World Cup 2010 - Team Analysis - Pot 1
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
South Africa: The host nation gets the automatic bid into the World Cup. They did better than most expected in the Confederations Cup. They'll get a big boost from the home crowd so they will look to ride that wave to a few wins.
Brazil: As I mentioned in the previous post, Brazil should be the favorite to win in the World Cup. They're a solid team on all fronts and it'll take a perfect performance from their competition to take them down. 
Spain: They broke their long standing image of an underachieving team by winning EURO 2008 and they've put up an impressive qualifying performance being the only team to win every one of their qualifying games. They're a hot team with a prolific goal scorer in David Villa and a very solid midfield. I see them continuing their dominance into the group stages.
Italy: The defending world champions are back with a seed, but this isn't the same team as we saw in 2006. It has definitely aged and has the highest average age of a team in the World Cup at 27 years and four months. They've added some youth since the last World Cup in Giuseppe Rossi who made a splash in EURO 2008. They should fare well in the group stage, but in the later stages they could run into trouble with younger and quicker teams.
Germany: After a heartbreaking finish during that epic semi-final match last World Cup, Germany has proven they can be a contender on the world stage. Now they'll have to prove it without the home crowd. They have almost the same cast of players from four years ago, but without the veteran goalkeeper. 
Argentina: With the infamous Diego Maradona at the helm they have an experienced World Cup coach to help them out. On the other side, they barely qualified with a win in their last game. It'll be up to Lionel Messi to lead the team through the World Cup (I can't believe he's only 21 years old). 
England: I'm always curious to see how England will do in the World Cup. They always boast great talent that play in the Premier League, but have yet to make a deep run in a tournament. As long as they play as a cohesive team, I see no reason why they can't make that late run. 
France: They got a helping hand to qualify for the World Cup. Their top player behind Thierry Henry, Franck Ribéry, has been struggling with a knee injury and has missed playing time in qualifications, but should be fine by this summer. I'm going to be looking at him to be facilitating the big plays for France and if he struggles, I think France will too.Tomorrow I'll break down Pot 2 teams.
Labels: group analysis, pot one, seeded teams, south africa, world cup
posted by Anthony @ 11:02 AM,
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