Today we will have a quick first view of the Group A which consists of the hosts South Africa who have been drawn against and with Mexico, Uruguay and France. While the opening game of South Africa v Mexico hardly sets pulses running there is a subtle underlying degree of uncertainty to this group and to be honest all four teams are generally on something of an even footing.
This is the group that the Republic Of Ireland could have been in. With that in mind there is a certain portion of the footballing world that is happy to see Thierry Henry as the Pantomime villain of this tournament before it has even begun. A few years ago you would have viewed this group as not posing too much of a problem for France but with their recent dissention within the ranks and having to resort to cheating to qualify nothing can be certain from what they do.
As ever you can’t help but fancy the hosting nation to upset and turn over a few teams with that in mind when they indeed play France they should be subject to more than their usual amount of support.
Filling out the group are Uruguay and Mexico and as ever with teams from America there is always an element of the dark horse about them, the ability within to also potentially turn anybody over on a given day. The reality is that these teams did not really overly impress in qualification so with their workman like performances in mind you can’t help but feel these two will represent tough (if not glamorous) nuts to crack.
This should turn out to be a sleeper group in the best manner.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment