Football World Cup 2010 Group E Analysis
We continue presenting World Cup groups and we are now looking at Group E. This group is composed of the Netherlands, Japan, Denmark and Cameroon.
The Netherlands: a hot offensive sector
Van Persie, Van der Vaart, Sneijder and Robben. And ''voila'', we have pretty much summed up the ''Oranje'' offensive sector. You can even add Dirk Huty or Huntelaar and you see how deep the Netherland team is.
If you just look at Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben, you are looking at Europe's most dangerous midfielders as they both played each other in the Champions League final. Both technical leaders and hard workers, they basically led their team to the Santiago Bernabeu, home of the 2010 UEFA Champions League final.
The Netherlands only objective is to win. They are always close to winning it all but have failed so many times. The Oranje totally depend on their offense to win games. On the other side, their defense is way below the minimum required to win a World Cup. As much as I like Boulharouz, Heitinga or Van Bronckhorst, you just do not win a World Cup with an average defense
Denmark: dangerous outsider
Just by thinking of Denmark, you don't necessarily think of soccer Super Power but more of a second-tier European team. With the likes of Agger, Poulsen and Bentder, Denmark has talent but it does not put you in the top-tier of World soccer.
EVen though the danish are underestimated. they still finished first of their group during World Cup qualifiers, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal and Zlatan Ibrahimovic's Sweden. Suddenly, Denmark is a team not to be taken lightly. What ambitions can Denmark have for the World Cup? Making it past the group stage is pretty much it but it is not an easy task in a complicated group.
Cameroon: It's Samuel Eto'o time
At every World Cup, fans are waiting for African teams to explode on the World stages. This year is the year of Africa and the fact that the World Cup is held on African soil puts even more pressure on African teams.
Talking of expectations, there is one Cameroonian player that loves the attention: Samuel Eto'o. The striker is one of the world's best players if not the best. This World Cup comes at an opportun time as he is coming off an amazing season with Inter Milan after a previous amazing season with Barcelona. He will need to make his mark in this competition to solidify his legend status.
Japan:
Japan knows its soccer and Japanese fans are eager for their team to show their worth on the world stage. The team is a solid team but they might be a light weight among middle and heavy weights in their group. Their current star is an aging Nakamura and Japan will depend on a very defensive game to try to get points. In their qualifiers in the Asia Zone, they finished second in the group far behind Australia. What will this team give? They are brave bunch of players that mix experience and youth and will fight for every inch of grass on the field. Unfortunately, we do not see them finish anywhere else than last in their group.
Prediction
The Netherlands should dominate the group before most probably faltering in the round of 16 or quarter finals. The second spot of the group will be a dog fight between Cameroon and Denmark. Cameroon has the star player in Eto'o but not necessarily the team work and ethic that Denmark offers. Both teams will play each other at Tshwane/Pretoria on June 19th for their second game of the group. The outcome of the race for finishing second might be known at the end of that game.
1. Netherlands
2. Cameroon
3. Denmark
4. Japan
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