The World Cup: What I Think Shall Come To Pass
Posted on June 4, 2006 - Filed Under Football | 6 Comments
As the newspapers are getting geared up for the greatest show on Earth with a deluge of factually inaccurate supplements (I didn’t know Esteban Cambiasso played for Juventus), I’ve decided to blog my own predictions here. I’ll go through the big teams one by one and rate their chances, starting with the Group A-based hosts, Germany.
Germany. An old adage claims that one should “never write-off the Germans”. However, old adages not withstanding, Germany don’t have a hope in hell of winning this World Cup. With Sebastian Deisler injured, Ballack is left with far too great a task in midfield, and Bastian Schweinstager is still a few years away from being a seriously good player. The rest of the squad, while by no means appalling, is nowhere near as good as some of Germany’s former teams and manager Jurgen Klinsmann should count himself very lucky indeed that a fortunate group draw has made a quarter final place a realistic prospect.
England. Boasting one of the best defenses in the tournament, England are cursed with a severe lack of options up front. With the overrated Rooney injured, the only viable two-man strike force they have consists of an unfit Michael Owen and Peter Crouch, who is also unfit in terms of being completely out of his depth. Despite having some great midfielders at his disposal, and five years to decide on how to deploy them, it seems Eriksson has yet to settle on his favourite selection. Expect him to be lynched by the British press if Carrick is not picked to play in the holding midfield role. In fact, expect him to be lynched regardless of what happens, unless they win it. A semi-final spot is not out of the question, but to achieve that they shall probably have to overcome a cavalier Poland and a dangerous Portugal.
Argentina. More resilient at the back than Brazil, and almost as impressive going forward, Argentina are likely to go very far indeed. Villarreal’s Juan Roman Riquelme is their most important player, and if he has a good tournament then they could very well win it in some style. Unfortunately for the South Americans, the draw has proved itself an absolute dog for them and landed the team in the Group of Death along with the Dutch, the Ivory Coast and (the soon to be split) Serbia & Montenegro. Expect them to reach the semi-finals at the very least.
The Netherlands. Looking decidedly more light-weight than in previous tournaments, it’s hard to see this giant of world football going very far in Germany. The team is for the most part composed of young players, with only the versatile Phillip Cocu and keeper Edwin van der Sar remaining from the mighty Dutch teams of the late nineties. Expect Barcelona hacker Mark Van Bommel to pick up plenty of yellow cards. Ruud van Nistelrooy will be hoping to perform at his best in order to secure himself a move away from Man United to a team that appreciates his prodigious goal-scoring talent. He’ll be sorely needed if the Dutch are to progress further than the last 16.
Portugal. While it is universally recognised that Portugal’s best hope of winning a major tournament passed with their final defeat on home soil in Euro 2004 (a tournament which Greece RUINED for EVERYBODY), they are still in contention to at least reach the quarter-finals in Germany. The nation’s hopes rest on Barcelona’s Deco, but Luis Figo can still have his moments at the age of 33. Man United’s Ronaldo can reliably be expected to impress in the group stages against Angola and Iran and then promptly become anonymous once his side comes up against tougher opposition. The team seems set to encounter England in the quarter-finals, which should prove an intriguing repeat of the 2004 quarter-final (which the Portuguese won on penalties).
Italy. A ridiculously talented squad of players, the Italians should reach the semi-finals at the very least. Much depends on AS Roma’s Francesco Totti, who has only just recovered form an ankle injury which kept him on the sidelines for the final few months of the last Seria A season. If he performs at his best then Italy will romp home to victory. They have the best goalkeeper by far in Gianluigi Buffon, a great defence, a solid midfield adept in both defence and attack, and Seria A’s top scorer Luca Toni up front, a man who netted 31 goals last season in the most defensively sound league in Europe. Excitingly, coach Marcello Lippi has promised to play in a more offensive fashion this time, thus saving the world the sorry spectacle of seeing sublimely gifted players playing ugly, negative football more suited to crap teams. The on-going investigation into the shady dealings of former Juventus president and match-fixing bastard Luciano Moggi is the only black cloud around the Italian camp, but it hasn’t rained on their parade yet as their impressive friendly victories over the Netherlands and Germany attest. Provided Totti plays as well as he can, look no further for the winners.
The Czech Republic. Fate has dealt the Czechs a cruel blow in positioning the team where they are in the draw. Unless they win their group (which also contains Italy), they are virtually assured of a last 16 clash against Brazil. This is a shame, because the Czechs are one of the more beautiful teams to watch. In Pavel Nedved they have one of the world’s best players, and his compatriots such as Tomas Rosicky, Karel Poborsky and Marek Jankulovski play with equal graft and flair. Petr Cech is also a fine player, and will certainly be called upon to perform wonders should his team meet Brazil. The Czechs have one of the more experienced coaches of the tournament in Karl Bruckner, who is popular with both fans and players alike and has a reputation for being a master tactician. Given the strength of the Brazilian team, they will be clear favourites in the second round match. If, however, the skillful Czech Republic engineer a victory then it will by no means be the unforeseeable upset that swarms of ignorant hacks would have people believe.
Brazil. The team expected by many to walk away with the trophy at the end of the tournament, Brazil are not as mighty as most people think. Argentina embarrassed their neighbours when they convincingly thrashed them 3-1 in qualifying, and plenty of questions remain about the Brazilian defence. Both the full-backs, Cafu and Roberto Carlos, are past it. They are too old to roam forward as they used to in their youth and neither was ever all that hot on defensive duties. Dida is just after finishing a very bad season between the posts with AC Milan and the central defensive partnership of Juan and Lucio is nowhere near as sturdy as that of Italy’s Alessandro Nesta and Fabio Cannavaro. If a team can put them under sustained pressure, Brazil are likely to look very average at the back. Going forward is an entirely different, and infinitely more entertaining, story. In this department, Brazil are unrivalled and a joy to watch. Ronaldinho is the greatest player on Earth by a million miles, and even without him the Brazilian attack is formidable with the likes of Kaka’, Adriano, Ronaldo and Robinho all playing in the one team. A lot relies on the performance of Emerson in the holding midfield role, and it is crucial that they can dominate the midfield area when they encounter other big guns later in the tournament. If their attack is not tearing the other team apart, their defence risks being torn apart. It’s entirely possible that they’ll win it, but it’s also entirely possible that the hinges will fall off their creaking defence at some point.
France. Not much is expected of the ’98 champions, and their faltering qualifying campaign under coach Raymond Domenech explains why. Lilian Thuram, one of the greatest defenders of the last decade, is by now long past his best and a liability in a poor backline. The fact that disaster prone Mikael Silvestre has won 37 caps in the last few years speaks volumes about France’s problems in this area. Things look far better in midfield, with Makelele and Viera likely to provide the shaky defence with some much needed cover. Creative duties will be assumed by Zinedine Zidane, but at 33 years of age Zizu has seen better days and may not be all that effective at unlocking some of the better teams’ defences. Arsenal’s Thierry Henry and Juve’s David Trezeguet are one of the tournaments best frontlines and should certainly start ahead of the other strikers. Djibril Cisse has no more business playing in a World Cup than I do. A quarter-final exit to Italy beckons.
Spain. Perennial under-achievers, the Spanish are likely to disappoint, if only because that’s what they traditionally do. The team is quite young and hence likely to mount a better challenge in South Africa in four years time. Having said that, the team is genuinely strong already, the only weakness being captain Raul, who’s been out of form for years. Inexperience is likely to be their biggest obstacle in Germany. That, and a quarter-final clash with Brazil or the Czech Republic.
Ukraine. My outside shot and international team of choice in Pro Evolution. Everything rests on Andriy Shevchenko, who’s recently tarnished my high opinion of him by signing for Chelsea. My experience with the team in Pro Evo tells me that midfielders Husin and Tymoshchyuk are pretty good players too. Shevchenko’s goals should fire them into a second round match with France in which they may surprise a few people. This tournament’s South Korea, hopefully without the aid of match officials.
So there are my thoughts on the likely fortunes of the major nations in Germany this summer. Italy will win it, Luca Toni will be the top scorer, and Francesco Totti will make up for his poor showing in past tournaments and claim his rightful place along side the names of Pele, Beckenbauer and Maradona as one of the undisputed greats in the history of world football.
Expect this post to be drastically altered or even deleted when Italy crash out of the group stages in a few weeks’ time…
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6 Responses to “The World Cup: What I Think Shall Come To Pass”
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Very nicely written, and that’s coming from a man who wouldn’t wipe my ass with a sports column.
You had me convinced and impressed until you mentioned that your experience with the players are from a simulated game. That lost you credibility points, other then that a nice read and will have me abit more informed when I start going on about why the guys don’t have hurlys when they’re playing.
I only time I resorted Pro Evolution-based information was in relation to Ukrainian players other than Shevchenko. The rest was all from my knowledge of world football.
*The only time
can’t say i disagree withtoo much, but i do disagree with quite a bit. As weak as the germans are on teh paper, they will surprise a few people i think. I live in france, and get to the see our beloved Les Bleus quite a bit, it is frustrating to no end, to see Domenech do what he does as coach. but i have to say that as disorganzied as the midfield has been looking lately, the defense has been surprising strong. Look for Abidal (as solid a defender on the team). And much of the attack will come from right back Sagnol. I also think that Iran and Ghana (when tey beat the italians) will be surprises along with Ivory coast.
At any rate i’m hping the English and Italians fail spectacularly.
cheers.
I think the Italians will do well this time; they’re due a good tournament. Even with Rooney England are not that great, especially going forward. Maybe home advantage will help the Germans a lot, I don’t know. They did well last time with a bad team, so it’s possible that they’ll go reasonably far. My uncle is French, so I’d like to see France do well too, but I don’t think Zidane is anywhere near as good as he used to be. Hopefully Henry will play well in this World Cup. I can’t see Ivory Coast or Ghana getting out of their groups, but maybe Iran will; Portugal don’t look as strong as they used to be, and I don’t know much about Mexico except that their captain Marquez is a bit overrated.
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