We are about 50 days until the start of the World Cup. The teams are revving themselves up for the tournament in Germany. The special 2006 World Cup balls have been made by Adidas. Everything is falling into place. The preliminary matches have been set. Now we wait.

And we place bets.

The eight groups have been divided. These groups will determine the outcome of the real games. So, who will be sent home early and who will advance?

These are my predictions.

Group A: Costa Rica, Ecuador, Germany and Poland

Germany has the advantage of playing on their home turf. Never underestimate the draw of a home crowd. However, their team is full of young players who could buckle to the pressure. Luckily, they drew a relatively easy group. Costa Rica is a mediocre team, but experienced with a strong sense of strategy and discipline. If they pull together their defensive side, they could cause an upset. Poland has a strong scoring record, but no stars for their team. This can be used to their advantage as it means they have the possibility for better team cohesion. However, their play tends to be sloppy. I think Costa Rica could hand them an upset if they continue with their lack of focus in the long play. Ecuador has a clear short pass style that can be difficult to beat, however, their goalkeeping sucks and they haven’t had much experience playing outside of the Americas which could prove a problem on the world field. They have a very strong center, but tend to rely too much on specific players. If those players are taken out, they will buckle as a team. In the end, I think Germany and Poland will advance. However, if Costa Rica wins their first match against Germany, then all bets are off in this group.

Utopia’s Picks to Advance: Germany and Poland

Group B: England, Paraguay, Sweden, and Trinidad and Tobago

Everyone loves England. They have the best odds in this group and will probably advance to the next round. However, they just barely made it into the Cup after they lost to North Ireland. They have a strong team with many star players, yet they fail to gel as a whole. If they don’t start to work together, they could be in for a rocky ride. England got lucky with the group they fell into. Trinidad and Tobago have the least chance of advancing and frankly, they are lucky just to be there. They are most definitely the underdog of the tournament with their odds being only 1 in 1000 of winning. Everyone loves an underdog. But, they are the underdog and I don’t think they stand a chance. I like Paraguay. They have a very strong team of veterans and young players who work together wonderfully on the field. I always enjoy watching their matches, even in a loss it is like watching a well coordinated waltz on the field. Unfortunately, they lack a good strong keeper and sweeper. Their defense lacks the strength it needs when going against such offense strong teams like England and Sweden. Sweden’s midfield is tough, probably one of the best in the entire tournament and I think that will be the downfall of Paraguay. If England loses their first match, I think Paraguay has a chance.

Utopia’s Picks to Advance: Sweden and England

Group C: Argentina, Holland, Ivory Coast, and Serbia and Montenegro

Argentina is good. They will definitely advance. Their interplay is pure art on the field. They will breeze through the initial grouping here and claim an easy victory. They are my favorite team in the tournament and I think they will make it to the finals. I know next to nothing about the Ivory Coast and Serbia & Montenegro. To me this says that they have little chance of advancing. This leaves us with Holland and Argentina. As a whole, this group is like a give to Argentina.

Utopia’s Picks to Advance: Argentina and Holland

Group D: Angola, Iran, Mexico, and Portugal

Mexico, as always, has a very strong and cohesive team. I’m fairly certain they will walk through this first round. Their defense is amazing. They have a powerhouse striker and an excellent keeper (I think is name is O. Sanchez?). Mexico has a World Ranking of #7 and as a whole, their team is excellent. Iran is okay, but I don’t think they have the stuff to make it past the first round. Angola has a great defense and the match between them and Mexico should be a lot of fun because of it. However, no one on the Angola team really stands out and they have a tough time getting the ball rolling on plays. No team can win on defense alone. Portugal has a good all-round team. Their midfield is surprisingly strong and I think it will really shine against the defense heavy Mexico and Angola.

Utopia’s Picks to Advance: Portugal and Mexico

Group E: Czech Republic, Ghana, Italy, and USA

I want to say that the USA will advance. However, they really don’t have a whole lot of experience and tend to choke when it comes time for world competition. However, they did manage to beat Mexico in their division this year. Unfortunately they are up against a true powerhouse in the tournament this year: Italy. I only saw one of Italy’s games in the World Cup qualifiers, but damn. Just damn. They are superb. I’m fairly certain Italy will have a cake walk through this first round and probably make it to at least the quarter finals. Ghana is the underdog of this group for certain, but they have a decent team. If the USA chokes like they always do in the World Cup, Ghana may win a game. However, the USA has several reliable players. Unfortunately for the USA, the Czech Republic is in their group. They led in scoring in the qualifiers and have more star power than you can shake a limp dick at. However, their consistency is bloody terrible. Some day they have great games and others they may as well have stayed home. If they have a few good games in a row for the World Cup, they will probably advance. I want to see USA advance, but I just don’t think it’s going to happen for them this year. They were put into an unfortunate group.

Utopia’s Picks to Advance: Italy and Czech Republic

Group F: Australia, Brazil, Croatia and Japan

Brazil will probably win the Cup this year, though they could receive an upset from either Italy or Argentina. This group is a give for them honestly. No one stands a chance against them in it. If the other teams accept that, they will have a much better time of things. Japan is probably the weakest of the teams in this group despite the fact they have a tight midfield. I haven’t seen them play any games, so I can’t really say for certain. I’m only going off what I read on this one. I also haven’t seen Australia play, but they don’t strike me as a strong team. Croatia has always made a decent standing at the Cup and I think they can easily advance past Australia and Japan.

Utopia’s Picks to Advance: Brazil and Croatia

Group G: France, South Korea, Switzerland, and Togo

Once again, I don’t know a whole lot about these teams. I caught the tail end of one of France’s games, but to be honest, they were already winning so I don’t think they were really putting their all into it. That sort of turned me off to them as a team. They were ahead in the game 3 to 1 and it was like they sort of stopped trying. At least, that is how it felt. I could be off base on this one. I’ve never seen any of the other teams play so I had to go out and do research on them to try to make an intelligent guess on who would advance. While France’s game may have seemed half-hearted, they will most likely advance as Togo and South Korea probably won’t put up much of a fight on the international stage here. Apparently Switzerland has a strong midfield and pretty good keeper which is the makings of a solid team if they work together well.

Utopia’s Picks to Advance: Switzerland and France

Group H: Saudi Arabia, Spain, Tunisia and Ukraine

I really like the look of Spain’s team this year. They may not have the flair of a lot of other teams, but they are quite solid and work together well. Their ball handling skills have improved greatly since the last Cup and this has made their passing game a lot of fun to watch. I’ve never seen Saudi Arabia play, so I can’t say a whole lot about them. I’ve heard they have one of the better teams in the Middle East and while this may be true, I don’t think they’ll advance past this round against Spain and the Ukraine. I saw one of the Ukraine’s qualifier matches and was fairly impressed with their team. Well, at least impressed enough to have confidence that they’ll advance past this initial group. Tunisia … well, I have no idea. Maybe they’ll pull a rabbit from out of their hat and move on.

Utopia’s Picks to Advance: Spain and Ukraine

As a whole, the groups were seeded fairly well, making it rather obvious within the groups who will advance and who won’t. There may be a few surprises. The USA may surprise us and manage to beat the Czech Republic. They have a few good young players, but as a country, we’ve never performed well on the world stage in soccer. While school children of all ages may flock to the sport, we’ve never been able to produce a good league for exhibiting skills of players. To me, it seems like we’re picking people from college teams and training them. However, without a league to play in, their skills in competition tend to get rusty. Alright, technically there is a national soccer league, but how many people actually know that?

As a nation, we don’t really support soccer as a sport, so the rest of the world has flown past us by leaps and bounds. Perhaps it’s the fact that we only like to support sports that we’re “the best” in. Perhaps it’s the fact that the violence in soccer is a bit classier and more underhanded that the full on collisions of football or the brute high sticking of hockey. Americans also don’t like low scoring sports in general. I’d bet that if football didn’t have inflated scoring for touchdowns and field goals (only one or two points for each), people wouldn’t like it as much. Americans tend to believe bigger is better. This applies not only to sports, but to just about everything else in the American culture: boobs, cars, houses, tv’s, etc. So, it shouldn’t be surprising that they don’t like games where the score rarely jumps above 5 points for either team.

Oh well. I look forward to the day that the USA becomes a serious contender for the World Cup. Our women have done it repeatedly … I wish the men would catch up.

Posted by Utopia at April 19, 2006 08:46 AM

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Posted by: Brongar at April 20, 2006 08:24 AM

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