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USA: a quite interesting team in the WC2010
The opening weekend of any World Cup is always one of the most interesting. All the excitement and tension has been building up and there are a number of games going on to whet the appetite for the month ahead.
Sometimes the opening matches can throw up shocks as the star players have not hit their stride whereas the lesser known players are desperate for victory. Will there be any unusual results in the opening weekend of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa?
The game that kicks it all off features the host nation South Africa, who are taking on Mexico in Johannesburg in an afternoon kick-off. Given that the host nation has been classed as a top-seeded team, they were the nation that everyone wanted to face.
The noisy home crowd may be behind them but Mexico will fancy their chances of starting positively. Mexico scraped through to the World Cup after a disastrous opening to their qualification campaign when ex England manager Sven Goran Eriksson did his best to derail them. The Swedish manager may be extremely skilled with talented players but when he has to work with the lesser lights, perhaps his talent is not as evident.
The latter game on the opening day of the World Cup is one that will please World Cup historians. Uruguay face France in a match that will evoke memories of the first ever World Cup.
France were the forerunner to the international football tournament with Jules Rimet being the driving force for the trophy which eventually bore his name. The Uruguayans were the first winners of the Jules Rimet trophy, ensuring that the history books would forever record their achievement. The South American nation went onto lift their second World Cup with a shock victory over Brazil that plunged the 1950 hosts into football depression.
Even though they have been lacking in form in recent years, the French are clear favourites in Group A but they will consider the match versus Uruguay to be their toughest test of the group stages. Players like Thierry Henry and Frank Ribery will be expected to lead the line but on so many big occasions, the French have failed to deliver. If Diego Forlan can continue the form which saw him lead Athletico Madrid to Europa League glory, the French may falter at the first hurdle, just like they did in 2002.
French coach Raymond Domenech already knows he is on the way out after the tournament to be replaced by Laurent Blanc. This should give Domenech every incentive to go as far as possible, after all, France were runners-up in the last World Cup, even though they never looked convincing along the way. In the end, the magical genius of Zinedine Zidane imploded and probably lost France their best chance of winning the tournament.
England take on USA and again, this match is one that is very famous in the history of the World Cup. In 1950, USA stunned England with 1-0 victory which sent shock waves reverberating all around the football world. Some news reporters in England could not believe the result and actually reported it as a 10-1 victory for the English national side. This ensured there were red faces in the newsrooms as well as on the football field. There is no doubt that the American national team has greatly improved their standing since then and many of their players earn a living in the top flight of England.
All three goalkeepers in the USA squad play in the English Premier League and Everton¡¯s Tim Howard will be the man looking to keep the English at bay on Saturday. Clint Dempsey of Fulham has been in fine goalscoring form in club and international football and the English backline will ignore him at their peril. There is still a bit of a feeling that the American side are not as good as they think they are but they have every chance of finishing second behind England.
England understandably enter the group stage as favourites and the commotion that surrounded their squad announcement will have died down by the time the action kicks off. Theo Walcott was taken to the 2006 World Cup in Germany by Eriksson but was never played. This was a monumental shock as Walcott was still a Southampton player and had never played in the top flight of English football. This time, he is established at Arsenal but has been deemed surplus to requirements by Fabio Capello.
England have a lot of good wide players fighting for a place at the World Cup and Adam Johnson has also missed out. Players such as Shaun Wright-Phillips and Aaron Lennon will be required to give the pace and trickery to create the chances for the English strikers to score.
One player who wont be available to score the goals for England is Darren Bent who was also omitted from the squad. Bent was the only striker who scored over twenty goals in the major leagues in Europe that was omitted from his national team.
The Sunderland striker can consider himself to be hugely unlucky, particularly when you consider that Emile Heskey has been included in the English squad. Heskey has had a wretched season at Aston Villa but Fabio Capello no doubt believes his link-up play will get the best from Wayne Rooney, Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe. Bent will be absolutely gutted at missing out and time will tell if Capello made the right decision.
England blundered four years ago by leaving out Defoe to take Walcott, a decision which was made to look horrendous when Michael Owen picked up an early injury, ruling himself out for the rest of the tournament. If the same happened to Wayne Rooney, England would be as well booking themselves onto the next plane home. The Manchester United star has been in tremendous form all season and even looks to be the only player the national team can rely on in every game to give a credible performance. It may be a case of timing their arrival but England do not look in great shape at this moment in time.
The first few games of the World Cup usually offer up something to capture the imagination and 2010 is unlikely to be any different.
by Andrew Reilly
for The Silver Circle at www.footballtip.co.uk
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Dear Greg,
I've been a member since July 2003, maybe one of the first to join the Silver Circle.
2004 was a good year but I really enjoyed the long run we had in, I think, July 2005. It was exhilarating! 2006-2007 was not as exciting although still quite profitable and so far 2007-2008 looks quite good. I'm wondering if we're going to hit a long one again soon. Anyway, it's been a pleasure as always with your service, Greg. Armstrong and you are one of the few people I trust on the internet. You have made my retirement so much more fun and financially happy!
Best Wishes, Trent Wrayford, Sidney
