don't think they can go all the way though.
Chile was one of the best sides in qualifying and managed to come in second in South America with Brazil being the only better side. Chile play some attractive attacking football as evidenced by their goal count in qualifying: 32 goals in 18 games, only one less than the best scoring team (Brazil) Humberto Suazo (Zaragoza)is the top scorer in South American qualifying with 10 goals which is impressive in such an attack minded continent. Their huge weakness though is that they attack TOO MUCH and leave a vulnerable defensive line but Switzerland and Honduras aren't good enough to exploit that.
Honduras are okay but they lack..."oomph" so to speak. They need more OOMPH for gods sake and defensive minded players like midfield general Wilson Palacios (Tottenham Hotspur)or Maynor Figouera (Blackburn Rovers). They can't exploit Chile's defensive weakness and so will bow out of the tournament.
I may be laughed at but I think Switzerland have a good chance to make it to the second round. Skipper Alexandre Frei (FC Basel) and the experienced Blaise Nkufo (FC Twente) have formed a great strike partnership up front with Nkufo being one the best scorer's in the dutch league (He recently led his team Twente to their first Dutch league title ever a few days ago) but they're vulnerable in the back. I think Chile vs Switzerland has a potential to be an unexpected thriller of attacking football, you can quote me on that.
WHO DID SUPERBUS PICK?: Spain and Honduras
WHY IS SUPERBUS WRONG?: Because he is a gringo yanqui racist(and most likely because he saw Honduras first hand in matches against both the USA and Canada)
Whew! that was long! But with my handy dandy world cup guide, even YOU can sound like a football pro to your friends and family.
BTW, superbus 's predictions from back in December are here if you want to see them:
http://superbus.livejournal.com/595803.html#cutid1
I'll try to keep it easy to read for those who aren't truly interested in footy......aw who am I kidding only superbus cares about footy on my flist anyway. :(
So in order to spice things up, I'm going to quote superbus' world cup predictions that for some reason he made back in December before anyone knew the final make-up of the teams and we can all laugh at how wrong his predictions are.
Everyone loves to laugh at Chris, right? If that's not incentive enough to read under the cut than I just don't know what to do with you.
WHO I THINK WILL QUALIFY:Mexico and Uruguay
WHY WILL THEY QUALIFY: Because France are a complete mess right now. They only qualified for the world cup through a playoff game with Ireland which they had to cheat to win causing a huge scandal and their coach Raymond Domench is horrible.
Still, only one month ago I would still tip them to go through the group stages but then the big scandal hit.
About half of the French national team boned the same 17 year old prostitute. Yes, 17. That means they're all under investigation for having sex with a minor. The judges decided to delay the investigation till after the world cup. Obviously playing in a World Cup with the threat of 3 years in jail afterward isn't the greatest incentive so they'll play like ass probably.
As for the other teams, Mexico are always solid and they should go through.
Uruguay are perennially underrated but they play as a good solid unit and though they barely managed to qualify from the South American qualifiers it just goes to show how fierce the competition is down there. They even managed to give the mighty Brazilians and Argentinians a run for there money. Plus, I wouldn't bet against their star striker Diego Forlan not banging in the goals.
South Africa? They're okay I guess but not going to make it out of this group. Sure, they did well in the FIFA Confed cup but look at their results: 0-0 vs Iraq, 2-0 vs New Zealand and losing 2-0 to Spain. Sure after that they managed to put good performances in front of Brazil and Spain again but they still lost. Almost only counts in horseshoes I guess.
WHO DID SUPERBUS PICK?: Mexico and France
WHY IS SUPERBUS WRONG?: Because he didn't get to see the french team implode as they did for the scandal. To be fair to him though he wasn't 100% France were going to make it through and gave Uruguay a fair shake.
WHO I THINK WILL QUALIFY: Argentina and Greece
WHY WILL THEY QUALIFY: As much controversy surrounds Argentina and their coach Diego Maradona, it seems to have died down a bit and if recent friendly games show, it seems he finally stopped experimenting and settled on a decent team. Plus, any team that has fucking Lionel Messi (aka the greatest player of our age aka El Nino aka the fucking Messiah) has to make it out of this group. Fuck, We can have a team made up of just the people on my flist plus Leo Messi and we still have a chance to make it out of this group, he's THAT damn good.
Nigeria Are SHIIIT. Their golden age in the early to mid 90s is long gone. "BUT FENIX! They got third place at this years African Cup of Nations" Let's look at how they got there : First they lose 3-1 to Egypt, then barely beat Benin 1-0 because of a lucky penalty and then they manage to win 3-0 against minnows Mozambique. They qualified and faced Zambia and the match ended 0-0 and they barely won by penalties, then they lost to an inspired and young GHANA side 1-0 before barely beating a demoralized Algeria 1-0 to clinch third place.
THEY LIMPED into third place through luck of the draw. They'll be lucky if Messi doesn't put 6 goals past them.
South Korea Are organized and tactical team centered mostly around the inspirational Park Ji Sung of Manchester United and you can be sure if they manage to beat Greece then they have a VERY good shot of making it into the last 16. My only fear is that they seem to be relying on a lot of the same players that brought them glory in 2002 (Ahn Hung Jwan..etc) and they may be too old now but hey, it almost worked when France called up the Veterans for the 2006 World Cup so maybe it will work for Korea also?
Greece Are very strong defensively and as a unit and they work hard. They're boring as fuck but they can grind out results like pros which is why I think they can just edge out Korea Republic for the second ticket.
WHO DID SUPERBUS PICK?: Nigeria and Greece
WHY IS SUPERBUS WRONG?: Because his hate for Maradona has blinded him to the fact that HEY! Argentina are still a pretty decent side.
Plus, when he wrote his predictions in December he couldn't have seen how shitty Nigeria was in the African Cup of Nations (which took place in January).
But at least we are in agreement on one thing: Greece are boring as shit.
WHO I THINK WILL QUALIFY: England and US of A
WHY WILL THEY QUALIFY: Because the two other teams are not very good.
England are always one of the biggest sides in the World Cup but they're the biggest chokers in the world and I don't blame them, the tabloid frenzy and pressure to preform is beyond intense. Even so, their players are in good form, especially star striker Wayne Rooney of Manchester United (He's so good he makes superbus gay for him)and midfielder Frank Lampard. Their coach,Italian Fabio Capello, is also very excellent and good at managing egos. Their biggest weakness is in defense and goalkeeping, it turns out former captain and Paragon John Terry likes to sleep with other footballer's wives and his defensive partner Rio Ferdinand is flaky at best, sometimes good sometimes shit.
They also don't know who is going to be first choice goalkeeper, the situation is so bad they're probably going to choose 37 year old keeper David James of Portsmouth to be keeper. He's a solid if unspectacular choice but it just goes to show the utter lack of decent young keepers in England.
Still, with weak teams like Slovenia and Algeria, England will progress.
USA....What can I say about them? They're organized, they play good football and Landon Donavon is great. They're solid team, no frills or anything and they should easily progress. They might even beat England if they play with confidence!
Algeria Algeria had a really ugly series of matches with their big rivals Egypt with the heads of states of both sides insulting each other and opposing fans bringing knives and weapons in the stadiums, that filtered onto the pitch in their last game in the African Cup where the Algerian players started acting like thugs and went in with very cynical fouls and got two red cards. They're shaken and they're in a bad spell. This can be one world cup to forget for the Algerians.
Slovenia......I can't name a single player on the Slovenian team. That's how obscure they are. They'll probably only be able to grab a single point from a dour draw with Algeria.
WHO DID SUPERBUS PICK?:ummmm England and USA
WHY IS SUPERBUS WRONG?: Not even Superbus can mess this one up. :P
WHO I THINK WILL QUALIFY: Germany and Ghana
WHY WILL THEY QUALIFY: Germany is Germany. No matter how poor their national side gets, they always pull together for a world cup or any other major trophy. They're like the opposite of Spain and England (They're super talented sides who always underpreform, Germany are okay talented side that always overpreform). Keep your eyes on Mario Gomez, I think he's going to make the difference for Germany (now everyone laughs at my silliness for picking Mario Gomez).
Ghana REALLY impressed me at the African Cup of Nations. They made it all the way to the finals with most of their star players (Like Micheal Essien) missing. Who stepped up? Why, the Ghana Under-20s national team that just won the FIFA U-20 World Cup! With a mix of experience and and young talent plus being on home soil in Africa, they'll have a great world cup. Keep your eyes on youngster Dominic Adiyiah, who has a bright future ahead of him.
Serbia Are a tough defensive side, also very boring like Greece but unlike Greece, they're up against some more competitive sides. Nemanja Vidic will be their defensive rock but they don't have much options going forward and have to rely on the one two punch that is their captain Dejan Stankovic (Who is an awesome long range shooter and playmaker) and 6 foot 7 inch tall forward Nikola Zigic. This leaves their attack looking one dimensional and lacking.
Australia are good performers under pressure and have a lot of experienced campaigners like Tim Cahill and Lucas Neill. But the problem is that most of these experienced dudes are playing Europe and only show up from time to time to qualify with the national team (usually their spots are filled in by players from the Australian league) so their could be some lack of cohesion there.
WHO DID SUPERBUS PICK?: Germany and Serbia
WHY IS SUPERBUS WRONG?: Like in group B, Superbus wrote his post before seeing the African Cup of Nations and seeing how great Ghana were in it.
But really, this is a very close group and it's hard to pick two clear winners.
WHO I THINK WILL QUALIFY:Holland and Cameroon
WHY WILL THEY QUALIFY: Because Holland are on fucking fire at the moment. Robin Van Persie, Wesley Sneijder and the fucking amazing Arjen Robben form an attacking triumvirate that is just horrifying to other teams. They also have a good spine with defensive players like Van Bommel and Nigel de Jong as well as strong defenders.
In fact, I'm going to tip Holland to win their first ever World Cup! Yes, I went there.
It's just a damn shame that the great Edwin van der Sar decided to retire internationally and not go for one more World Cup as goalkeeper. Still, his replacements are decent enough.
Cameroon are also a good side. Yes, I know that they under preformed at the African Cup of Nations but at least they didn't look as shit as Nigeria. A team with a world class player like Samuel Eto should never be counted out. But that's also their big problem,Cameroon's strategy boils down to "Pass the ball to Eto" which will work against teams like Japan and Denmark but anyone with a decent defense can shut that down and expose Cameroon's horrible backline and shakey goaltender.
Japan are a lot like South Korea in that they're very organized and tactical...but not as good. In the run up to the tournament, Japan played some friendlies against some other national teams and the results...were pretty poor. They even lost 3-1 to hated rivals South Korea. Now the Japanese can say they were missing their European based stars but the problem is they have only 4 players playing in Europe and it's looking like only two of them are going to the World Cup, Keisuke Honda of CSKA Moscow and Daisuke Matsui of Grenoble Foot 38 in France. That's all well and good but these two players, while good, can't magically turn a bad side into a good one. Their old star Shunsuke Nakamura is also a shadow of his former self
Denmark? I'm just going to quote Chris here:
Don't believe the hype on Denmark; yes, they won their group convincingly in qualifying, but it was a bad group with a French team falling apart at the seams.
Yeah I agree with that statement, if France weren't shit Denmark wouldn't be in the World Cup.
WHO DID SUPERBUS PICK?:Holland and Cameroon
WHY IS SUPERBUS WRONG?: Well....Japan don't "suck" like he thinks they do but he got this one right on the money. Holland will probably bang 3 or more goals past everyone in this group, should be fun to watch.
WHO I THINK WILL QUALIFY: Italy and Paraguay
WHY WILL THEY QUALIFY: Italy aren't really that good.It was a miracle that they won the World Cup last time around and it's nearly impossible to string two of those titles together (the last to do it was Pele-led Brazil in 1962). On paper, they look even weaker than the 2006 vintage but THEY ARE the defending champs so they're at least decent enough to make it to the second round, especially in an easy group like this.
Paraguay are a good if unspectacular side that suddenly just "clicked" and became world beaters, coming in third in the hotly contested South American qualification sector, they would be second too if Chile didn't have a superior goal difference.
A lot of people will talk up the strike force formed by Oscar Cardozo (of Portuguese club Benifica) and Roque Santa Cruz (of Manchester City) but Cruz has been on the bench for the entire season (serves him right for going to Chelski v2.0 >:( ) and is out of form.
The real star? midfielder Cristian Riveros. The box to box midfielder is the crucial link between attack and defense and drives his entire team forward.
Slovakia might as well be called "Team Marik Hamsik (Napoli soccer club)" because he's their only good player. One player does not a team make I'm afraid.
New Zealand......are fucked. Weakest team in the tournament.The only standout player is 32 year old defender Ryan Nelson (Blackburn Rovers) and he's doubtful to make the the World Cup with a knee injury.
WHO DID SUPERBUS PICK?:Italy and Slovenia
WHY IS SUPERBUS WRONG?: Because Superbus continually underestimates South American teams for some reason.
RACIST! >:(
WHO I THINK WILL QUALIFY: Brazil and Portugal
WHY WILL THEY QUALIFY: You really don't need me to explain why I think Brazil are going to go through do you? Good. :)
Portugal are a team that's been shaken by barely qualifying to the world cup despite the talent they have on show. A few months ago, I would think Ivory Coast can beat them but then Ivory Coast played crap in the African Cup and the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), showed the world why he was 2008's World Player of the Year with some fine performances for his club so the cunt Ronaldo should be able to drag Portugal into the second round.
Ivory Coast, a team that looks so good on paper but can't even beat Burkina Faso last January. They were knocked out of the African Cup by Algeria, a shitty team as I mentioned earlier. Didier "I'm a fucking disgrace" Drogba (Chelsea), The Ivory Coast's best player can never seem to replicate his club form on the national level even with amazing teammates like Yaya Toure and Solomon Kalou playing with him.
North Korea Oh god, North Korea knocked out my native Saudi Arabia from the World Cup back in the Asian qualifiers. At the time I was pissed off but now I see it was the divine hand of Allah protecting us from ending up in this hellhole of a group. KOREA WILL BE FUCKED!
Though I don't think they're as weak as everyone thinks they are. They are the masters of a tactic called "parking the bus" which invovles one thing and one thin only "DEFEND FOR GOD'S SAKE DEFEEEEEEEEEEEND". You thought Greece and Serbia were boring? Watch these guys. Star players? Probably Japanese born Ahn Young-Hak. He's the defensive lynch pin in the People's Republic of Defense.
WHO DID SUPERBUS PICK?: Brazil and Portugal
WHY IS SUPERBUS WRONG?: Because...wait....I'm agreeing with superbus a lot......NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO GOD WHY?!
WHO I THINK WILL QUALIFY: Spain and Chile
WHY WILL THEY QUALIFY: Spain Is the football world's greatest underachievers. They have some amazing talent but ALWAYS choke on the big stage. The best they could come up with was a fourth place finish back in 1950!. Still, they got a pretty easy group and should qualify even with the world's best passer, Xavi Hernandes (Barcelona) possibly out injured. I don't think they can go all the way though.
Chile was one of the best sides in qualifying and managed to come in second in South America with Brazil being the only better side. Chile play some attractive attacking football as evidenced by their goal count in qualifying: 32 goals in 18 games, only one less than the best scoring team (Brazil) Humberto Suazo (Zaragoza)is the top scorer in South American qualifying with 10 goals which is impressive in such an attack minded continent. Their huge weakness though is that they attack TOO MUCH and leave a vulnerable defensive line but Switzerland and Honduras aren't good enough to exploit that.
Honduras are okay but they lack..."oomph" so to speak. They need more OOMPH for gods sake and defensive minded players like midfield general Wilson Palacios (Tottenham Hotspur)or Maynor Figouera (Blackburn Rovers). They can't exploit Chile's defensive weakness and so will bow out of the tournament.
I may be laughed at but I think Switzerland have a good chance to make it to the second round. Skipper Alexandre Frei (FC Basel) and the experienced Blaise Nkufo (FC Twente) have formed a great strike partnership up front with Nkufo being one the best scorer's in the dutch league (He recently led his team Twente to their first Dutch league title ever a few days ago) but they're vulnerable in the back. I think Chile vs Switzerland has a potential to be an unexpected thriller of attacking football, you can quote me on that.
WHO DID SUPERBUS PICK?: Spain and Honduras
WHY IS SUPERBUS WRONG?: Because he is a gringo yanqui racist(and most likely because he saw Honduras first hand in matches against both the USA and Canada)
Whew! that was long! But with my handy dandy world cup guide, even YOU can sound like a football pro to your friends and family.
BTW, superbus 's predictions from back in December are here if you want to see them:
http://superbus.livejournal.com/595803.html#cutid1