Saturday 9 January 2010

Saturday 9 January 2010 – 153 DAYS TO THE WORLD CUP

The final group is Group H that is headed up by many peoples’ favourites Spain. Having now under performed in the past two tournaments (at least) this just might be their tournament and year. Such expectations are helped by the reality of their group not being so testing on face value with Switzerland, Honduras and Chile making up the numbers.

Of the other teams in the group it is Chile that I would most expect to proceed from the group having got through their South American qualification in quite a strong manner.

Devoid of any real stars or presence there is a slight chance that Switzerland might pull something out of the bag but this is far from a certainty, something you feel is more down to teams under performing than any real certain element to Switzerland’s play.

Making up the numbers is Honduras, a country most people will be hard pushed to spot on a map.

Sadly the main news in football today comes from Africa as it is reported that the Togo football team came under fire on their way to Angola. With the tournament kicking off tomorrow the incident has served as a timely reminder of just what a volatile area of the world this could prove to be.

At the end of the day the tragedy is that three people died during the attack, which at the end of any day will always be more important than football. With the news story breaking immediately within a couple of hours the Togo side (including Adebayor of Manchester City) sadly announce that they have withdrawn from the tournament. Personally I found this announcement a surprise and that the powers that be actually allowed the squad to make this decision but without doubt it serves as a sensible choice as the players and officials have experienced what is perhaps the worst moment of their lives.

Sometimes football is not worth it after all.

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