Analysis of Group A of the 2010 World Cup
With host nation South Africa automatically seeded in Group A, it was on brink of getting really unattractive with no major contender in the group until the name of France, the most competitive unseeded team, was drawn for this group. The group will kick-off the World Cup after the opening ceremony on 11th June, with the first match between South Africa and Mexico at Soccer City, Johannesburg, and the second between France and Uruguay at Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town. The group has two former world champions in Uruguay and France. Uruguay won the title in 1930 at home and in 1950 in Brazil, while France won in 1998 at home ground and were runners-up in the last World Cup in 2006, losing out to Italy on penalty shoot-outs. According to Wikipedia.com, “This is also the second time that France, Mexico, and Uruguay have been drawn in the same group with the host nation; the last time was in 1966, with England and Uruguay advancing to the next round.”
Hosts South Africa, ranked 83rd in the FIFA rankings, and the lowest-ranked African team at the time of draws, will be expected to make full use of their home crowd as they did the in Confederations Cup in 2009. They lost to the eventual winners Brazil in the semi-finals, to which no one could really complain, and then lost to the reigning European Champions Spain in extra time to get a well deserved fourth position. World Cup finals, however, have not been easy for Bafana Bafana (“The Boys”), as the South African football team is known as. They exhausted at the group stage in both of their previous appearances, but, in addition to the joyful home crowd, neutrals around the world would like to see South Africa maintain the record of every host nation in history getting through to at least the second stage of the World Cup. There will be no easy matches for the host team, and it would be considered an extraordinary achievement if they manage to qualify for the Round of 16. The South African team will be depending upon Steven Pienaar for going forward.
France, ranked at 9th position in the FIFA rankings, did not produce a convincing performance in the qualification round. They lost the only automatic qualification berth in their group to Serbia by one point and were drawn against the Republic of Ireland for the play-offs. France won by a one-nil score-line but were then beaten by the determined Irish team at home in the regular period of the match. An infamous, controversial handball by Thierry Henry assisted William Gallas to win the tie in extra time. The team is full of world class players, with Franck Ribery, Nicolas Anelka, Thierry Henry, Yoann Gourcuff, Florent Malouda, Patrice Evra, William Gallas and Eric Abidal all playing for the biggest European Clubs.
Uruguay, ranked 16th in the FIFA rankings, also qualified for the World Cup through play-offs. They could only manage a fifth position in the South American qualifiers behind Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Argentina. They faced Costa Rica from the CONMEBOL/CONCACAF qualification zone. Uruguay won at Costa Rica by one-nil and drew at home to make their third qualification through play-offs and eleventh overall. Their attack will be spearheaded by Diego Forlán.
Mexico, ranked at 17th position in the FIFA rankings, qualified from CONMEBOL/CONCACAF, where they finished second behind the USA and got the automatic qualification berth. This would be their fourteenth appearance overall and fifth consecutive one. In each of the last four endeavours, they managed to get through to the second stage but could not go any further. The team comprises of very young but exciting players which include Giovani dos Santos, Carlos Vela and Javier Hernandez.
France is expected to top this group, while the match between Mexico and Uruguay may decide the second position. The winners from this group will face runners-up of Group B in the Round of 16 and the runners-up will tie up with the winners of Group B, which comprises of Argentina, Greece, Nigeria and South Korea.
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