My quick thoughts
Group A. France has the players but hasn't performed, Mexico struggled at times in qualifying, Uruguay sneaked in through the play offs and Sth Africa has done anything special in the last few years but being the home team you can't write them off. So its a tough group to call, i'll go with France and Mexico on talent and big tournament experience.
Group B. Argentina also has the players but the performance has not been there. Like in 86 their chance will depend on what Maradona does. Nigeria is not as good as they used to be and were lucky to make it, Sth. Korea is for me the strongest asian team and Greece is the same defensive team from euro 04 and 08. Given Argentina's problems they were lucky to have one of the easier groups, so i'll pick them to go through with S.Korea
Group C. The easiest of the 8 groups, England has the talent and form to go through. USA were fairly consistant through qualifying and have a good team, Algeria made it just getting in with a playoff and Slovenia pulled off an upset to make it in. England are a clear favorite, it would be the choke of the decade if they don't go through and USA to squeak thorugh in the 2nd spot
Group D. One of the harder groups. Germany have a very good team and are playing well but neither Serbia or Ghana are far off them in form and talent. Australia are a strong contender but they don't have a threating enough attack. I'll pick Serbia and Germany over Ghana for their greater squad depth but anything could happen
Group E. Netherlands had an easy qualifying group so its difficult to say how strong they really are, Denmark is playing well as is Cameroon and Japan has been good too. This is one of the most even groups of the lot. Having said that Netherlands has more class players then the other 3 and should go through while i'll go with Cameroon for the other spot
Group F. Definately one of the easier groups, Italy has a strong team but they always struggle to get results, only ever seem to hit form when they reach the quarter finals of a tournament. Paraguay were solid in qualifying and Slovakia impressed me in some games but this being their first major tournament works against them. While it nice to see minnows like New Zealand make the WC i think they are looking for respectable losses. Italy and Paraguay are the two for me.
Group G. The hardest group in this WC. Brazil are well Brazil, Portugal has lots of talent as does Ivory Coast and Nth Korea are a bit of an unknown although they qualifyed with a very resiliant defence. The thing for me is Portugal have difficultly playing against teams that are tall and strong which makes me favour the Ivory Coast in that game, so i'd go with Brazil and Ivory Coast as the top 2
Group H. Spain for me is the best team in the world at the moment, Swizterland and good but qualifying from the easiest european group i've ever seen, Chile were impressive throughout qualifying and Honduras just made it through with some luck. Its one of the easier groups and Spain should get through easily and Chile should be the other team.
My favorite for the tournament is Spain.
The strongest of the rest are Brazil, Netherlands and England
And my dark horses are Serbia, Ivory Coast and Chile.
Bring on 11th June 2010
