The CDB Awards: South Africa 2010

So, the greatest show on Earth has closed its curtains for another four years (at least until the first qualification match for Brazil 2014 is played in about 13 months’ time) and it’s time to have a look back at the good, the bad and the ugly of South Africa 2010 in the CDB Awards.

Best Match

For me, the most exciting match we saw over the competition was one of the most controversial games – Uruguay’s quarter-final win over Ghana could not be matched for sheer emotional drama. We were treated to some fluent attacking football by both sides, particularly by Uruguay, but Sulley Muntari’s long-range swerver just before half-time stole the initiative for the last remaining African side. Diego Forlan scored a great free-kick to equalise and both sides kept going for it, coming up pretty much on a par with each other and tiring a little. Extra time arrived and it got desperate by the end, with Ghana throwing a couple of kitchen sinks into the Uruguay box right at the death before the Hand of God 2: Hand Harder scandal. Luis Suarez’ instinctive block to deny a last-gasp winner spawned a ludicrously overblown furore, demonising the player for doing what any player (the Ghanaians included) would have done in his situation, and Asamoah Gyan’s failure to convert the penalty with the last kick of regulation play was a great shame, but you cannot deny the spectacle of it. Sebastian Abreu’s inappropriate but wonderfully ballsy chipped penalty to seal the win was the icing of the cake.

Runners-up: Slovenia 2-2 USA, Slovakia 3-2 Italy, Germany 4-1 England, Argentina 0-4 Germany, Uruguay 2-3 Germany

Best Individual Performance

Bastian Schweinsteiger’s unstoppable performance at the heart of Germany’s dismemberment of Argentina was a real highlight. It was a display of total dominance, with tough tackling that never became thuggery, sharp passing to start counterattacking moves, and involvement in two of the goals. His free-kick cross for Thomas Mueller’s opener and effortless slipping away from Angel Di Maria and Javier Pastore to supply Arne Friedrich were excellent. His performance only gets better when you consider that just one year ago, Schweinsteiger was an underachieving winger for club and country. Louis van Gaal has done wonders with him over the past season at Bayern Munich and no-one will have been prouder than him as Schweinsteiger announced himself as one of the world’s leading central midfielders.

Runners-up: Mesut Oezil (Germany 4-0 Australia), Diego Forlan (South Africa 0-3 Uruguay), Ryan Nelsen (Italy 1-1 New Zealand), Jean Beausejour (Chile 1-0 Switzerland), Thomas Mueller (Germany 4-1 England), Xabi Alonso (Germany 0-1 Spain)

The “Looks Like An Alien Sent From Outer Space To Play Just Off The Main Striker” Award

Mesut Oezil.

Best Hair

Honduras didn’t stand out for much in this tournament but fringe player (geddit?) Walter Martinez sported a breathtakingly silly dreadlock affair with the tips coloured alternately red and yellow. Stupendous effort.

Worst Individual Performance

I have never seen one player perform so badly and stay on the pitch the full ninety minutes as Wayne Rooney did for England against Algeria. He looked exhausted, uninterested and cripplingly short of ideas, and you could tell how angry he was with his outing by his outburst to the cameras at the end berating the fans for booing the team.

Runners-up: Abdelkader Ghezzal (Algeria 0-1 Slovenia), Sidney Govou (France 0-2 Mexico), John Terry (Germany 4-1 England), Felipe Melo (Netherlands 2-1 Brazil), Mark van Bommel (Netherlands 0-1 Spain)

Best Team Performance

Tough one to call, but I’m going for Spain’s slow-burning victory over Germany in the semi-final. They only won 1-0 and it was only through a Carles Puyol header from a corner, but what was so notable was the total cohesion and patience as they breezed past what had previously been the best team of the whole competition. Before the game there was reason to believe that Germany might neutralise Spain with their determined pressing all over the pitch but it turned out to be the eventual champions who took the German midfield out of the game, constantly hounding the defenders to force long balls forward, which just completely nullified Schweinsteiger, Oezil, and Sami Khedira. The scoreline suggested a close game, but it really wasn’t at all. Contrast Portgual’s 7-0 victory over North Korea where Carlos Queiroz’s side were no better than average at any stage.

Runners-up: Uruguay (vs. South Africa), New Zealand (vs. Italy), Germany (vs. Argentina)

Most Inspiring Team

Look no further than New Zealand – who would have predicted before the tournament kicked off that the All Whites would be the only team to leave South Africa with an unbeaten record? Ricki Herbert’s lower-leaguers and amateur bank clerks played with more pride than anyone else and you couldn’t help but wish they could have found that elusive goal against Paraguay which would have taken them through as group winners. Their backs-to-the-wall defensive performance to earn a draw with the holders Italy will live long in the memory.

Breakout Star of the Tournament

Turned out to be Bayern’s Thomas Mueller, the 20-year-old right-sided forward who came out of nowhere to sneak the Golden Boot with five goals and three assists. Displayed incredible poacher’s instincts to always arrive in the box at exactly the right time with lethal finishing to boot. Surely the natural successor to Miroslav Klose and now established as a world star.

Worst Team Performance

England’s dire 0-0 with Algeria wins on match alone, but France’s limp capitulation to Mexico takes the crown for its aftermath as well as the ninety minutes themselves. Literally nobody had a good game for France, utterly devoid of any desire and looking desperate to be eliminated just to get away from the clownish Raymond Domenech. Nicolas Anelka’s foul-mouthed tirade to the manager at half-time sparked a few days of hilarious self-destruction that brought such shame on everyone involved that President Nicolas Sarkozy vowed to personally conduct an investigation into the team’s performance.

Runners-up: Greece (vs. South Korea), England (vs. USA), Algeria (vs. Slovenia), Slovakia (vs. Paraguay), Switzerland (vs. Honduras), Honduras (vs. Switzerland), England (vs. Germany)

Team of the Tournament

Playing 4-2-3-1 as nearly all the successful teams did.

Iker Casillas (Spain); Philipp Lahm (Germany), Gerard Pique (Spain), Diego Lugano (Uruguay), Jorge Fucile (Uruguay); Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany), Sergio Busquets (Spain); Thomas Mueller (Germany), Andres Iniesta (Spain), David Villa (Spain); Diego Forlan (Uruguay)

Best Overall Player

Forlan for me was the only man to play really well in all seven games, leading his team to a fantastic fourth place finish with intelligence and flair. Never once did he dive or complain to the referee either, just got on with the job in hand. By all accounts the nicest man at the World Cup, too, always taking time to sign autographs or talk to journalists and fans.

Player Most Likely To Have Earned A Big Money Transfer

Most people will remember Luis Suarez for the handball against Ghana but don’t forget his three well-taken goals, including an absolute pearl against South Korea, his searing pace and constant willingness to get in the box and shoot. Considering his fifty-plus goals for Ajax last season, expect plenty of rumour regarding his destination in the next few weeks.

Runners-up: Mesut Oezil (Germany), Kevin-Prince Boateng (Ghana)

Goal of the Tournament

Look no further than Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s straight-as-an-arrow rocket blast against Uruguay in the semi-final. After several keepers had been caught out by the late movement of the Jabulani ball, Fernando Muslera could not complain about this one. From the moment it left his boot, it never deviated and struck perfectly off the inside of the far post and in.

Runners-up: Siphiwe Tshabalala (South Africa, vs. Mexico), David Villa (Spain, vs. Honduras), Fabio Quagliarella (Italy, vs. Slovakia), Keisuke Honda (Japan, vs. Denmark), David Villa (Spain, vs. Chile), Andres Iniesta (Spain, vs. Chile), Carlos Tevez (Argentina, vs. Mexic0), Miroslav Klose (Germany, vs. Argentina)

Alternative Team Of The Tournament

This is a team of players who might not have gone all the way in the tournament but still stood out as great without really getting all the praise they may have deserved. In many ways every bit as good as those who made the main team of the tournament. Also playing 4-2-3-1.

Samir Handanovic (Slovenia); John Pantsil (Ghana), Ryan Nelsen (New Zealand), Yuji Nakazawa (Japan), Carlos Salcido (Mexico); Anthony Annan (Ghana), Diego Perez (Uruguay); Landon Donovan (USA), Yasuhitu Endo (Japan), Jean Beausejour (Chile); Nelson Haedo Valdez (Paraguay)

Day 16: One Gi-Gyan-Tic Leap For Africa

Uruguay 2 – 1 South Korea

USA 1 – 2 Ghana (a.e.t.)

Not a great deal of time to discuss yesterday’s games, unfortunately. I may touch on them when reviewing Germany’s and Argentina’s wins this evening, or on a rest day.

Man of the Day: Luis Suarez was the benefactor of some hideous South Korean defending for his first goal but the winner was a sublime curler from the corner of the penalty area.

Day 15: Chile Lose Cool But Swiss Avoid Further Conflict

Portugal 0 – 0 Brazil

North Korea 0 – 3 Ivory Coast

Chile 1 – 2 Spain

Switzerland 0 – 0 Honduras

Well, in the end, the tables in Groups G and H turned out in much the same order as was generally expected, but there were some surprises on the final day of group stage action at South Africa 2010.

Portugal and Brazil kicked us off with a pretty dire stalemate, both teams happy to settle for what they’d got and showing very little flair or attacking interest. Brazil continued their streak as the least exciting South American side in the tournament, and there were more yellow cards than goalmouth incidents, getting to the extent in the first half as little feuds started to spring up between certain players that Felipe Melo had to be dragged off by Dunga just before half-time to avoid picking up a second booking. With Brazil missing Elano and Kaka, there was bound to be a slight reduction in flair, with the two replacements Dani Alves and Julio Baptista naturally more physically powerful players than technically gifted, but even with a nine-goal cushion separating them from the Ivory Coast, Portugal dared not attempt to go for the win that would have seen them top the group. Certainly this game suffered from the Ivorians’ failure to beat Portugal when Carlos Quieroz’s side were so utterly abject in the group opener, because that would have seen Portugal needing to attack. Instead what was talked up before the tournament as one of the most exciting games turned out to be a real disappointment.

There was little point in turning over to watch North Korea and the Ivory Coast, either, because while that game did at least produce some goals as the Ivorians won 3-0, everything they did hinged on a Brazilian victory. North Korea, who I’d hoped might be determined enough to leave with at least a point to really compete, just didn’t really show up, and their defense looked as frail as it had a few days ago. Sven’s boys bombed forward essentially at will and probably should have scored more than they did. Their second was great to watch – not for its scorer Romaric’s simple header but for the volley that ricocheted off the crossbar to set it up. Didier Drogba took the ball in mid-air with a sublime controlling touch before swivelling and rifling it powerfully against the bar. It was a moment of star quality that raised predictable “what if?” questions about what might have been had he been fully fit to face Portugal. It’s a shame for Drogba that his World Cup career will now almost certainly be over after two consecutive groups of death. He has his critics and he’s certainly prone to disappointing acts of petulance and dishonesty on the pitch, but he’s an astonishing player and a great humanitarian who does lots of work for his several charities, so I feel sorry he hasn’t had more of a chance of shine on the biggest stage of all.

No such injustices in Group H, where the two most exciting teams to watch managed to qualify (scoring some incredible goals in the process), and the closest rivals to Greece’s dullest-team-in-world-football title, Switzerland, were lucky to escape with a 0-0 draw with Honduras that put them out. I didn’t watch much of that game but I saw enough to know that the Swiss were again limited in attack (with Eren Derdiyok yet again missing one or two pretty easy chances) and that they should have lost, with a Walter Martinez goal ruled out for offside that looked on to me, and Georgie Welcome missing a golden chance right at the end of the game from very close in. Oh well, I don’t think anyone will really miss either team.

Chile 1 – 2 Spain was a slightly strange game in that Chile were the dominant side in the first half yet still went in at half-time two goals down. Both Spanish goals were contenders for goal of the tournament, the first a simply perfect sort-of golf drive of a shot by David Villa pouncing on a goal left open by Chile captain Claudio Bravo’s mad dash out of the area to rob Fernando Torres. That sort of shot looks easy but would usually be missed, but Villa executed it perfectly to take him joint top of the Golden Boot standings. The second was scored after the referee, Marco Rodriguez (a.k.a. Dracula), played advantage to a foul by Marco Estrada. Spain took full advantage with some gorgeous interplay between Villa and Andres Iniesta, who calmly placed his shot from the edge of the area precisely past the gloves of Bravo. I can’t decide which one I enjoyed more, but they were both absolutely beautiful. The foul in question led to the predictable culmination of a period of Chilean indiscipline, as Estrada was shown his second yellow card. The trip looked accidental but Estrada should have received his second booking a few minutes earlier when he hacked down Iniesta, so it rather evened out, but Rodriguez the referee really did have quite a poor game. Thanks to his distinctive appearance I do remember him from previous internationals and every time I’ve seen him he’s been too quick to hand out cards, and doesn’t even get them right that often. I hope he doesn’t take charge of many more matches in this tournament.

To Chile’s credit they kept going despite the obvious setbacks and opened up the game again with a goal just after the restart. Rodrigo Millar, who had only just come on at half-time, took a shot from the edge of the D that took a severe deflection off Gerard Pique past Iker Casillas. However Spain’s numerical advantage started to show and the game slowed down as both teams realised that this result was working out for both of them. Chile were beaten but did play reasonably well apart from the bookings, which earnt three important players suspensions for their second round meeting with Brazil, which could be a real cracker. I wouldn’t discount them from winning that by any means. Spain had another good game, with Pique impressing at the back and Iniesta and Villa running the show up front. Torres had another off day again, though, and was hauled off just a few minutes into the second period for Cesc Fabregas. He looked some way short of form and fitness and I hope he can recover to play a bigger part in this World Cup, because when both are fit and firing his partnership with Villa is the best in the world. Spain now go on to meet Portugal and they should win that game. Their midfield in particular stands out as being several levels above the likes of Raul Meireles and Tiago.

Man of the Day: David Villa had another great game, getting into some great positions and showing a really quick brain in some of his link-up play. His goal really was superb, as well.

Tomorrow the knockout stages begin! It’s getting serious now, and I think we will be seeing a win for Uruguay over South Korea, and I’ll go for an extra-time victory for the USA over Ghana.

Day 12: Game Evra for France and the Hosts

Mexico 0 – 1 Uruguay

France 1 – 2 South Africa

Nigeria 2 – 2 South Korea

Greece 0 – 2 Argentina

Our first pair of second round matches has been decided and, after some frenetic matches, it’s Uruguay and Argentina who secured top spots to book games against South Korea and Mexico respectively. Which means that it’s the end of the road, as I think everybody was suspecting, for the French circus of merde, but they sadly managed to assume the role of party poopers by derailing what looked like a possible South African miracle.

After a successful testing of my dual-wielding screen system allowing me to follow both matches at the same time, I originally began by focusing my attention on the game at the top between Mexico and Uruguay, an exciting match between two teams who clearly did not want to have to meet Argentina in the next round. It was end-to-end with chances for either team and Mexico nearly took the lead when Andres Guardado fired an absolute missile from range that thumped against the crossbar and bounced narrowly back into play. I daresay the goal is still rattling from the blow. By and large, though Mexico continued to suggest that they lack a striker with enough of a poacher’s instinct to finish off their exciting attacking moves. Guillermo Franco started again today and he just doesn’t look like he has the finishing ability to be a threat at international level. By contrast Luis Suarez finally got the goal that was definitely coming to him by neatly tucking in a header just before half-time, the result of a fabulous cross by Edinson Cavani on the far right. The game continued in a similarly attacking vein for most of the remaining time, and the competitive edge to a game many were writing off as a draw was obvious to see when Diego Perez suffered a head wound after jumping aggressively with Giovani dos Santos. However, I had mostly switched my attention to the other game in the group since about the half-hour mark.

France and South Africa went into the game knowing that both teams needed to win by at least four goals to stand a chance of qualification, but this France team giving such a performance would have been unimaginable. A team in total disarray following their well-publicised chaotic few days (I’ll probably go into more depth on the subject when we start having rest days with no matches played), France saw their captain, Patrice Evra, dropped along with Abidal, Toulalan, Govou, Malouda and, obviously, Nicolas Anelka, with Yoann Gourcuff restored to the team and Djibril Cisse and Andre-Pierre Gignac starting up front. I can only assume that Thierry Henry was one of the ringleaders of this players’ revolt otherwise he surely should have started in a game where big game experience was required. South Africa were far more settled mentally, though they too made a few changes to field a more attacking 4-4-2. The hosts started brightly, undaunted by the enormity of their task, and got just reward with Bongani Khumalo’s header from a corner opening the scoring.

The moment that really gave hope to the possibility of the rout they needed was not a goal but the somewhat harsh red card for Gourcuff halfway through the first period. There was certainly contact with the elbow in the defender’s face but it’s hard to say he meant it – there didn’t really appear to be any malice in the collision. Still, Gourcuff will probably have been glad to have been shot of the Domenech regime just that bit earlier than everyone else. Almost immediately after South Africa doubled their advantage, Katlego Mphela bundling over the goal line to get the goal he has deserved for his hard-working performance throughout the group stages. At half-time it really seemed possible that South Africa could pull off this miraculous achievement – France again just weren’t there, the players looking tired and frustrated with frankly awful body language, and South Africa just had to push them hard enough. Mphela had a couple of decent opportunities in quick succession early on in the second period but couldn’t quite convert them, but you sensed that everything was still possible even as another twenty minutes passed and the chances slowed somewhat. It was all brought down to earth, though, when Franck Ribery made an explosive burst into the penalty area with the ability we all know he’s capable of but that we hadn’t seen at all so far, the goalkeeper rushed to meet him by necessity but Ribery pulled it back and Florent Malouda could not miss.

It was immediately obvious that South Africa didn’t have the capacity to recover and score the required three in twenty minutes. The whole thing petered out from there. It’s a huge shame to see the hosts leave the tournament, the first time it has ever happened in the group stage, but they have done better than many expected them and will look back with some pride at their victory over a great footballing nation when the disappointment has been digested. France will be glad to get out of the tournament and return home, finally free of the tyrannical lunacy of Raymond Domenech and ready for a serious makeover under Laurent Blanc. Uruguay advance to the last sixteen in form and could realistically reach the semi-finals, while Mexico will probably fall short against Argentina.

Speaking of Argentina, I started by paying attention to their match with Greece hoping to see the ultra-negative anti-footballers punished by some more of Argentina’s incisive attacking play. I was disappointed. Greece, knowing that they needed to avoid defeat to have a chance of progression, parked the bus as we expected, but Argentina too knew that a draw secured first place and so declined to take any risks. Lionel Messi, surprise captain for the day with Mascherano rested and Juan Veron overlooked, was kept mostly quiet in the early stages by Sokratis Papastathopoulos. Late on they managed to snatch the goals that ensured a 100% record for the group through Martin Demichelis, who has been suspect at the back so far but who thumped home after a corner caused panic in the box, and Martin Palermo, Maradona’s favourite who was brought on for the last fifteen minutes and tapped in after Messi’s shot was palmed away by the Greek keeper. It was a pretty dull match and so I spent little time watching it, so forgive the lack of in-depth analysis.

Much more engrossing, not necessarily because of the standard of football, which was raised in aggression but low on quality, was Nigeria’s draw with South Korea that ended the hopes of another African nation. Considering how the two sides have played in their three games I don’t think it’s unfair to say that South Korea definitely deserved to go through more, but we may look back on the group stages in a few days’ time and say that this really was the group where an African nation really should have progressed. Nigeria were typically sloppy in front of goal throughout the game. They did take the lead through Kalu Uche’s tap-in but wasted a few good chances, none more awfully and hilariously than Yakubu’s miss from four yards of a totally open goal. It was harder to miss than to score and that moment is destined to be replayed on a thousand “World Cup Gaffes” DVDs hosted by Danny Dyer. Yakubu will have been glad that Kim Nam-Il conceded a penalty just a few moments after coming on allowing him to put the ball in the net a couple of minutes later, but that equaliser to Lee Jung-Soo’s scruffy goal and Park Chu-Young’s excellent free-kick strike should have been followed up on competently, and it just wasn’t. Nigeria tried to get forward but never really looked like scoring a third. South Korea, for their part, weren’t great but did enough to hold on. They were less fluent than they have been in previous games and will need to recover the form of their opener if they are to overcome Uruguay. Argentina on this form should get past Mexico and could go far, though my personal suspicion is that they will meet Germany in the quarters and exit then.

Man of the Day: In truth nobody really excelled today but Mphela did as much as anyone to push South Africa towards what could have been a famous feat. Luis Suarez, though, probably had the best performance of the day, so we’ll give it to him.

Tomorrow, I expect the USA to have little trouble beating Algeria and frankly I refuse to commit to any sort of prediction regarding England. Germany will beat Ghana, though I’d love for the Black Stars to prove me wrong about African sides in the last sixteen, and I’d be surprised at any result other than a Serbian win over Australia.

Day 11: I Wouldn’t Tell The Dear Leader If I Were You…

Portugal 7 – 0 North Korea

Chile 1 – 0 Switzerland

Spain 2 – 0 Honduras

The second phase of group matches came to a close tonight with things looking pretty clear in one group and wide open in another, although nobody has actually confirmed qualification yet in either case. Unfortunately all three games turned out to be mostly one-sided affairs, too.

This was most evident in the opening game, the final lunchtime kick-off where Portugal broke North Korea’s willpower to create a pretty depressing seven-goal rout. Watching the first twenty-five minutes, you wouldn’t have seen it coming, with the North Koreans having the better of the earlier stages, every bit as resistant in defense as they were against Brazil but now with some added adventure, getting forward with more purpose than the Portuguese. The captain Hong Yong-Jo was particularly prominent, getting involved with most of the North Korean play in the final third where star striker Jong Tae-Se was less visible, unable to get the better of Ricardo Carvalho and Bruno Alves. As soon as the first goal went in, though, a simple finish by Raul Meireles from an incisive Tiago pass, their determination was visibly weakened, and this only got worse in the second half. They had been lucky to hang on to 1-0 at half-time but it only took Simao five minutes to extend the lead, and then the underdogs were completely lost. Probably feeling a little beaten down by the driving rain and plentiful Portuguese support, their dogged determination and organisation in defense simply melted away as tiredness crept in quite quickly. The goals became easier and easier to come by for Portugal, particularly using the avenue of Fabio Coentrao hurtling up from left-back, who had a very good game, making mincemeat of Cha Jong-Hyok.

Portugal haven’t confirmed their qualification but now are clear favourites to get through, because the Ivory Coast will realistically need to at least match this scoreline on Friday and hope that Brazil, who are already through and will be able to rest a few players, do a similar job on Portugal. The latter isn’t that unlikely, actually – Portugal just aren’t all that, especially in midfield, and this result should not be taken out of proportion – but it’s tough to see the Ivorians producing such a concerted, focused battering ram of an attacking performance. They, perhaps above all other teams here at the tournament (except perhaps England), are the most prone to producing attacking displays that do the job but are not truly representative of their potential power. North Korea are out but I think we can safely say that this result will not go down well at home and they will be under pressure to get at least a point in the last game, so I have trouble imagining the Ivory Coast scoring a great many. Their fate seems sealed.

There were fewer goals in the second match but it was far more compelling viewing than Portugal’s victory – Chile eventually secured a 1-0 victory over Switzerland, who, with ten men for most of the game following Valon Behrami’s entirely preventable red card for a raised arm in the face, parked the bus for as long as possible and nearly got away with it too. There was only ever going to be one winner but it took a long time to get there, with Chile not quite being able to take full advantage of their total dominance. Returning striker Humberto Suazo looked short of match fitness and sharpness and was duly hauled off at half-time. Alexis Sanchez was again impressive with his pace and trickery but also showed the same lack of a killer touch as he had against Honduras, save the effort that he had rightly disallowed for offside. The standout attacker was Jean Beausejour, who put in several testing crosses from the left but that nobody was able to pick up on properly. The breakthrough came with about fifteen minutes to go when Esteban Paredes, the substitute striker who went on to miss two great and pretty easy chances to take the game beyond doubt, whipped in a lovely cross from the byline and CSKA Moscow winger Mark Gonzalez headed it well at an angle that prevented Stephan Lichtsteiner from blocking it lest he end up handling the ball. Chile definitely deserved to win but will be worried with the quality of their finishing. Chances may not come quite so easily against Spain in the final game.

A lot was taken away from the game by its frustratingly over-officious referee, Khalil Al Ghamdi, who set the tone by booking Suazo in the first minute and blew his whistle for pretty much any contact whatsoever. He ended up issuing nine yellow cards and a red, some of which, shall we say, were more deserved than others. Despite his clear desire to take full control of the game, Al Ghamdi seemed to be losing it as on more than one occasion the game threatened to descend into a brawl as Swiss and Chilean players clashed preparing for set pieces. It wasn’t easy on the eye, that’s for sure. Switzerland, for their part, weren’t great, even accounting for Behrami’s dismissal. The defense did well, with Diego Benaglio looking assured in goal and Stephane Grichting putting everything into his performance, but the midfield struggled to stop Chile’s dominance of posession in just the situation where Gokhan Inler should have been at his best. Blaise N’kufo, hero in the Spain victory, just couldn’t get anything done alone up front (poor captain Alexander Frei, just returned from injury, was withdrawn after the red card) and was most involved in the game when trying to defend set pieces. They have to give Honduras as big a thwacking as possible on Friday to maximise their chances of qualification but I just don’t see that many goals in them. They’re a 1-0 side built for exactly the situation that Spain put them in, and I think they could struggle to do the task required of them against the Hondurans.

Speaking of Honduras, they’ll be pretty chuffed to only have lost 2-0 having been outclassed in every department by a much more confident Spain, and particularly David Villa. The Barcelona forward showed his class by scoring unquestionably the goal of the tournament so far, beating two men as he ran in from the left flank and using the defender’s incoming tackle to slide down and power the ball past the grasp of Noel Valladares. He doubled his tally just a few minutes into the second half with another great shot, albeit one that took a crucial slight deflection on its way in from just outside the area. He seemed in such potent form that it was quite a shock to see him put the ball comfortably wide from the penalty spot after the impressive Jesus Navas was brought down in the area, having sent the keeper the wrong way.

Spain as a whole were very good, although still short of top form. The introduction of Navas from the start gave them a little more flexibility with greater crossing ability. Fernando Torres, the main target for such crosses through the middle, was a bit off-colour, though, obviously not yet at full match fitness following his injury, but Xabi Alonso and Sergio Ramos did well. Xavi got himself into great positions and passed well as usual but should have been more willing to shoot when it was one. One chance towards the end of the second half could have been taken if he’d had the drive to hit first time the return pass from Navas on the edge of the area.

Honduras just weren’t able to cope with Spain and never looked like equalising, although half-time substitute Georgie Welcome kept running and running as if he alone believed otherwise. Sergio Mendoza had a torrid time at right-back, given the unwanted task of keeping a lid on Villa, and the midfield just weren’t able to hold on to the ball for any length of time. Switzerland should be more to their liking, though, and it must be said that forward Walter Martinez has my favourite hairdo of the tournament (I’m sure that thought will comfort them after such a comprehensive loss).

Man of the Day: It has to be Villa, though he’s run close by Fabio Coentrao and Jean Beausejour. He underlined his status as the deadliest striker in the world with his stunning first goal and did my fantasy football team a world of good too.

Tomorrow, Groups A and B come to a close. Group A will be a close one but I have a feeling Uruguay will sneak a win over Mexico, and France’s remarkable spiral of self-destruction that saw them refuse to train yesterday will almost certainly end in a hilarious loss to the hosts South Africa. I think that’s what everyone would like to see happen, anyway. In Group B it should be straightforward for South Korea and Argentina, who should not have problems beating Nigeria and Greece respectively. I’ll probably be watching Mexico-Uruguay and Greece-Argentina but may switch games if it looks worth my while. See you then.

Day 7: …and Aquariuses Can’t Manage

Argentina 4 – 1 South Korea

Greece 2 – 1 Nigeria

France 0 – 2 Mexico

Groups A and B really took shape today as one former World Cup-winning team all but booked their spot in the second round, one former European Championship-winning side came from behind to stay in the hunt for theirs, and another team who had won both in the last twelve years were practically spectators as their own chances all but vanished right before their eyes.

The first of those, of course, was Argentina, who survived a wobble in the first period of the second half to seal what was eventually a comfortable victory over South Korea. Despite a lot of hard work and effort from Huh Jung-Moo’s side, Maradona’s men, particularly Leo Messi, ran riot throughout the first half and were given the goal they deserved after about fifteen minutes when Park Ji-Sung’s poor marking in the penalty box allowed Messi’s clever free-kick to drift over him and off the shin of the unsuspecting Park Chu-Young, who couldn’t really have done anything about it. Gonzalo Higuain then scored the first of his hat-trick by tucking away a routine header after more poor defending from South Korea saw two defenders in red trying to cover four attackers as Maxi Rodriguez’ cross came in. With the defence overstretched, Higuain’s job was really done for him. In fact, even though he scored a hat-trick, Higuain wasn’t really the most effective player on the pitch, his other goals coming from a tap-in after Messi did brilliantly to set up a chance and hit the inside of the post, and then another fantastic Messi run before Sergio Aguero put it on a plate for the Real Madrid striker. What Higuain did well was being in the right place at the right time, but all the work was done for him and any player would have scored those goals. That’s not saying he had a bad game, just that history will say that this was his day, but in reality, it was Messi, and, in the first half, Tevez and Rodriguez, who should take the plaudits for this win.

South Korea showed some signs of rallying in the first part of the second half, their lucky break provided by an awful Martin Demichelis error in the dying seconds of the first half, and if Yeom Ki-Hun had put away the great chance that opened up for him while the score was still 2-1, things might have been different. But in fairness they did not deserve a point from this game, never really looking like they could cope with the Argentinian forwards. They will be upbeat about their chances of progression, though, with Nigeria next up for them and Greece having to play Argentina.

Greece face a really tough test to make the second round having to play Messi et al in the final group game but they are at least in with a shout, which is not what I was expecting to say about half an hour into their match with Nigeria. Having conceded a rather hilarious goal in which Peter Odemwingie successfully duped the Greek goalkeeper Tsorvas into diving to meet the header but in fact left Kalu Uche’s cross alone to let it drift into the far corner of the net, Greece were just as awful in the first thirty minutes as they were against South Korea, with no drive or coherence at all and looking like one of the worst teams I’d ever seen at a World Cup. Then one moment of madness went their way – only Nigeria’s Sani Kaita will know why he aimed a kick at a Greek player on the touchline – and they were playing against ten men with an hour to play. Suddenly the Greeks decided they had a shot and pushed forward a bit. The equaliser was lucky, though, Dimitrios Salpingidis’ shot deflecting harshly off a defender, but after it went in you couldn’t really see Nigeria getting back into it.

The balance of results today though means that nobody is out of it yet in Group B. Even Nigeria can still scrape through if they beat South Korea by two or three goals and Greece get the spanking from Argentina that I think everyone expects them to on this form, but for my money I would still expect South Korea to qualify. They may not be able to cope with Messi in full flow but, frankly, who can? They still have more quality and composure about them than Nigeria and should do enough to make it through to the second round.

Who they’ll face depends on how Mexico and Uruguay fare in their final match against each other next Tuesday. That is now the game that decides everything in Group A after Mexico completed an easy win over hopeless France tonight in Polokwane. Mexico, feeling that they’d let themselves down only coming away with a point against South Africa in the opener, were stronger and more ruthless today, and would not have been flattered by a higher winning margin. Their goals came from their three substitutes as Javier Aguirre used his squad wisely – the first a run off the last defender timed to perfection by Javier Hernandez, leaving him one-on-one with Hugo Lloris miles away from the French back four, and he rounded the keeper and slotted in coolly to give Mexico their deserved lead. Pablo Barrera, on for Carlos Vela who looks to have damaged his hamstring and could be out for a while, brought about the second with a blistering run on about 76 minutes that left Patrice Evra for dead and drew a straightforward penalty from Eric Abidal (not the first time Abidal has been exposed like that at a major tournament). 37-year-old Cuauhtehmoc Blanco dispatched it with aplomb, out of Lloris’ reach.

It was no more than Mexico deserved and set up a mouthwatering clash with Uruguay to decide the group winner – a draw would qualify both and see Uruguay top the table on goal difference, but the incentive to avoid Argentina in the second round should give both teams reason to go for the win. It would still be difficult for France or South Africa to qualify even if the that match isn’t a draw because of goal difference, so an exciting game should be in store.

France, though, were absolutely awful, and asking why you really cannot look further than Raymond Domenech. He once again showed tonight nothing short of complete managerial ineptitude. After a first half in which his team were lucky to come in on level pegging, their forward players having failed to combine or even really get any meaningful time on the ball, Domenech made a substitution, bringing on Gignac for Anelka, but it changed nothing at all because it was like-for-like and the same problems remained – Franck Ribery, France’s best hope of making anything happen, couldn’t make any impact in the centre but was left there to rot all through the game, Sidney Govou continued his awful World Cup isolated and ignored on the right, and Gignac was given no service at all. Florent Malouda at least seemed to be sort of trying but was having no luck and yet the tactical system, quite plainly not functioning in any way, was never changed. Where Aguirre showed talent for utilising his substitutions, Domenech couldn’t have used his worse – the first might as well not have been made as it changed nothing, the second saw Mathieu Valbuena replace Govou but he only had about three touches all game and also did not change the system at all anyway, and the third wasn’t even bothered with. Fifteen minutes to go, France were 2-0 down playing one striker up front who was crying out for more support, Domenech did nothing as Thierry Henry and Djibril Cisse simply stood behind the goals and watched as their team were sunk without so much as a whimper.

French fans will be utterly delighted when they are put out of their misery on Tuesday because it will mean the end of Domenech’s horrific reign over the national team, during which he has brought chaos, disharmony and confusion to a squad chock full of amazing players, demonstrating for literally years the complete inability to change a game if things aren’t going his way, which, funnily enough, they usually weren’t. I suspect that as soon as Laurent Blanc takes over at the start of the new season you will see France flourish again and people will say “how on earth did this team do so badly at the World Cup?”. I also suspect that Raymond Domenech will never work in football again. Who’d hire him now?

Man of the Day: Unquestionably Messi, who perhaps was still not yet at his frightening best but was comfortably the most effective player on the pitch against South Korea. Honourable mentions to Nigeria goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama (not least because I forgot to give him this “award” on Day 2) and Javier Aguirre.

Tomorrow Germany, on a high, should see off Serbia unless they can recover from a highly disappointing first game, the USA should beat Slovenia, and England…well, who knows? It is only Algeria…

Day 6: Forlan of Hope and Glory

Honduras 0 – 1 Chile

Spain 0 – 1 Switzerland

South Africa 0 – 3 Uruguay

An intriguing day at the World Cup has ended on something of a sad note as the hosts’ hopes of making the second round took a body blow, but as always we’ll start with the first game, where we finally got a look at Chile, a side I’ve been waiting with some anticipation to see in action, and I was not disappointed. Given most of the posession by a Honduras side trying to play on the break, Chile took advantage although they failed to convert a number of chances, much like Argentina and Mexico already in this tournament. However they will be delighted with their performance, especially with super striker Humberto Suazo still to return from injury. When he is ready to play, Jorge Valdivia can drop back to his preferred playmaker role and Matias Fernandez can move to the left, and that should see them an even stronger side than we saw today. Alexis Sanchez was the main star for Chile, causing constant problems for the Honduran defenders although if anything he could have been a little less selfish – one a couple of occasions, Sanchez tried to dribble too long or shoot when it wasn’t really on. He also threw himself to the ground a few times looking for free kicks where none were deserved. Remind you of anyone? No wonder Real Madrid are sniffing around.

Honduras, though, don’t look like having any sort of impact on this group at all, even when they get their own Suazo striker, David, back. They didn’t show any spark at all and surely cannot hope to dig out the sort of result that Switzerland managed this afternoon, stunning everyone (certainly me) with a dogged, hard-fought 1-0 upset over favourites Spain. It’s hard to say they really deserved it: the goal came from their only serious attack of the whole game and was bundled over the line by Blaise N’Kufo only after the Spanish defence fell completely asleep, having been duped by the Swiss’ total lack of enterprise into forgetting they were actually playing football rather than watching it. They did defend much better, though, tucking in really narrow so that Spain were constantly forced to pass the ball out wide, which is not how they prefer to play. David Villa was totally isolated on his own up front and Fernando Torres too was successfully crowded out after his arrival. Andres Iniesta on the left seemed very reluctant to try and cross the ball, which was the only option he really had, but even if he had tried Villa in particular is not really an aerial threat. If I were Vicente del Bosque I would have been very tempted to put Fernando Llorente up front, the tall Athletic Bilbao striker who would have given them that option. Villa’s scoring record for Spain is unquestioned but he clearly was having no impact on the game at all and you feel that had Silva been on the left, Jesus Navas on the right, and Torres and Llorente through the middle, Spain would have stood a better chance of breaking down the Swiss rearguard.

As it is they now face a battle to get out of their group. They must hope that Chile do not suffer the same fate against Switzerland, though tactically that side should face similar problems, and then to get a positive result against the South Americans in the final group game. It is a bonus that Spain’s next match is against Honduras, where a morale-boosting thumping could well be on the cards. In many ways this is the real test for Spain – the mental barrier of the World Cup apparently still remains but the Honduras game represents an opportunity to get over that barrier right in front of our eyes and send out a message that they are still the best side in the world. I’m still optimistic for Spain’s chances but they will need to build up momentum to get out of this group, and score plenty of goals while doing it if they want to finish top and avoid a meeting with Brazil in the second round.

With the first round of group games over, the second set of matches started in more promising fashion in terms of style and intent, as Uruguay were clearly more determined to get a win having avoided defeat in their first game. The gap in class between them and South Africa was clear as day, Diego Forlan in particular turning in an assured, confident performance pulling the strings in a slightly unfamiliar role behind the two main strikers. Far from being intimidated by the atmosphere in Pretoria, where the noise particularly during the South African national anthem as the entire stadium bellowed out at incredible volume, Uruguay seemed to shine under pressure. Several players upped their game from the underwhelming France stalemate, Luis Suarez in particular showing up with more threat and purpose than he had against Les Bleus despite not getting in the goals. The sending off of goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune was a heartbreaking moment but the referee, Massimo Busacca, got the decision spot on, Suarez having been onside as the ball was played through and the keeper unable to avoid bringing him down. Forlan again showed incredible calm and mental strength to hit such a brilliant penalty having had to wait for many minutes as Bafana Bafana scrambled to bring their substitute keeper onto the pitch.

This result means South Africa face an uphill struggle to qualify for the second round. They were always going to be up against it but after the opening match there was a feeling that they could run it closer than people expected. They’re not down and out just yet, though, as to bet against Raymond Domenech’s France making a hash of things would be a brave bet indeed. I hope the local fans stick by their team, as it was such a sad sight seeing so many of them trudge out of the stadium after the second goal went in.

Man of the Day: Diego Forlan. He completely ran the show against South Africa and showed his talent and adaptability by taking to the role behind the main strikers like a duck to water.

Tomorrow, Argentina meet South Korea in what could be a really fascinating game – I’m going to go for a draw there, Greece will probably grind out a 0-1 defeat to Nigeria, and France face Mexico in a decisive Group A game where I would expect Mexico to emerge on top.

Day 2: It’s Not Easy Being Green

South Korea 2 – 0 Greece

Argentina 1 – 0 Nigeria

England 1 – 1 USA

If today’s blog comes across as a little haphazard and shaky, that’s because my nerves are in tatters after watching England draw with the USA. More on that in a moment. Group B started in slightly frustrating fashion as South Korea cruised to a routine win over a limp, lifeless Greece side that made a mockery of its European triumph six years ago. I would have liked to have seen just a little more enterprise form the South Koreans because they really could have pushed up further and taken advantage of Greece’s complete ineptitude. On a day in which the Argentinean forwards uncharacteristically missed a hatful of chances, South Korea will be wishing they’d cashed in in case goal difference becomes an issue later. Park Chu-Young was impressive leading the line for the Koreans, with a dogged, determined performance that never let the Greek defenders settle and opened up space for Park Ji-Sung in particular to forge opportunities.

Greece were hideous. On this form they’d be lucky to emulate their achievements two years ago in Austria and Switzerland where they lost three out of three, scored no goals, and conceded ten. I couldn’t understand why Otto Rehhagel refused to throw on Sotiris Ninis, who as the one flair player, albeit a young one, in the squad, was the only real option for a plan B that seemed available. South Korea, while probably flattered by Greece, should probably go on to make the second round on this form.

Their rivals for that spot, Nigeria, were a bit of a letdown, although they did show signs of getting back into the game towards the end of the second half as they realised that Argentina might not actually put the game to bed as they’d been threatening to all afternoon. Maradona sprung another hilarious tactical surprise by contradicting his earlier statement that he would “not play full-backs. Who needs full-backs? I have wingers to attack on the sides. I will play four centre-backs in defence” to play not a centre-back, but a left winger at right-back in Jonas Gutierrez, who, if Peter Odemwingie had started for Nigeria, could easily have been exposed. If he persists with that option then I’m sure a team with more awareness will take advantage. Lionel Messi was in good form, though, and while he didn’t score despite having one or two opportunities, it definitely seemed that he’s being given more freedom to play in a position and a role that suits him.

And, well, I can’t delay it any longer – let’s talk about England 1 – 1 USA. As an England fan one is trained to deal with disappointment but it was hard not to be optimistic after the team started brightly with Steven Gerrard’s goal, a deft finish from a great pass from the excellent Emile Heskey, who totally justified his selection over Peter Crouch with a hard-working and industrious showing. The nerves kicked in, though, when Rob Green let in an absolute howler to gift the USA an equaliser which on the balance of play they probably deserved. 1-0 up at half-time and you felt that England should have been able to close out the game, but the mistake seemed to put the team back into a familiar mindset of things inevitably going wrong. There were chances to retake the lead in the second half but nothing outstanding and in the end the draw was a fair result, but it is the manner of the draw that will worry England rather than the draw itself.

It’s tough not to feel sorry for Green who’s had to wait a long time to get a sustained run in the side and he looked understandably distraught after the goal went in, but it was poor. I would have liked to have seen Joe Hart in goal for this game despite his lack of international experience and the clamour for his inclusion in the next game will increase as a result of this. I’m not sure what message it would send to Green and to the rest of the squad if Capello were to replace him, but I wouldn’t put it past him.

Another frustrating occurance was the withdrawal of Ledley King at half-time. The depressing predictability of it was just awful – what exactly were people expecting? The man has been crocked for literally years. He’s a liability, just like Ferdinand was, and I suppose England fans should be thankful that it happened now rather than during a semi-final (not that, on this sort of form, England would necessarily get that far). Still, no reason to panic too much just yet – a draw with the USA isn’t a bad result, it just means that England need to do as much damage as possible to a resilient Slovenia defence later on in the group. It should be important to come top of this group as I wouldn’t fancy playing any side that tops Group D.

Man of the Day: It’s a toss-up between Messi and Heskey (and how often do you get to say that?). I’ll give it to Heskey who will have reassured some of his doubters today – and I daresay Messi will have even better days in this tournament at any rate.

Tomorrow, in the other Group C match Slovenia should beat Algeria, Serbia should prove too much for Ghana, and Germany will need to battle but you would expect them to come out on top against Australia. I’ll speak to you then.

Day 1: Tshaba-ooh-la-la

South Africa 1 – 1 Mexico

Uruguay 0 – 0 France

So, the greatest show on Earth finally got started and the first match was full of excitement if not fulfilled potential. At half-time South Africa were lucky not to be one or two behind, as Giovani Dos Santos ran the show for Mexico, showing strength that I didn’t know he had to ride though tackles and generally make life really difficult for the hosts’ defence, who I thought put in a really determined, heroic performance. Bongani Khumalo was one who really stood out for me, with a couple of incredible last-ditch precision tackles in perilous situations.

By the hour mark the game South Africa did need a goal, though, to stave off the sense of inevitability surrounding Mexico’s protracted but somewhat toothless swarming of their goalmouth. They got one too, an absolute beauty by left winger Siphiwe Tshabalala, having been played in by a delightful first-touch pass by Kagisho Dikgacoi, put away with power and venom. The cheers from the local fans in Soccer City grew so loud that they were actually audible over the howling of the vuvuzelas, which did annoy me but I suspect I will become so used to them that by the time this tournament is over I will not be able to watch football again without them.

Mexico were frustrating, with Guillermo Franco making for an underwhelming centre-forward, but there was definitely a sense that they were underachieving and South Africa were at their proud, fighting best. If I were Javier Aguirre I’d probably look to start Cuauhtemoc Blanco in the next match against France, who may need to be substituted after an hour or so but showed more evidence of being able to take advantage of defenders than Franco.

Speaking of France, they really missed a trick by not putting away a Uruguay side who didn’t really meet my expectations. Blundering Raymond Domenech showed exactly why he’s on his way out, simply allowing the game to drift out of his hands as he refused to bring in Florent Malouda, a player who ironically Domenech has been including for years despite consistent poor performances for club and country, but who in the last 12 months has come into the form of his life and whose attacking impetus France sorely lacked. When changes were made they were the wrong ones – Thierry Henry’s impact these days can no longer be as a lone striker so much as a withdrawn support player, so replacing Nicolas Anelka for him was an awful call, and the ineffective Sidney Govou was left on the pitch for far too long as he failed to change anything. Govou was responsible for missing the game’s golden chance just six minutes in, trying to sidefoot an incisive Ribery cross and making minimal contact, letting it drift harmlessly wide.

Uruguay largely disappointed me. Diego Forlan was the standout man for them, dropping deeper than he would normally do to try and make things happen, and at half-time I felt that it was just a matter of time until he put it on a plate for Luis Suarez, but the latter was too busy being constantly offside to link up properly. There were signs that that pairing can click in this tournament but it didn’t quite work tonight, and Uruguay need them to pull an otherwise decent but unspectacular side up to greater heights.

Man of the Day: No question. Tshabalala has saved South Africa from real embarrassment by ensuring that they don’t finish with nul points and his goal, which will go down as one of the great World Cup openers, was brilliantly taken.

Tomorrow, South Korea should draw with Greece, Argentina will beat Nigeria, and England will likely labour to a victory over the USA.

World Cup Guide: Group H Preview

GROUP H

SPAIN

FIFA World Ranking: 2

Team Colours: Red shirts with yellow trim, blue shorts with yellow trim, red socks. Away kit is dark blue shirts with red and yellow trim, dark blue shorts with red and yellow trim, dark blue socks.

Manager: Vicente del Bosque came out of semi-retirement, having not coached since leaving Besiktas in 2005, to take charge of Spain following their Euro 2008 triumph and has carried on in much the same way that his predecessor, Luis Aragones, left off, relying on one-touch passing through midfield, and has had plenty of success. Del Bosque is best known for his four year stint at the helm of Real Madrid between 1999 and 2003, during which he won the Intercontinental Cup and twice won La Liga and the Champions League.

Form: Scary. Spain have won all but one game under del Bosque (the one loss being to the USA in the Confederations Cup semi last summer), including a 100% record in a qualifying group which included tricky sides like Turkey and Bosnia & Herzegovina. In the last few months they have comfortably beaten Argentina and France in friendlies, and more recently they’ve swept their warmup matches, beating Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and most impressively, Poland by six goals to no reply. At the moment Spain are something of a machine.

Captain: Goalkeeper Iker Casillas is right up there with Buffon and Julio Cesar squabbling over who gets to be called the best keeper in the world, and the 29-year-old, who has made nearly 400 appearances for Real Madrid, is an inspirational figure between the sticks, regularly pulling off saves that he has no right to make. Will forever be idolised in Spain for being the captain that broke their 44-year duck to lead La Seleccion to triumph at Euro 2008.

Key Man: It seems frankly rude to pick just one out of the Spanish line-up, but even in such mighty company, David Villa strikes out. The Barcelona-bound striker is simply the most impressive forward in the world game right now, terrorising defences all over the world with his searing pace, clinical finishing and, for Spain, his perfect understanding with Fernando Torres, who, you may have heard, is also a bit talented. He can drop deep to aid in the build-up play from around the midfield or drift wide only to cut back inside to devastating effect.

Man to Watch: The only reason why Sevilla winger Jesus Navas only has six caps to his name is a serious anxiety problem that forced him to retire from international football before making a single appearance soon after he emerged in the Spanish game, but last year he resolved to overcome his condition and force his way into the squad for South Africa. Spanish fans will be delighted – Navas has enjoyed his best season yet for the Andalucian side, maturing into a more effective, destructive player than ever before. His pace with and without the ball really has to be seen to be believed. Expect to see Navas come off the bench to run at tired left-backs down the right flank and cause havoc in the opposition box.

Prediction: There are a couple of injury worries over two-parts-of-the-same-player midfield passing robots Xavi and Andres Iniesta but they should be fit to play, but the Spanish need not worry all that much anyway – they have by far the deepest squad in the tournament, particularly in midfield, where world-class talents Cesc Fabregas, Juan Manuel Mata, Jesus Navas and Sergio Busquets will probably all be on the bench. The only barrier to Spain bulldozing their way to what could be the most beautiful World Cup win ever is the mental hurdle of the World Cup – obviously they got the monkey off their back by winning the Euros, but the biggest tournament of all is another kettle of fish,if you pardon my mixing of zoological metaphors. That said, I can’t look past Spain to win this year. Their probable final clash with Brazil should be a belter, as well.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Iker Casillas, captain (Real Madrid)

12. Victor Valdes (Barcelona)

23. Pepe Reina (Liverpool)

Defenders

2. Raul Albiol (Real Madrid)

3. Gerard Pique (Barcelona)

4. Carlos Marchena (Valencia)

5. Carles Puyol (Barcelona)

11. Joan Capdevila (Villarreal)

15. Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid)

17. Alvaro Arbeloa (Real Madrid)

Midfielders

6. Andres Iniesta (Barcelona)

8. Xavi (Barcelona)

10. Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal)

13. Juan Manuel Mata (Valencia)

14. Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid)

16. Sergio Busquets (Barcelona)

20. Javi Martinez (Athletic Bilbao)

21. David Silva (Valencia)

22. Jesus Navas (Sevilla)

Forwards

7. David Villa (Barcelona)

9. Fernando Torres (Liverpool)

18. Pedro Rodriguez (Barcelona)

19. Fernando Llorente (Athletic Bilbao)

SWITZERLAND

FIFA World Ranking: 24

Team Colours: Red shirts with white trim, white shorts, red socks. Away kit is the inverse.

Manager: Ottmar Hitzfeld’s CV commands respect – one of only three men to win the Champions League with two different clubs (Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich), he’s won the Bundesliga seven times and the Intercontinental Cup twice. He’s more than familiar with Swiss football having played there for nine years and managed three Swiss clubs before going on to achieve so much in Germany, where he was named the greatest Bundesliga coach of all time as well as Bayern Munich’s best ever coach. Not bad.

Form: Switzerland started qualifying very slowly – a 1-1 draw with Israel was followed by an embarrassing loss to Luxembourg – but picked themselves up to finish top of their group ahead of Greece, including a five-game winning streak. Their warmup games haven’t been much good, though – they lost against Uruguay and a distinctly average Costa Rica side, but picked up enough to draw 1-1 with Italy on Saturday.

Captain: FC Basel striker Alexander Frei is his country’s all-time leading goalscorer and certainly one of the most capable players in the Swiss squad. He scores hatfuls of goals wherever he goes – including 48 in 100 games for Rennes, 31 in 69 for Borussia Dortmund and now 15 in 19 for his hometown club which he returned to last summer. With 40 in 73 internationals, Frei is very much the focal point of the Swiss attack and will want to make up for Euro 2008, where he was taken off injured during the first match and never featured again in the tournament.

Key Man: Udinese defensive midfielder Gokhan Inler has long been linked with a move a big Premier League club, and if Switzerland do well you can be sure those rumours will resurface. Sitting in the centre of the Swiss engine room, Inler’s tough, dominating approach governs his team’s play, and if he can be shut out of the game, opponents will find a much less cohesive unit in their way.

Man to Watch: Known amusingly as “Forrest Gump” for the way he’s constantly running, Lazio right-back Stephan Lichtsteiner should be an energetic presence for Switzerland. After ignoring interesting from Paris Saint-Germain and Everton following his performances at Euro 2008, Lichtsteiner has formed a potent partnership with Serbian man to watch Aleksandar Kolarov at Lazio and can be deployed further forward at right midfield if required.

Prediction: Switzerland are plenty willing but, Frei aside, lack attacking potency. If anything happens to their captain I can’t see where the goals are going to come from and they should be too rigid to trouble the likes of Spain and Chile in this group. An early exit for Hitzfeld’s boys beckons.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Diego Benaglio (Wolfsburg)

12. Marco Wolfli (Young Boys)

21. Johnny Leoni (FC Zurich)

Midfielders

2. Stephan Lichtsteiner (Lazio)

3. Ludovic Magnin (FC Zurich)

4. Philippe Senderos (Fulham)

5. Steve von Bergen (Hertha Berlin)

13. Stephane Grichting (Auxerre)

17. Reto Ziegler (Sampdoria)

22. Mario Eggimann (Hannover 96)

Midfielders

6. Benjamin Huggel (FC Basel)

7. Tranquillo Barnetta (Bayer Leverkusen)

8. Gokhan Inler (Udinese)

11. Valon Behrami (West Ham United)

14. Marco Padalino (Sampdoria)

15. Hakan Yakin (Luzern)

16. Gelson Fernandes (Saint Etienne)

20. Pirmin Schwegler (Eintracht Frankfurt)

23. Xherdan Shaqiri (FC Basel)

Forwards

9. Alexander Frei, captain (FC Basel)

10. Blaise Nkufo (Seattle Sounders)

18. Albert Bunjaku (Nurnberg)

19. Eren Derdiyok (Bayer Leverkusen)

HONDURAS

FIFA World Ranking: 38

Team Colours: White shirts with blue trim and a short horizontal stripe across the chest in various shades of  blue, white shorts, white socks. Away kit is blue shirts with both lighter and darker blue trim and the same stripe, blue shorts, blue socks.

Manager: Colombian Reinaldo Rueda’s first management job saw him lead the Colombian Under-20s to third place in the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship, and soon after he was promoted to the main job for qualifying for the 2006 World Cup, where he picked up a team in disarray and steered them to a mid-table finish in South America. Since taking the reins at Honduras in early 2007 he has won great popularity by returning Honduras to the tournament they last participated in in 1982.

Form: Honduras surprisingly came top of their third round qualifying group ahead of Mexico, as well as Jamaica and Canada, before edging out Costa Rica on goal difference to reach South Africa automatically, and condemning Costa Rica to a playoff with Uruguay that they went on to lose. They never really set the world alight, though, and would have missed out on the trip to South Africa if the USA had not come from behind to snatch a draw with the Costa Ricans. Their warmups could have gone a lot better – losses to Venezuela and Romania and draws with Belarus and Azerbaijan aren’t good enough to signal that this team will be competitive this summer.

Captain: Attacking midfielder Amado Guevara is Honduras’ most capped player of all time, having won 135 caps over 16 years in the international side. He spent a few years in the MLS with the New York Red Bulls and Toronto FC but now plies his trade in the Honduran league with Motagua. The crowning moment of his career so far was being named MVP in the Copa America in 2001, a tournament which Honduras only entered a day before it started when Argentina pulled out, and he led them to a shock semifinal finish that year – I doubt he’s dreaming that far ahead in South Africa though.

Key Man: Look no further than evergreen striker Carlos Pavon, according to a poll, the most popular footballer in the world. The 36-year-old journeyman, who’s played for 14 different teams, some of them two or three times, has nabbed 57 goals in exactly 100 international games and remains Honduras’ main man up front. Currently still banging them in for Real Espana in Honduras, his first club whom he has played for in five separate spells, Pavon will be keen to take this last chance on the world stage.

Man to Watch: Keep an eye out for Pavon’s understudy, the magnificently named Georgie Welcome, another Motagua player who scored an incredible goal for Honduras in a friendly against Latvia in November.

Prediction: Despite a couple of very good players – Tottenham’s Wilson Palacios is another, more well-known face who can cause problems for any team – Honduras look pretty limited and results recently have been far from encouraging. A lack of high-level know-how throughout the team will be a stumbling block when it comes to overcoming canny sides like Switzerland and Chile, and though they have the potential to manage it, it would be an upset if Honduras won a game here.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Ricardo Canales (Motagua)

18. Noel Valladares (Olimpia)

22. Donis Escober (Olimpia)

Defenders

2. Osman Chavez (Platense)

3. Maynor Figueroa (Wigan)

4. Johnny Palacios (Olimpia)

5. Victor Bernardez (Anderlecht)

14. Oscar Boniek Garcia (Olimpia)

16. Mauricio Sabillon (Hangzhou Nabel Greentown)

21. Emilio Izaguirre (Motagua)

23. Sergio Mendoza (Motagua)

Midfielders

6. Hendry Thomas (Wigan)

7. Ramon Nunez (Olimpia)

8. Wilson Palacios (Tottenham)

10. Julio Cesar de Leon (Torino)

13. Roger Espinosa (Kansas City Wizards)

17. Edgar Alvarez (Bari)

19. Danilo Turcios (Olimpia)

20. Amada Guevara, captain (Motagua)

Forwards

9. Carlos Pavon (Real Espana)

11. David Suazo (Inter)

12. Georgie Welcome (Motagua)

15. Walter Martinez (Marathon)

CHILE

FIFA World Ranking: 18

Team Colours: Red shirts with white trim, blue shorts, white socks. Away kit is white shirts with blue trim, white shorts, blue socks.

Manager: Marcelo Bielsa’s last appearance at the World Cup, as coach of Argentina in 2002, did not go so well, with his native side being knocked out of the Group of Death, but he was surprisingly allowed to continue until he resigned in 2004. He didn’t take another job until Chile came calling in 2007 and has been busy turning them into a seriously good side since then. Fans are currently campaigning for him to renew his contract, which ends after the World Cup, so he must be doing something right.

Form: The youngest South American side at the finals romped to second in the South American qualifying group, clinching their plane tickets with a game to spare thanks to an entertaining 4-2 defeat of Colombia. They scored more than half of their points away from home and were the second highest scorers in the group, playing a strange 3-3-1-3 formation and winning with style and resolve. A 1-0 loss to Mexico aside, their friendlies have gone well, with wins over Trinidad & Tobago, Zambia, Northern Ireland and Israel, the latter two being played on the same day by two separate Chilean XIs, as Bielsa tested out every one of his 23-man squad plus a few extra players to make up the numbers. There’s strength in depth in this side.

Captain: Claudio Bravo, who plays in goal for Spanish second divison side Real Sociedad, has recently returned from an injury that ended his league season in February, shortly after he scored his first career goal with a free kick. He has captained the side ever since legendary striker Marcelo Salas retired from internationals in 2007. Chile will be hoping he has no lingering fitness worries as they don’t really have an adequate backup in his position.

Key Man: Definitely Monterrey striker Humberto Suazo, a brilliant forward man who topped the South American goal charts in qualifying with ten goals, and has spent the past few months on loan at Real Zaragoza. A prolific scorer in the Chilean leagues with a strike rate in the region of two in three, it’s a wonder the 29-year-old hasn’t been snapped up by a European side yet, but he may well get his chance with a good showing in South Africa.

Man to Watch: Sitting in behind Suazo and the strikers will be Sporting CP’s Matias Fernandez. The former Villarreal man is brilliantly creative with a magical dribble and is a serious dangerman for Chile, whose three forwards will either feed off him to get in a scoring position or draw the defenders away from him and allow him to pop up at the last minute to tuck the ball away. Only 24 years old, Fernandez could become a big star as a result of the exposure here.

Prediction: Chile were excellent in qualifying and look ready to impress people in South Africa. They’ll score plenty of goals and their unusual formation should create problems for the European sides who only really play 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 these days. I don’t think they’ll have any trouble coming second in this group and might even give Spain a scare, and if anyone can beat Brazil in the second round, it’s them.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Claudio Bravo, captain (Real Sociedad)

12. Miguel Pinto (Universidad de Chile)

23. Luis Marin (Union Espanola)

Defenders

2. Ismael Fuentes (Universidad Catolica)

3. Waldo Ponce (Universidad Catolica)

4. Mauricio Isla (Udinese)

5. Pablo Contreras (PAOK)

17. Gary Medel (Boca Juniors)

18. Gonzalo Jara (West Brom)

Midfielders

6. Carlos Carmona (Lazio)

8. Arturo Vidal (Bayer Leverkusen)

10. Jorge Valdivia (Al-Ain)

13. Marco Estrada (Montpellier)

14. Matias Fernandez (Sporting CP)

19. Gonzalo Fierro (Flamengo)

20. Rodrigo Millar (Colo-Colo)

21. Rodrigo Tello (Besiktas)

Forwards

7. Alexis Sanchez (Udinese)

9. Humberto Suazo (Monterrey)

11. Mark Gonzalez (CSKA Moscow)

15. Jean Beausejour (America)

16. Fabian Orellana (Xerez)

22. Esteban Paredes (Colo-Colo)

World Cup Guide: Group G Preview

GROUP G

BRAZIL

FIFA World Ranking: 1

Team Colours: Yellow shirts with green trim, blue shorts, white socks. Away kit is blue shirts with yellow trim and pattern, white shorts, blue socks.

Manager: Carlos Caetano Bledorn Verri is better known as Dunga (“Dopey”, after the dwarf) and is the second of two managers, next to Maradona, who is looking to emulate Franz Beckenbauer by winning the World Cup as a manager having lifted it as captain. His tactics are exactly what you would expect from the former battling midfield player – the most defensive Brazilian side in many years, with two holding midfielders who contribute little to the attacking play. In fairness to Dunga, this is as much influenced by the resources at his disposal as it is by his own nature. Look out for one or two hideous shirts that he wears because his daughter is a fashion designer.

Form: Brazil had no real trouble in topping the South American qualifying table but were criticised by many demanding fans for the run of form through the middle of the campaign that saw three consecutive goalless draws at home against Argentina, Bolivia and Colombia. In early 2009, however, they really hit their stride and sealed qualification to their 19th World Cup (they are the only team to have taken part in every tournament) with a dominant 3-1 win away in Argentina. Their only warmups for this competition have been routine victories against Zimbabwe and Tanzania, in which Brazil have scored 8 goals.

Captain: Originally a winger before retraining as a youth player to centre-back, Lucio is now the most solid rock in an already sturdy Brazilian back line. The Inter man, 32, has already won the World Cup with the Selecao eight years ago and was appointed captain by Dunga following the Germany tournament. At that tournament he set the record for minutes played at World Cups without committing a foul, going for an astonishing 386 minutes spanning two tournaments. Now a treble winner, Lucio will be determinedly aiming to make this the best possible season by securing the biggest prize of all once again.

Key Man: Kaka hasn’t had a very good season for his new club Real Madrid, struggling to pin down his identity in the team and get a run of form going, but he is still the vital piece of the Brazilian puzzle. He’ll play just behind Luis Fabiano, the Sevilla striker who is my bet for the Golden Boot, and in this generation of Brazilian players who are perhaps not as universally gifted as some of their recent predecessors, he’s the one man who really can do anything he wants with a football. Brazil will do well whether Kaka shines or not, but if he can find the form that he lost over the last year, their campaign will really come alive.

Man to Watch: You have to be a ludicrously good footballer to keep Dani Alves out of any team’s right-back slot, but Inter favourite Maicon, likely heading to join Kaka at Real after the tournament if the Special One gets his way, is just that good. Like Alves, he’s such a force of nature that playing a right midfielder really isn’t all that necessary, as he can somehow be a brick wall at the back and bomb down the wing to devastating effect seemingly without breaking a sweat. He’s an incredible athlete and I can’t see any opposition left-back at this tournament keeping him quiet.

Prediction: Built on organisation and athleticism more than flair, Brazil are as formidable as ever and will pose the sternest test to Spain for the Jules Rimet trophy. They are not invincible, though – while they do play with two holding midfielders the personnel they will be employing in that position (Gilberto Silva and Kleberson – yes, that Kleberson, who was rubbish for Manchester United a few years ago) are a little underwhelming. But Julio Cesar has matured into one of the world’s best keepers, they have the world’s two best right-backs, and Luis Fabiano has become one of the top poachers in world football without anyone really noticing. I still feel that Spain have the edge in squad depth and in midfield, but until the two meet in the final I don’t see anyone stopping Brazil.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Julio Cesar (Inter)

12. Gomes (Tottenham)

22. Doni (Roma)

Defenders

2. Maicon (Inter)

3. Lucio, captain (Inter)

4. Juan (Roma)

6. Michel Bastos (Lyon)

13. Dani Alves (Barcelona)

14. Luisao (Benfica)

15. Thiago Silva (A.C. Milan)

16. Gilberto (Cruzeiro)

Midfielders

5. Felipe Melo (Juventus)

7. Elano (Galatasaray)

8. Gilberto Silva (Panathinaikos)

10. Kaka (Real Madrid)

17. Josue (Wolfsburg)

18. Ramires (Benfica)

19. Julio Baptista (Roma)

20. Kleberson (Flamengo)

Forwards

9. Luis Fabiano (Sevilla)

11. Robinho (Manchester City)

21. Nilmar (Villarreal)

23. Grafite (Wolfsburg)

NORTH KOREA

FIFA World Ranking: 105

Team Colours: Red shirts with white trim, red shorts, red socks. Away kit is the inverse.

Manager: I’m going to warn you now, this is going to be a short preview, because I’m pretty in the dark about North Korea. Anyway, Kim Jong-Hun is 53 and he favours a disciplined, pragmatic approach to tactics. That’s about as much as I, and apparently the official FIFA World Cup website, know.

Form: North Korea had to dispatch some reasonably handy Asian teams to reach the finals, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, and were a real surprise package, coming through every round of qualifying and meeting rivals South Korea in the third and fourth rounds. Results between the two were close, with two draws and then, in their final meeting, a 1-0 victory for South Korea in Seoul, after which Kim Jong-Hun suggested that the South Koreans had poisoned his team. I’m starting to like this guy. Their friendlies have ended with a surprising 2-2 draw with Greece and a more predictable 3-1 defeat at the hands of Nigeria.

Captain: Hong Yong-Jo is the only North Korean in the squad to be based outside of Asia (and one of only three based outside of North Korea, with two in Japan). The FC Rostov forward scored four in four in qualifying, although he only has three in thirty for his new club. There are no stats for how well he did in North Korea for the brilliantly-named club 25 April, though, so for all I know he’s a lethal predator.

Key Man: Goalkeeper Ri Myong-Guk was nominated for the 2009 Asian Footballer of the Year award after his heroic display in the qualification-sealing draw with Saudi Arabia, and my word, North Korea are going to need him this summer.

Man to Watch: Jong Tae-se is an interesting story. The “People’s Rooney” (I’m not joking) is so named for his stocky build and hard-working attitude and scores plenty too, with 15 in 22 for his national side. He was originally South Korean but renounced his country and got himself a North Korean passport from the embassy in Japan, where he plays his football for Kawasaki Frontale. He apparently had a trial with an unnamed Premier League side in January this year, so maybe he could earn himself a move to Europe with a good enough flight from this sinking ship.

Prediction: To be honest, I have no idea, but it strikes me as unlikely that North Korea will pick up a single point in this group. They may be focused on defense and disciplined but Luis Fabiano in the opening match, let alone the rest of the Brazilian squad, should take them apart. They should fulfill well the role of comedy team, though, having already had their plan to register forward Kim Myong-Won as one of their three goalkeepers foiled by FIFA. They’re now stuck with Kim only being allowed to play in goal, so I’m hoping for red cards for both their main keepers in the first game so we can see how he does in his new role. On a more serious note, if North Korea score a goal, they should be delighted.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Ri Myong-Guk (Pyongyang City)

18. Kim Myong-Gil (Amrokgang)

20. Kim Myong-Won (Amrokgang)

Defenders

2. Cha Jong-Hyok (Amrokgang)

3. Ri Jun-Il (Sobaeksu)

5. Ri Kwang-Chon (April 25)

8. Ji Yun-Nam (April 25)

13. Pak Chol-Jin (Amrokgang)

14. Pak Nam-Chol (Amrokgang)

16. Nam Song-Chol (April 25)

21. Ri Kwang-Hyok (Kyonggongop)

Midfielders

4. Pak Nam-Chol (April 25)

6. Kim Kum-Il (April 25)

11. Mun In-Guk (April 25)

15. Kim Yong-Jun (Pyongyang City)

17. Ahn Young-Hak (Omiya Ardija)

19. Ri Chol-Myong (Pyongyang City)

22. Kim Kyong-Il (Rimyongsu)

23. Pak Sung-Hyok (Sobaeksu)

Forwards

7. An Chol-Hyok (Rimyongsu)

9. Jong Tae-se (Kawasaki Frontale)

10. Hong Yong-Jo, captain (FC Rostov)

12. Choe Kum-Chol (Rimyongsu)

IVORY COAST

FIFA World Ranking: 27

Team Colours: Orange shirts with green trim, white shorts, green socks. Away kit is green shirts with white trim and white horizontal stripes (with their own orange trim) cut off at the right shoulder, white shorts, white socks.

Manager: The Ivory Coast sacked previous manager Valil Halilhodzic after a disappointing quarter-final finish for the most hyped African team in the world at the Africa Cup of Nations in January, leaving themselves with the quandary of whom to appoint to bring together a divided dressing room full of egos and madmen. But they projected a dollar sign into the night sky, and lo! Sven-Man is here to save the day! Yes, it’s everyone’s favourite womanising underachiever, Sven-Goran Eriksson who is charged with organising this talented group of players into a team that can break out of the Group of Death.

Form: The Ivorians were a real letdown at the Cup of Nations but steamrolled their group without losing a game, although the toughest test in that group was Guinea. Didier Drogba was on incredible form, scoring six in five and salvaging results in a couple of hard-fought matches against Burkina Faso and Malawi. Their friendlies have been up and down – a 2-2 draw over Paraguay decent, a 2-0 win over Japan pretty good, but most recently a 1-1 draw with Swiss second division side Lausanne not good at all.

Captain: Talismanic striker Didier Drogba is desperate to play in what will surely be his last chance at a World Cup despite the broken bone in his elbow that seriously threatens his participation. We know he’s one of the world’s best strikers and we know he is absolutely vital to his country’s hopes to getting out of this tough group, but even if he does make it onto the field will he still be in the condition required to make an impact? For the sake of the competition (and the fact that I drew the Ivory Coast in my patented www.random.org sweepstake), I hope so.

Key Man: If Drogba is short of his potential this summer than Sven will look to his probable strike partner Gervinho for goals. The Lille striker has scored one every two games this season and has more guile and creativity than Drogba, though he is less of a one-man battering ram.

Man to Watch: Pay attention to versatile defender/midfielder Romaric, who will probably be employed as a playmaker in this Ivorian team. I would expect him to be the most advanced of a midfield trio alongside Didier Zokora and Yaya Toure, allowing Gervinho and Salomon Kalou to flank Drogba.

Prediction: For my money, everything depends on Drogba’s fitness. If he’s fit and his elbow doesn’t bother him, I think the Ivory Coast will get out of this group, but if not, I don’t think they’ll have enough to push Portugal out of the way. I can’t see them overcoming Spain in the second round though.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Boubacar Barry (Lokeren)

16. Aristide Zogbo (Maccabi Netanya)

23. Daniel Yeboah (Abidjan)

Defenders

2. Benjamin Angoua (Valenciennes)

3. Arthur Boka (Stuttgart)

4. Kolo Toure (Manchester City)

6. Steve Gohouri (Wigan)

17. Siaka Tiene (Valenciennes)

20. Guy Demel (Hamburg)

21. Emmanuel Eboue (Arsenal)

22. Sol Bamba (Hibernian)

Midfielders

5. Didier Zokora (Sevilla)

9. Cheick Tiote (FC Twente)

12. Jean-Jacques Gosso (Monaco)

13. Romaric (Sevilla)

14. Emmanuel Kone (International)

18. Abdul Kader Keita (Galatasaray)

19. Yaya Toure (Barcelona)

Forwards

7. Seydou Doumbia (CSKA Moscow)

8. Salomon Kalou (Chelsea)

10. Gervinho (Lille)

11. Didier Drogba (Chelsea)

15. Aruna Dindane (Lekhwiya)

PORTUGAL

FIFA World Ranking: 3

Team Colours: Red shirts with green trim and a green horizontal stripe, white shorts, green socks. Away kit is white with green trim and two vertical stripes, one green and one red, green shorts, white socks.

Manager: Former manager of the host nation, Carlos Quieroz has had a rocky time of it since taking over as Portugal coach in 2008. He’s overseen their most frustrating qualifying period for some time and doesn’t look entirely comfortable as the top man rather than an assistant, in much the same way that he did when he was briefly in charge of Real Madrid a few years ago before skulking back to Fergie at Old Trafford.

Form: Qualifying was pretty horrific for Portugal, with very little cohesion and nearly avoiding even making it into the playoffs. Denmark beat them to the automatic qualification and they only finished a point ahead of Sweden and three ahead of Hungary. Among other lowlights were a 0-0 home draw with lowly Albania, and two nil-all draws with Sweden. Their friendlies have been improving – a pretty poor 0-0 draw with Cape Verde has been followed with more comforting wins over Cameroon and Mozambique, but Portugal are yet to be tested by a seriously good side, and therein lies the worry.

Captain: Now, for the most part of this blog, I will do my best to be unbiased, but I’m sorry, when it comes to this man, I can’t do it. Cristiano Bloody Ronaldo is to my mind the most odious man on the planet, a smug, arrogant cheating little rat. But I suppose he’s a pretty decent footballer. It doesn’t seem like Quieroz has figured out the best way to build the team around him yet, and at times he’s been the only man to have salvaged points for Portugal in qualifying. Another incredible goalscoring season, this time 26 in 29 for Real Madrid, means Ronaldo is the key man for his team, but in past major tournaments he hasn’t really shone. Let’s hope the same happens again for the obnoxious git.

Key Man: This may be an odd choice, but in a group filled with attacking firepower (and North Korea), Portugal need goalkeeper Eduardo to step up. The Braga man was behind Quim in the pecking order but since making his debut last year has won 15 caps and managed to force Quim out of the squad altogether, leaving Portugal with a very inexperienced group of keepers. Behind Eduardo, Beto and Daniel Fernandes have just 3 caps between them. Eduardo needs to marshal a potentially shaky defence if Portugal are to avoid being high-profile casualties.

Man to Watch: Venezuelan-born attacking midfielder/second striker Danny could be a breakout star for Portugal this summer. Probably playing behind Brazilian Liedson, he’s quick and nimble and scored ten goals last season for St. Petersburg side Zenit. Manchester United fans will remember him for scoring the winner in the Super Cup against them in 2008.

Prediction: Same thing I said for the Ivory Coast – if Drogba is fit then I can see Portugal failing to escape this group, as they have talent in their traditional areas (on the wings with Ronaldo and Simao, behind the striker with Danny) but leave something to be desired in midfield and defence. Exciting, dynamic players like Joao Moutinho have been left out of the midfield in favour of Deco, who rarely exerts any influence these days, and Tiago, who was never all that in the first place and has been passed around the European leagues trying to find a club where he can make an impression. My money is on Portugal to exit at the first opportunity, and I look forward to seeing poor ickle Ronnie have a good cry about it.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Eduardo (Braga)

12. Beto (Porto)

22. Daniel Fernandes (Iraklis)

Defenders

2. Bruno Alves (Porto)

3. Paulo Ferreira (Chelsea)

4. Rolando (Porto)

5. Duda (Malaga)

6. Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea)

13. Miguel (Valencia)

15. Pepe (Real Madrid)

21. Ricardo Costa (Valencia)

23. Fabio Coentrao (Benfica)

Midfielders

8. Pedro Mendes (Sporting CP)

10. Danny (Zenit St. Petersburg)

14. Miguel Veloso (Sporting CP)

16. Raul Meireles (Porto)

19. Tiago (Atletico Madrid)

20. Deco (Chelsea)

Forwards

7. Cristiano Bloody Ronaldo, captain (Real Madrid)

9. Liedson (Sporting CP)

11. Simao (Atletico Madrid)

17. Ruben Amorim (Benfica)

18. Hugo Almeida (Werder Bremen)

World Cup Guide: Group E Preview

GROUP E

NETHERLANDS

FIFA World Ranking: 4

Team Colours: Orange shirts with black and white trim, black shorts, orange socks. Away kit is white shirts with blue trim and two thin Vs across the chest, one blue and one orange, blue shorts, white socks.

Manager: Bert van Marwijk took Rotterdam club Feyenoord to an unlikely UEFA Cup (remember that?) win in 2002 after a second-place Eredivisie finish in 2001, briefly returning there in 2007-08 before being appointed as Marco van Basten’s successor. Van Marwijk has maintained essentially the same formation as van Basten but the style has been turned down a notch to help protect a somewhat wobbly defence. He is well liked by the Dutch fans for his quiet and sensible approach.

Form: The Dutch swept their (admittedly not that testing) qualifying group with a 100 per cent winning record, scoring 17 goals and conceding just 2 in their eight games, and were impressive throughout with no signs of faltering. Their subsequent friendlies have been similarly promising, with one draw against Paraguay last November and wins over the USA, Mexico, Ghana and Hungary in the build up to the World Cup, the 4-1 and 6-1 victories in the latter two games being particularly fearsome. They look in very good shape.

Captain: Long-serving left-back Giovanni van Bronckhorst will retire at the end of the tournament after a fourteen-year international career, 454 club appearances and a trophy cabinet containing Scottish and English Premier Leagues, La Liga and Champions League medals. At 35, though, “Gio” has lost most of his pace and vigour to the extent that he is sometimes used in a defensive midfield role rather than the more demanding left-back position for which he is best known. Netherlands fans will hope that his experience and nous will make up for his physical shortcomings.

Key Man: Wesley Sneijder has had a gold star season at the forefront of Inter’s charge to a treble and will be the playmaker-in-chief for the Dutch side. Voted by 70% of Dutch fans as being the best free-kick taker in the country, Sneijder can spray passes with pinpoint accuracy to any of the forward three and is in arguably the form of his life.

Man to Watch: Exciting young right-back Gregory van der Wiel is the latest in a long line of products of the Ajax youth academy. The 22-year-old has attracted interest from Arsenal and Manchester United as a result of a season which saw him win the Johan Cruyff Young Player of the Year award in Holland, and has been hailed by team-mate John Heitinga as the spiritual successor to Michael Reiziger.

Prediction: The Netherlands look very strong this year, with the only real worry being a slightly shaky-looking back line. The ongoing worries over Arjen Robben’s participation are a problem, as well, and while young Hamburg winger Eljero Elia could step up in his place, Robben’s absence would be a real blow to a settled, cohesive attacking quartet. They should be able to overcome the challenges in this group but face a tricky road to the final stages, probably meeting Paraguay or Italy in the second round and likely Brazil in the quarters. I can see them edging past whoever they meet in the last 16, and they could give Brazil a heck of a match, but I don’t see them being able to undo their organised defence. Quarter finals.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Maarten Stekelenburg (Ajax)

16. Michel Vorm (Utrecht)

22. Sander Boschker (FC Twente)

Defenders

2. Gregory van der Wiel (Ajax)

3. John Heitinga (Everton)

4. Joris Mathijsen (Hamburg)

5. Giovanni van Bronckhorst, captain (Feyenoord)

12. Khalid Boulahrouz (Stuttgart)

13. Andre Ooijer (PSV)

15. Edson Braafheid (Bayern Munich)

Midfielders

6. Mark van Bommel (Bayern Munich)

8. Nigel de Jong (Manchester City)

10. Wesley Sneijder (Inter)

14. Demy de Zeeuw (Ajax)

18. Stijn Schaars (FC Twente)

20. Ibrahim Afellay (PSV)

23. Rafael van der Vaart (Real Madrid)

Forwards

7. Dirk Kuyt (Liverpool)

9. Robin van Persie (Arsenal)

11. Arjen Robben (Bayern Munich)

17. Eljero Elia (Hamburg)

19. Ryan Babel (Liverpool)

21. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (A.C. Milan)

DENMARK

FIFA World Ranking: 36

Team Colours: Red shirts with white trim and a white checkered strip horizontal across the chest, white shorts with red trim, red socks with white trim. Away kit is white shirts with red trim, red shorts with white trim, white socks with red trim.

Manager: 60-year-old Morten Olsen is one of the longest-serving managers at this World Cup, having taken the Denmark job back in 2000. Since then he’s led his team to qualification for the 2002 World Cup, Euro 2004 and now South Africa. He is best loved, though, for being the captain of the Danish team through much of the 1980s, a team much admired by the fans and considered the best in their history. Some say Olsen is the most important player in the history of Danish football, and so it’s no surprise that support for his management has always been high.

Form: Denmark defied the odds to top their group at the expense of Portugal and Sweden, only losing once on their way to qualification and completing a double over rivals Sweden to the delight of their fans. They also scored three goals in the last ten minutes to secure a vital victory in Lisbon over the group favourites. In friendlies they’ve been inconsistent, though – a reasonably assured win over Senegal was followed by a defeat to Australia.

Captain: Well-traveled veteran forward Jon Dahl Tomasson is as crafty as ever. The former Newcastle, A.C. Milan, Villarreal and Stuttgart player, now back for a second spell at Feyenoord, plays as a second striker behind Nicklas Bendtner for Denmark these days. His record for Denmark commands respect – 110 caps and 51 goals. He may be getting on a bit but is still dangerous and not to be underestimated.

Key Man: Nicklas Bendtner thinks it’s him, but the main cog in the Danish engine is Juventus midfielder Christian Poulsen. The, shall we say, combative midfielder really gets stuck in and if Denmark are to compete with teams like the Netherlands who keep possession so well, they will need Poulsen to be at his irrepressible best to win back the ball whenever possible.

Man to Watch: You may have heard people talk about him already, but Palermo centre-back Simon Kjaer is a really promising player whose stock is rising fast in the world game. At just 21 years old he is already an assured and reliable presence at the heart of the defence who can confidently deal with any opponent. Clubs all over Europe are chasing his signature and he has a chance this summer to push his potential salary up by a digit or two.

Prediction: Even with the depth in this group Denmark look pretty interesting. They are arguably a better balanced squad than Cameroon in terms of ability in every position and could make life difficult for many a team in South Africa. I think they’ll make it out of this group and could even spring a surprise against Italy in the second round.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Thomas Sorensen (Stoke)

16. Stephan Andersen (Brondby)

22. Jesper Christiansen (FC Copenhagen)

Defenders

3. Simon Kjaer (Palermo)

4. Daniel Agger (Liverpool)

5. William Kvist (FC Copenhagen)

6. Lars Jacobsen (Blackburn Rovers)

13. Per Kroldrup (Fiorentina)

15. Simon Poulsen (AZ Alkmaar)

23. Patrick Mtiliga (Malaga)

Midfielders

2. Christian Poulsen (Juventus)

7. Daniel Jensen (Werder Bremen)

8. Jesper Gronkjaer (FC Copenhagen)

10. Martin Jorgensen (Aarhus)

12. Thomas Kahlenberg (Wolfsburg)

14. Jakob Poulsen (Aarhus)

19. Dennis Rommedahl (Ajax)

20. Thomas Enevoldsen (FC Groningen)

21. Christian Eriksen (Ajax)

Forwards

9. Jon Dahl Tomasson, captain (Feyenoord)

11. Nicklas Bendtner (Arsenal)

17. Mikkel Beckmann (Randers)

18. Soren Larsen (Duisburg)

JAPAN

FIFA World Ranking: 45

Team Colours: Blue shirts with red and white trim, white shorts with blue trim, blue socks with white trim. Away kit is the inverse.

Manager: Takeshi Okada was briefly in charge of the national team at France 98 but left after the tournament. His second, more long-term spell started in 2007 when he replaced Ivica Osim who had suffered a stroke. He bears a certain resemblance to a Japanese Sven-Goran Eriksson, and would be happy to emulate Sven’s traditional quarter final finish.

Form: Japan cruised through the various Asian qualifying sections until the final phase, where they were twice frustrated by Australia and finished second, though they booked their plane tickets an hour earlier thanks to the quirks of kick-off times. Their preparations have been less than ideal, though, with four losses in four friendlies against Serbia, South Korea, England, and Ivory Coast. In the game against England they showed signs of quality but shot themselves in the foot with two late own goals.

Captain: This will be goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi’s fourth World Cup, and strangely though he has been named as captain for his experience he will not start as the first choice goalkeeper, with Seigo Narazaki having impressed in qualifying (he, too, is in his fourth tournament). Kawaguchi has amassed 116 caps and is just 7 away from the all-time Japanese record.

Key Man: 26-year-old central midfielder Makoto Hasebe is a candidate to wear the captain’s armband if, as expected, Kawaguchi starts on the bench. The Wolfsburg man is a disciplined, mostly defensive-minded central player with plenty of stamina and determination, but can pick a pass well if needed to play further forward or on the right flank.

Man to Watch: CSKA Moscow midfielder Keisuke Honda became the first Japanese player to play in the Champions League quarter-finals this season and one of Okada’s main tasks this summer will be to find the best way to utilise him. Usually an advanced midfielder in the centre, Honda takes a powerful free-kick and likes to get forward and take a shot, and can also play at left-back if necessary.

Prediction: Japan should be willing enough but will be too short of quality to get out of this difficult group. Their former talisman Shunsuke Nakamura has been in decline in the last few years since leaving Celtic for Espanyol and they look a little devoid of invention and creativity.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Seigo Narazaki (Nagoya Grampus)

21. Eiji Kawashima (Kawasaki Frontale)

23. Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, captain (Jubilo Iwata)

Defenders

3. Yuichi Komano (Jubilo Iwata)

4. Marcus Tulio Tanaka (Nagoya Grampus)

5. Yuto Nagatomo (FC Tokyo)

6. Atsuto Uchida (Kashima Antlers)

13. Daiki Iwamasa (Kashima Antlers)

15. Yasuyuki Konno (FC Tokyo)

22. Yuji Nakazawa (Yokohama)

Midfielders

2. Yuki Abe (Urawa Red Diamonds)

7. Yasuhitu Endo (Gamba Osaka)

8. Daisuki Matsui (Grenoble)

10. Shunsuke Nakamura (Yokohama)

14. Kengo Nakamura (Kawasaki Frontale)

17. Makoto Hasebe (Wolfsburg)

18. Keisuke Honda (CSKA Moscow)

20. Junichi Inamoto (Kawasaki Frontale)

Forwards

9. Shinji Okazaki (Shimizu S-Pulse)

11. Keiji Tamada (Nagoya Grampus)

12. Kishu Yano (Albirex Niigata)

16. Yoshito Okubo (Vissel Kobe)

19. Takayuki Morimoto (Catania)

CAMEROON

FIFA World Ranking: 19

Team Colours: Green shirts with red trim, red shorts, yellow socks with red trim. Away kit is yellow shirts with thin vertical red stripes and trim, green shorts, red socks.

Manager: Paul Le Guen has been in charge of Cameroon for just one year after leaving Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the 2009 season, whom he led to a Coupe de la Ligue victory but couldn’t bring out of the relegation zone. He quickly imposed himself on the team by dropping veteran defender Rigobert Song as captain and installing talismanic striker Samuel Eto’o, who then inspired the team to complete qualification for the finals. Le Guen was part of the Lyon success story, winning the second, third and fourth of their incredible seven straight French league wins, but struggled at Rangers and PSG. Has made a solid start with Cameroon, though.

Form: Under former boss Otto Pfister (one of the best names in sport) Cameroon made a slow start to their qualifying group, losing to Togo and drawing with Morocco, before Le Guen’s arrival perked things up. Both Song and Eto’o responded well to the change in captaincy, with Song winning back his place and Eto’o scoring the goals that put the Indomitable Lions through. Their friendlies haven’t been amazing – a come-from-behind one-all draw with Slovakia was followed by a routine loss to Portugal and an exciting but eventually disappointing defeat at the hands of Serbia, albeit without Eto’o.

Captain/Key Man: Samuel Eto’o was the subject of one of the strangest transfers of recent years when he was included along with £60 million in a deal to bring Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the world’s most over-rated striker, to Barcelona from Inter. Under Jose Mourinho’s stewardship, Eto’o has been playing in a slightly unusual role out on the right wing as a hard-working inside forward to make room for Diego Milito in the centre, but has done pretty well in that position on the way to winning the treble in his first season. Still one of the world’s most devastating finishers, Eto’o is a striker feared the world over and will be Cameroon’s main chance of getting out of this group. If you take him out of the equation Cameroon just don’t have much in the way of firepower, but Eto’o knows that this may be his last chance of making the impact on the World Cup that we all know he is capable of.

Man to Watch: Stephane Mbia joined Didier Deschamps’ Marseille last summer and became an integral part of their title-winning side having repositioned himself from central midfield to centre half. The 24-year-old could yet start at right-back for Cameroon, though, with no player having made the position his own in qualifying. Strong, powerful and versatile, Mbia’s physical presence will make life difficult for forwards.

Prediction: Will run it close with Denmark to get out of the group, and while it could go either way, my money is on Cameroon being pipped at the post and having to settle for third in Group E. Their midfield is willing, but Alexandre Song aside, relatively limited and their strength in depth isn’t quite good enough, with everything depending on Samuel Eto’o being fit and firing. A lack of experience in defence past Song, Geremi and Mbia if he plays there may be telling as well.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Carlos Idriss Kameni (Espanyol)

16. Souleymanou Hamidou (Kayserispor)

22. Guy N’dy Assembe (Valenciennes)

Defenders

2. Benoit Assou-Ekotto (Tottenham)

3. Nicolas N’Koulou (Monaco)

4. Rigobert Song (Trabzonspor)

5. Sebastien Bassong (Tottenham)

8. Geremi Nijtap (Ankaragucu)

12. Gaetan Bong (Valenciennes)

14. Aurelien Chedjou (Lille)

19. Stephane Mbia (Marseille)

Midfielders

6. Alexandre Song (Arsenal)

7. Landry N’Guemo (Celtic)

10. Achille Emana (Real Betis)

11. Jean Makoun (Lyon)

18. Eyong Enoh (Ajax)

20. Georges Mandjeck (Kaiserslauten)

21. Joel Matip (Schalke)

Forwards

9. Samuel Eto’o, captain (Inter)

13. Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting (Nuremberg)

15. Pierre Webo (Mallorca)

17. Mohammadou Idrissou (Freiburg)

23. Vincent Aboubakar (Cotonsport Garoua)

World Cup Guide: Group D Preview

GROUP D

GERMANY

FIFA World Ranking: 6

Team Colours: White shirts with black trim and a single gold vertical stripe, black shorts with white trim, white socks with black trim. Away kit is black shirt with white and red trim, white shorts with black and red trim, black socks with white trim.

Manager: Joachim “Jogi” Loew succeeded Jurgen Klinsmann following Germany’s third place finish at the 2006 World Cup and started well by guiding the team to the final of Euro 2008, although by coming second to Spain they fell short of Loew’s stated aim of winning that competition. He had also pledged to continue the attacking brand of football introduced by Klinsmann but has perhaps faltered a little from that compared to his predecessor. The snappily-dressed manager has been accused of disrupting squad harmony during the qualifying campaign by bringing in newer faces to spark internal competition.

Form: Germany were unbeaten in qualifying, comfortably taking top spot in their group by beating second-placed Russia 1-0 in Moscow in the penultimate match, and only conceded five goals during that campaign. Their pre-tournament friendlies have gone well, including a 3-0 win over Hungary and a 3-1 victory against Bosnia & Hercegovina who were impressive nearly men in qualifying. Their plans have been disrupted by the loss of captain Michael Ballack, though.

Captain: Stepping into Ballack’s sizeable shoes is 26-year-old right-back Philipp Lahm, who is one of only nine players in the squad with more than twelve caps. He scored the memorable opening goal of the last World Cup in the opening game against Costa Rica with an absolute pearl of a long-range shot, but is not usually known for his scoring. He can also operate as a winger, though, which tells you about his attacking ability. He is also a very solid defender, though, and will be a reliable player for his team. It remains to be seen whether he will take to the captaincy.

Key Man: It has to be the man who fills Ballack’s role in a positional sense, Bastian Schweinsteiger. He will be more familiar to non-Germany fans as the bustling wide player who lacked a little in end product from previous international tournaments, but in the last season Louis van Gaal has transformed the Bayern midfielder into a central player who can both win the ball and spray it around as a playmaker. He would have played alongside Ballack but will now be thrust into the spotlight as the most experienced midfielder by far and needs to translate his excellent club form into a talismanic performance for Germany.

Man to Watch: Germany’s midfield is highly inexperienced but it does contain a quartet of rapidly rising stars – it’s hard to choose between Stuttgart general Sami Khedira, who will likely start alongside Schweinsteiger, Toni Kroos, the attacking midfielder who has impressed, scoring 1 in 4, on his now-finished 18-month loan to Bayer Leverkusen from Bayern, and Marko Marin, the Bosnian-born Werder Bremen winger, but the most exciting of all is Mesut Oezil, the 21-year-old also playing for Bremen who exudes the most natural finesse of all four. He’s very forward-thinking with a gifted left foot and an eye for goal. Of the four, he is most likely to dazzle for Germany this summer, but all four need to be ready for the big time if the decision to leave behind more experienced heads is to pay off.

Prediction: Germany’s problems are twofold – first is the astonishingly young and inexperienced squad, most obvious in goal where the first-choice keeper, Manuel Neuer, has just 5 caps which is as many as his two deputies put together. The second is up front, where Miroslav Klose, Lukas Podolski and Mario Gomez are all very much out of form and their backups have little international pedigree. At least Loew has six of them to play around with, but it may take too much time to find a successful combination. There’s no doubt that this Germany team is the most vulnerable one for many years, and they have been dealt a tough group. They should be relatively evenly matched with Serbia and it will probably come down to who can get the best results against the other two teams, and I suspect Germany may just edge that, but I can see a second-round exit looming against probably the USA.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Manuel Neuer (Schalke)

12. Tim Wiese (Werder Bremen)

22. Hans-Jorg Butt (Bayern Munich)

Defenders

2. Marcell Jansen (Hamburg)

3. Arne Friedrich (Hertha Berlin)

4. Dennis Aogo (Hamburg)

5. Serdar Tasci (Stuttgart)

14. Holger Badstuber (Bayern Munich)

16. Philipp Lahm, captain (Bayern Munich)

17. Per Mertesacker (Werder Bremen)

20. Jerome Boateng (Manchester City)

Midfielders

6. Sami Khedira (Stuttgart)

7. Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich)

8. Mesut Ozil (Werder Bremen)

15. Piotr Trochowski (Hamburg)

18. Toni Kroos (Bayern Munich)

21. Marko Marin (Werder Bremen)

Forwards

9. Stefan Kießling (Bayer Leverkusen)

10. Lukas Podolski (FC Koln)

11. Miroslav Klose (Bayern Munich)

13. Thomas Muller (Bayern Munich)

19. Cacau (Stuttgart)

23. Mario Gomez (Bayern Munich)

AUSTRALIA

FIFA World Ranking: 20

Team Colours: Yellow shirts with green sleeves and a white horizontal stripe across the chest, green shorts, yellow socks. Away kit is dark blue with lighter blue sleeves and a yellow horizontal stripe across the chest, dark blue shorts, dark blue socks.

Manager: Dutchman Pim Verbeek was assistant to Guus Hiddink at South Korea for the 2002 World Cup and was in the same post under Dick Advocaat in 2006, but took the Australia job in 2007 after Hiddink left it behind. He will be leaving it himself at the conclusion of the tournament to take up a youth development post with the Moroccan national side. Verbeek has been a vocal critic of the Australian A-League, frequently calling it out on its lack of quality and criticising national team midfielder Jason Culina’s decision to move back there from PSV.

Form: Australia were the second team not called South Africa to qualify for the finals, and did so just one hour after Japan, whom they eventually overtook in their group as they comfortably made it to the tournament. They were unbeaten in the final phase of qualifying despite one or two close calls, particularly against Bahrain where they were thoroughly outplayed but managed to sneak a 1-0 win. They looked poor in their lucky 2-1 victory over neighbours New Zealand and yesterday’s lacklustre loss to the US, though.

Captain: Lucas Neill moved to Galatasaray in January having spent 15 years in England. The 32-year-old right-back can be a little hotheaded and dirty sometimes but is hugely committed to the cause and has generally been reliable for his country. He is perhaps the most robust of the Australian defenders and will need to be on top form to keep Australia from being caught out at the back.

Key Man: Everton midfielder Tim Cahill is a level above the rest of the squad in terms of ability and if he doesn’t play well, Australia have little chance of escaping from this group of arguably more lethal death than Group G. His specialty is late runs into the box to meet a cross with his head, but has a good shot on him as well and plenty of energy to run a game at his tempo. He has a dazzling scoring record of 20 in 40 caps for the Socceroos. A little injury prone, though.

Man to Watch: The only other man who could potentially earn Australia points on his own is goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer, who at 37 shows no sign of declining following another outstanding season at the heart of Fulham’s European adventure and finding himself rumoured to be the subject of interest from Arsenal. Always solid and occasionally spectacular, Schwarzer could benefit from a group in which no team contains a world class goal threat.

Prediction: Australia should not be short of effort but do lack quality and strength in depth, particularly up front where their only three forwards are a one-trick beanpole (Josh Kennedy), a fading cripple (Harry Kewell), and a relatively untried winger (Nikita Rukavytsya). They need Cahill and Schwarzer to be on fire to stand a chance of getting out of this group, and the smart money says they should come last here.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Mark Schwarzer (Fulham)

12. Adam Federici (Reading)

18. Brad Jones (Middlesbrough)

Defenders

2. Lucas Neill, captain (Galatasaray)

3. Craig Moore (unattached)

6. Michael Beauchamp (Melbourne Heart)

8. Luke Wilkshire (Dinamo Moscow)

11. Scott Chipperfield (FC Basel)

20. Mark Milligan (JEF United)

21. David Carney (FC Twente)

Midfielders

4. Tim Cahill (Everton)

5. Jason Culina (Gold Coast United)

7. Brett Emerton (Blackburn Rovers)

13. Vincenzo Grella (Blackburn Rovers)

14. Brett Holman (AZ Alkmaar)

15. Mile Jedinak (Antalyaspor)

16. Carl Valeri (Sassuolo)

19. Richard Garcia (Hull City)

22. Dario Vidosic (Nuremberg)

23. Mark Bresciano (Palermo)

Forwards

9. Josh Kennedy (Nagoya Grampus)

10. Harry Kewell (Galatasaray)

17. Nikita Rukavytsya (FC Twente)

SERBIA

FIFA World Ranking: 15

Team Colours: Red shirts with blue trim and a white cross on the front, blue shorts, white socks. Away kit is all white with red trim on the shirt.

Manager: Radomir Antic is very popular with the Serbian fans and has quite the impressive CV as well. As well as being one of only two men to have managed both Real Madrid and Barcelona, he is the only man to have managed those two as well as Atletico Madrid, where he enjoyed the most success of his managerial career, returning there twice and winning the league and Copa del Rey.

Form: Serbia finished top of their qualifying group despite taking just one point from favourites France, who stumbled elsewhere. They were at their most impressive thrashing Romania 5-0 to seal qualification but were cohesive and competent throughout and were eventually deserving winners. Their friendly results have been mixed – a shock 1-0 loss to New Zealand was followed by a frustrating 0-0 draw with Poland, but yesterday they produced an excellent display to come from behind twice to vanquish Cameroon, the sternest test of the three. Things may be coming together.

Captain: Dejan Stankovic is a highly accomplished midfielder who has won six Serie A titles and now the Champions League with Inter. A versatile player, he prefers to play in an advanced midfield role but can also be utilised on either flank or deeper in a holding or playmaking capacity and is a great passer of the ball. His experience and influence will be key for Serbia.

Key Man: It has taken some time for 29-year-old Milan Jovanovic to make a name for himself thanks to three unhappy years hardly getting a game for Shakhtar Donestk and Lokomotiv Moscow, but 52 goals in 116 games for Belgian side Standard Liege earned this deep-lying forward international recognition and a free transfer to Liverpool this summer. He will likely line up behind man-mountain Nikola Zigic with freedom to roam to the flanks if necessary and should be Serbia’s most potent attacking threat.

Man to Watch: Lazio left full-back Aleksandar Kolarov brings to mind Serbian legend Sinisa Mihajlovic with his runs down the left flank and rocket-propelled shot. Still just 24 years old, Kolarov has an impressive technique and should prove himself one of the best emerging defenders in the world game this summer.

Prediction: Serbia will surprise people. They have quality running right through the side with a reliable central defensive pairing of Nemanja Vidic and Branislav Ivanovic and Stankovic running things in midfield alongside creative 22-year-old Zdravko Kuzmanovic. They will be a serious threat and could be the ruin of a big name or two. I suspect they will meet England in the second round which should be a relatively evenly matched game, and really I wouldn’t know which way to call that one. If things fall into place a semi-final place wouldn’t be beyond their reach, but my gut says they will lose against England (though probably deserving to win).

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Vladimir Stojkovic (Wigan Athletic)

12. Bojan Isailovic (Zaglebie Lubin)

23. Andelko Duricic (Leiria)

Defenders

2. Antonio Rukavina (1860 Munich)

3. Aleksandar Kolarov (Lazio)

5. Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United)

6. Branislav Ivanovic (Chelsea)

13. Aleksandar Lukovic (Udinese)

16. Ivan Obradovic (Real Zaragoza)

20. Neven Subotic (Borussia Dortmund)

Midfielders

4. Gojko Kacar (Hertha Berlin)

7. Zoran Tosic (Manchester United)

10. Dejan Stankovic, captain (Inter)

11. Nenad Milijas (Wolves)

17. Milos Krasic (CSKA Moscow)

18. Milos Ninkovic (Dinamo Kiev)

19. Radoslav Petrovic (Partizan Belgrade)

22. Zdravko Kuzmanovic (Stuttgart)

Forwards

8. Danko Lazovic (Zenit St. Petersburg)

9. Marko Pantelic (Ajax)

14. Milan Jovanovic (Liverpool)

15. Nikola Zigic (Birmingham City)

21. Dragan Mrda (Vojvodina)

GHANA

FIFA World Ranking: 32

Team Colours: White shirts with one grey sleeve with a dark grey star and black trim, white shorts, white socks. Away kit is red shirts with yellow vertical stripes and trim, red shorts, red socks.

Manager: Serbian Milovan Rajevac will lead Ghana into battle against his home country and the rest of Group D. He had only previously managed in Serbia and had not been in one job for more than two years before being hired in 2008. He is a strict disciplinarian who has earned a reputation as a shrewd tactician having overseen an impressive flawless qualification for the Africa Cup of Nations against a much-fancied Mali side, although Ghana’s second-round exit from that competition proper was less pleasing for the fans.

Form: In qualification Ghana were unstoppable, winning their group with a nearly 100 per cent record and becoming the first African nation (aside from the hosts) to qualify. They suffered a resounding 4-1 loss to the Netherlands in a pre-tournament friendly, though, and have had their preparations seriously disrupted by the withdrawal through injury of their best player, Chelsea’s Michael Essien, who will be a huge loss for them.

Captain: Stephen Appiah nearly hasn’t played at all at club level for two and a half years following a serious knee injury while he was at Fenerbahce that caused him to miss the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations and only made his debut for new club Bologna as a substitute on the 9th of May this year. However he is still in the squad as captain, which has given some Ghanaian fans cause for concern as they would rather see a fit, regularly playing man starting games in a tough group against physically strong opponents like Serbia and Germany. Appiah does have plenty to give if he is fully fit, but he must be disadvantaged by his lack of game time.

Key Man: Michael Essien plays further forward for Ghana than he does for Chelsea, and so with him gone so is some of Ghana’s attacking prowess. The onus now falls squarely on the shoulders of Asamoah Gyan, the 24-year-old Rennes striker who has scored exactly one goal every two games for his country. He’s a powerful unit, strong and fast and able to keep on running and running, and will cause problems for defences.

Man to Watch: Dominic Adiyiah is a 20-year-old forward who earned himself a dream move to A.C. Milan after being an integral part of the Ghana team that won the 2009 Under-20 World Cup. He has scored 17 goals in just 16 games for the youth side and has been blooded recently by Rajevac with a view to having a similar impact in this tournament. He probably won’t start but could be a surprise package coming off the bench.

Prediction: The impact of Essien’s absence cannot be underestimated and it is made worse by suggestions that Sulley Muntari may not be fully fit in time for the opening game against Serbia a week today. Ghana can’t be counted out completely though, and should be reasonably competitive, but they should be overpowered by Germany and Serbia. A gallant third in the group.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Daniel Adjei (Liberty Professionals)

16. Stephen Ahorlu (Heart of Lions)

22. Richard Kingson (Wigan Athletic)

Defenders

2. Hans Sarpei (Bayer Leverkusen)

4. John Painstil (Fulham)

5. John Mensah (Lyon)

7. Samuel Inkoom (FC Basel)

8. Jonathan Mensah (Free State Stars)

15. Isaac Vorsah (Hoffenheim)

17. Abdul Rahim Ayew (El Zamalek)

19. Lee Addy (Bechem Chelsea)

Midfielders

6. Anthony Annan (Rosenborg)

9. Derek Boateng (Getafe)

10. Stephen Appiah, captain (Bologna)

11. Sulley Muntari (Inter)

13. Andrew Ayew (Arles)

20. Quincy Owusu-Abeyie (Al-Sadd)

21. Kwadwo Asamoah (Udinese)

23. Kevin-Prince Boateng (Portsmouth)

Forwards

3. Asamoah Gyan (Rennes)

12. Prince Tagoe (Hoffenheim)

14. Matthew Amoah (NAC Breda)

18. Dominic Adiyiah (A.C. Milan)

World Cup Guide: Group B Preview

GROUP B

ARGENTINA

FIFA World Ranking: 7

Team Colours: Blue and white striped shirts, black shorts with white trim, white socks with blue trim. Away kit is blue and darker blue striped shirts with white trim, white shorts with blue trim, blue socks with white trim.

Manager: Dear oh dear, where do you start with Diego Maradona? Obviously a legendary player, El Diego is, shall we say, a somewhat eccentric manager. The man who runs over journalists and then insults them for letting themselves get run over nearly presided over the most disastrous Argentinian World Cup qualification group for many years, with only a last-gasp win at Peru guaranteeing them automatic qualification. His tactics are oddly defensive for such an exciting attacking player, and he seems to have an unhealthy man-crush on 36-year-old lumbering striker Martin Palermo, to the extent that he nearly excluded Inter Milan’s 20-goal-a-season hitman Diego Milito until someone managed to knock some sense into him. Palermo is still in the squad, though. Simply put, Maradona is the biggest threat to Argentinian success this summer.

Form: Not a lot. Previous manager Alfio Basile was sacked for the team being in third place in the group after ten games, but Maradona’s introduction saw further tumbles down the order, particularly after a humiliating 6-1 reverse against Bolivia. Their friendly preparations continued with their recent routine 5-0 win over minnows Canada – how much that really says about them I’m not sure, even if Messi was in the stands.

Captain: 25-year-old Liverpool holding midfielder Javier Mascherano was appointed captain by Maradona, who described his team as “Jonas [Gutierrez], Mascherano, Messi, and eight more”. Ignoring that statement’s ludicrous elevation in status of Newcastle’s inconsistent winger Gutierrez, it does make clear how important Mascherano is to the manager’s plans. With only three central midfielders in the squad, Argentina need their captain to dominate the midfield after an indifferent season for his club.

Key Man: I’m not going to try and be clever – it’s clearly the best player on the planet, Lionel Messi, upon whom Argentinian hopes rest. It’s hard to believe that Leo is still only 22 years old when he turns out destructive and beautiful peformances every week for Barcelona. The frustrating thing for Argentina supporters is Maradona’s refusal to build the team around his talisman. With the players available to them, Argentina could easily mimic Barcelona’s formation, which gives maximum freedom to Messi to do what comes naturally, but they don’t and so Messi can be somewhat stifled. He’s still capable of breaking those shackles and driving his team forward single-handedly, though.

Man to Watch: Much-sought-after winger Angel Di Maria has reportedly just moved to Real Madrid from Benfica, and will almost certainly start Argentina’s opener against Nigeria. The left-sided player is a hugely exciting talent, with a great turn of pace, mazy dribbling and a wicked cross. Also only 22 years old, a good tournament would establish him as one of the world’s leading forward players.

Prediction: Argentina have been given a relatively kind draw and should make it out of the group stage without huge problems, barring any huge calamities from Maradona. A second round tie against Uruguay or France could be a potential banana skin, but again you would expect them to edge past those teams. A quarterfinal against Germany would be winnable as well against another vulnerable side, but it’s hard to see Argentina making it past Spain in the semifinals (not that that wouldn’t be an acceptable achievement for this team and this manager). Their weaknesses (no goalkeeper with more than 6 caps’ experience, limited defence, willingness to use Palermo) could well be exploited by any of the above.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Diego Pozo (Colon)

21. Mariano Andujar (Catania)

22. Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar)

Defenders

2. Martin Demichelis (Bayern Munich)

3. Clemente Rodriguez (Estudiantes)

4. Nicolas Burdisso (Roma)

6. Gabriel Heinze (Marseille)

12. Ariel Garce (Colon)

13. Walter Samuel (Inter)

15. Nicolas Otamendi (Velez Sarsfield)

Midfielders

5. Mario Bolatti (Fiorentina)

7. Angel Di Maria (Real Madrid)

8. Juan Sebastian Veron (Estudiantes)

14. Javier Mascherano, captain (Liverpool)

17. Jonas Gutierrez (Newcastle)

20. Maxi Rodriguez (Liverpool)

23. Javier Pastore (Palermo)

Forwards

9. Gonzalo Higuain (Real Madrid)

10. Lionel Messi (Barcelona)

11. Carlos Tevez (Manchester City)

16. Sergio Aguero (Atletico Madrid)

18. Martin Palermo (Boca Juniors)

19. Diego Milito (Inter)

NIGERIA

FIFA World Ranking: 21

Team Colours: Green with white trim, away kit is the inverse.

Manager: Lars Lagerback is a recent recruit to the Nigerian cause, having joined five months ago following Shaibu Amodu led the Super Eagles to a third-place finish in the Africa Cup of Nations, which apparently was not good enough. Lagerback himself had only just left his post as Sweden manager after ten years in the job when he failed to lead them to qualification for this tournament, but before that he had done a fine job with his native country. This is first job outside of Sweden and it remains to be seen what his approach to the Nigeria job will be.

Form: A third-place showing in the Africa Cup of Nations is really not that bad a result to come to South Africa on the back of, but Nigeria’s pre-tournament friendlies have been going less well. A 5-2 win over DR Congo has been followed by disappointing draws, 0-0 with Saudi Arabia and 1-1 with Colombia. A further game against unknown quantities North Korea will be played on Sunday, and Nigeria will very much want a convincing win there to get their preparations back on track.

Captain: Portsmouth forward Nwankwo Kanu claims to be 33 years old. I’m not certain how much I’m actually going to comment on that considering any legal possibilities, but let’s just say that he looks a lot older (he certainly has the pace and mobility of a 40-year-old), and that coincidentally there have been recent scandals involving the Nigerian youth international teams and their players being several years older than their birth certificates claim. So, um, yeah. Kanu is a somewhat bewildering choice for the national team, as he is certainly in the twilight of his career and his best is long past. Pretty much unable to move at all during a game, he just hangs around and waits for the ball to come to his feet before shooting or laying it off.

Key Man: French champions Marseille’s left-back Taye Taiwo is an exciting player who, as well as being defensively solid, can attack well and has a thunderbolt shot from range in his arsenal. He will be an important player going forward trying to break down teams like Greece, and will also have to step up to the plate when he marks Leo Messi in the opening game. If Taiwo fails things will be much harder for the Super Eagles.

Man to Watch: Hoffenheim winger/striker Chinedu ‘Edu’ Obasi was one of the standout performers for Nigeria at the Africa Cup of Nations and will likely be deployed on the right hand side at the World Cup. He has plenty of pace and a strong finish and could make a serious impact on Group B.

Prediction: Nigeria should be strong enough to overcome South Korea and Greece but will probably a level short of seriously challenging Argentina for superiority in the group. I would expect them to go out in the second round against whichever team wins Group A, probably Mexico. Anything more would be a serious achievement for this team.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Vincent Enyeama (Hapoel Tel Aviv)

16. Austin Ejide (Hapoel Petah Tikva)

23. Dele Aiyenugba (Bnei Yehuda)

Defenders

2. Joseph Yobo (Everton)

3. Taye Taiwo (Marseille)

5. Rabiu Afolabi (Red Bull Salzburg)

6. Danny Shittu (Bolton)

15. Dele Adeleye (Metalurg Donetsk)

17. Chidi Odiah (CSKA Moscow)

21. Uwa Elderson Echiejile (Braga)

Midfielders

7. Chinedu Obasi (Hoffenheim)

10. John Obi Mikel (Chelsea)

11. Peter Odemwingie (Lokomotiv Moscow)

12. Kalu Uche (Almeria)

13. Ayila Yussuf (Dinamo Kiev)

14. Sani Kaita (Alania Vladikavkaz)

19. Lukman Haruna (Monaco)

20. Dickson Etuhu (Fulham)

Forwards

4. Nwankwo Kanu (Portsmouth)

8. Yakubu Aiyegbeni (Everton)

9. Obafemi Martins (Wolfsburg)

18. Victor Obinna (Malaga)

22. John Utaka (Portsmouth)

SOUTH KOREA

FIFA World Ranking: 47

Team Colours: Red patterned shirts with blue trim, white shorts, red socks. Away kit is white patterned shirts with blue trim, blue shorts, white socks.

Manager: Former PSV and South Korea midfielder Huh Jung-Moo is in his third period as manager of the national side. The 55-year-old scored the goal against Japan that qualified South Korea for the 1986 World Cup, beginning their run of six consecutive appearances in the tournament, and is a very popular coach. As a player he was nicknamed Jindogae after a local species of dog for his tough, combative style and was caught on camera appearing to kick Diego Maradona at the 1986 World Cup, so I’m sure the two will be pleased to reunite in Group B.

Form: Mixed. Huh won the AFC Coach of the Year award late last year for guiding South Korea to a 27 game unbeaten run, although their qualifying campaign stuttered at times, particularly against neighbours North Korea who held them to three draws, two of them goalless. A good warmup victory over Japan was followed on Sunday by a slightly embarrassing defeat to nonqualifiers Belarus, so their form could be better.

Captain: English fans will be familiar with Manchester United’s all-action midfielder Park Ji-Sung, who is a huge icon in Korea having emerged under the stewardship of Huh. Capable of playing anywhere across the midfield, Park will likely be utilised in the centre by Huh to maximise his influence on the game. Should be an excellent captain, as his determination should inspire the team to push on against resolute defending sides like Greece.

Key Man: Monaco winger Park Chu-Young will be vital if South Korea are to prise sides like Greece apart. He has searing pace (he can run 100m in 11 seconds) and a creative football brain. He’s also a dangerous dead-ball specialist, and Korea may look to play to his strengths by drawing free kicks in good areas.

Man to Watch: Ki Sung-Yong is an exciting prospect in the centre of midfield. His vision, technique and range of passing has earned him the nickname of the “Korean Gerrard”, which is high praise indeed. Currently plying his trade for Celtic, Ki is one of the “Double Dragon” pairing, which also includes Bolton winger Lee Chung-Yong, so known for their influential roles at the same time playing for FC Seoul before their moves abroad. Both are highly rated and could make an impact in South Africa.

Prediction: On their day South Korea can be a real handful, and are one of the more accomplished Asian sides. They should give a good account of themselves but I expect them to fall short of qualification for the round of sixteen, as they may lack sufficient bite up front to score the necessary goals.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Lee Woon-Jae (Suwon Bluewings)

18. Jung Sung-Ryong (Seongnam Ilhwa)

21. Kim Young-Kwang (Ulsan Horang-i)

Defenders

2. Oh Beom-Seok (Ulsang Horang-i)

3. Kim Hyung-Il (Pohang Steelers)

4. Cho Yong-Hyung (Jeju United)

12. Lee Young-Pyo (Al-Hilal)

14. Lee Jung-Soo (Kashima Antlers)

15. Kim Dong-Jin (Ulsang Horang-i)

22. Cha Du-Ri (Freiburg)

23. Kang Min-Soo (Suwon Bluewings)

Midfielders

5. Kim Nam-Il (Tom Tomsk)

6. Kim Bo-Kyung (Oita Trinita)

7. Park Ji-Sung, captain (Manchester United)

8. Kim Jung-Woo (Gwangju Phoenix)

13. Kim Jae-Sung (Pohang Steelers)

16. Ki Sung-Yong (Celtic)

17. Lee Chung-Yong (Bolton)

Forwards

9. Ahn Jung-Hwan (Dalian Shide)

10. Park Chu-Young (Monaco)

11. Lee Seung-Yeoul (FC Seoul)

19. Yeom Ki-Hun (Suwon Bluewings)

20. Lee Dong-Gook (Jeonbuk Motors)

GREECE

FIFA World Ranking: 13

Team Colours: White shirts with blue trim, white shorts, white socks. Away kit is blue shirts with white trim, blue shorts with white trim, and blue socks.

Manager: Otto Rehhagel still endures at Greece after nearly 10 years in charge, having unexpectedly won Euro 2004 with his hugely unwatchable brand of stoic, defensive football. A big favourite in Germany where he holds the records for most wins, draws and losses in the Bundesliga, and his teams in that league have also both scored and conceded more than any other. Crikey. You can’t say he hasn’t done a great job for Greece considering the resources at his disposal (zero flair throughout the entire country).

Form: A patchy qualification campaign saw Greece draw with lowly Moldova and Israel as they nearly allowed Latvia (yes, Latvia) to finish ahead of them in the table. They managed to scrape into the playoffs thanks to a win away in Switzerland and then stifled Ukraine in the playoffs to reach South Africa, but never really convinced. So far their only friendly has seen them lose comfortably to Paraguay, which is what you would expect.

Captain: Veteran midfielder Giorgos Karagounis scored the first goal of Euro 2004 to start Greece on their remarkable journey to the trophy in Portugal. Signed a contract at his club Panathinaikos last year that will take him through to 2012, and he says he wants to end his career there. A forward-thinking midfielder, Karagounis was once described as one of the most underrated players in the world, and while his best is past, he is still as determined as ever and will be the driving force behind the Greek midfield.

Key Man: 30-year-old Frankfurt striker Theofanis Gekas was the only bright spark for Greece in qualification, finishing top of the European qualification scoring charts with 10 goals, including four in one game against Latvia. He will be the main target for Greece when they occasionally decide to get the ball forward.

Man to Watch: One young player who could make a difference in this group is Sotiris Ninis, a 20-year-old right-sided winger with pace and skill. He is the youngest player ever to be selected for Greece by Rehhagel. The rumoured Manchester United, Real Madrid and A.C. Milan target has even at his tender age been named as one of the vice-captains of his club, Panathinaikos, by manager Henk ten Cate, which tells you something about his maturity. He may not start but expect to see him come off the bench if Greece haven’t scored.

Prediction: I can’t help hoping that Greece don’t progress from the group as their style of football is so unattractive and boring, and although they could potentially make it out, I don’t think they will. Nigeria have more of a goalscoring threat and Greece have been in such underwhelming form in qualifying. Rehhagel also sprung a surprise by picking not one but two completely uncapped players in his 23, so experience might be a factor if a key player or two gets injured.

Squad List:

Goalkeepers

1. Kostas Chalkias (PAOK)

12. Alexandros Tzorvas (Panathinaikos)

13. Michalis Sifakis (Aris)

Defenders

2. Giourkas Seitaridis (Panathinaikos)

4. Nikos Spiropoulos (Panathinaikos)

5. Vangelis Moras (Bologna)

8. Avraam Papadopoulos (Olympiacos)

11. Loukas Vyntra (Panathinaikos)

15. Vasilis Torosidis (Olympiacos)

16. Sotiris Kyrgiakos (Liverpool)

19. Sokratis Papastathopoulos (Genoa)

22. Stelios Malezas (PAOK)

Midfielders

3. Christos Patsatzoglou (Omonia)

6. Alexandros Tsiolis (Siena)

10. Giorgos Karagounis, captain (Panathinaikos)

18. Sotiris Ninis (Panathinaikos)

21. Kostas Katsouranis (Panathinaikos)

23. Sakis Prittas (Aris)

Forwards

7. Giorgios Samaras (Celtic)

9. Angelos Charisteas (Nuremberg)

14. Dimitris Salpigidis (Panathinaikos)

17. Theofanis Gekas (Frankfurt)

20. Pantelis Kapetanos (Steaua Bucharest)