This is, in my opinion, the most boring and possibly weakest group in the tournament. That is a funny thing to say considering it has the defending champions Italy in it, but really, they aren't that great and neither are the other 3 teams that follow. Italy, however, should run through this group with ease. There is only one team that could, as I see it, cause them problems and that is Paraguay. Outside of them, however, are 2 of the weakest teams in the entire tournament. New Zealand, in my opinion, is the worst team in the World Cup. They are the kind of team that irritates people that would like to see a team like Russia qualify instead. With how the system is setup, however, each region of the world will have a representative. New Zealand lucks out greatly because of this. Joining these 3 is Slovakia. A team that has decent talent, but really are a much weaker team than most in this tournament. If you can’t catch all the games of the tournament, try to make it so this group is the one you miss. Honestly, I don't think you will be all that mad. This group is going to go like chalk as they say with Italy and Paraguay destroying their competitors.
Italy
The defending champions deserve some respect... but not much
The typical home blue kit... with some weird design going on
The always classy road kit of the Italians
4 years ago people were bagging on Italy as well. They were considered too old and didn't have the engines to go the entire tournament. To be honest, the critics were somewhat right. Italy relied on some late heroics in multiple games, but come the end of the tournament, they were the ones lifting the trophy (thanks zizo). This time around, however, I don't think luck will be on their side so greatly. They did get, by far, the best draw of the seeded teams. No other group features suck a weak group of opponents. Italy must take advantage of this and win the group. The second place team in this group, in all likelihood, will have to face Holland; the team I think has the best shot at winning right now. Italy comes in with a team where every player plays in the Italian league. It is quite a feet that Italy can do this, and still have a very dominant team. Italians aren't like other countries in that their players want to go abroad and play at big clubs. All of them seemingly want to go play for their home team or the big clubs (Milan, Inter, Roma, etc) within Italy. Because of this, you have to respect their team. Their talent breeds more talent because of it, and makes Italy one of the best nations in the world (second best if you go by number of world cups won). The Italians will make it out of the group phases, there is no doubt in my mind about that. I think they will also benefit from facing a similar team in the first round of the knockout phases as they have seen in their group. Italy will be in the quarters, from there, who knows.
Roster:
Goalkeepers: Gianluigi Buffon, Morgan De Sanctis, Federico Marchetti
Defenders: Salvatore Bocchetti, Leonardo Bonucci, Fabio Cannavaro, Giorgio Chiellini, Domenico Criscito, Cristian Maggio, Gianluca Zambrotta
Midfielders: Mauro Camoranesi, Daniele De Rossi, Gennaro Gattuso, Claudio Marchisio, Riccardo Montolivo, Angelo Palombo, Andrea Pirlo
Forwards: Antonio Di Natale, Alberto Gilardino, Vincenzo Iaquinta, Giampaolo Pazzini, Simone Pepe, Fabio Quagliarella
Paraguay
The loss of Cabanas will hurt the Paraguayns greatly
The red and white striped home Kit, nice
The very modest and boring road kit
Much like that of Charlie Davies, the story of Salvador Cabanas is both heart breaking and inspiring. The Club America man took a bullet to the head, and lived to talk about it. In fact, he was talking after he had been shot, prior to his surgery to remove it. The poor guy was tearing up the Mexican league with America. Many thought that, through him, Paraguay could make some real big noise in South Africa. Without him, they will still make noise, but it won’t be anywhere near as special or last as long. Filling his shoes is the Manchester City forward Roque Santa Cruz. The talented striker struggled this year at City, but hopes to use the World Cup to get his career back on track. While he was at Blackburn he was the talk of the town. Almost every big club was after him, everyone thought he was the next great South American forward. However, like many others who have made the trip to City, he struggled to get time and was fighting injuries. He is, in my opinion, the sole hope for this Paraguyan team. They have talent across the field, but need a true scorer to be lethal. I don't think, however, that they can push Italy and thus will fall to second. From their, they will be at the mercy of the total footballers themselves, Holland. Advancing out of the group will be happy for about 2 minutes, from there; Paraguay will just try not to get embarrassed.
Roster:
Goalkeepers: Diego Barreto, Aldo Bobadilla, Justo Villar
Defenders: Antolin Alcaraz, Julio Cáceres, Denis Caniza, Paulo Da Silva, Claudio Morel, Aureliano Torres, Darío Verón
Midfielders: Edgar Barreto, Carlos Bonet, Victor Cáceres, Néstor Ortigoza, Christian Riveros, Jonathan Santana, Enrique Vera
Forwards: Lucas Barrios, Edgar Benitez, Óscar Cardozo, Rodolfo Gamarra, Roque Santa Cruz, Nelson Valdez
New Zealand
The All Whites had a short stay during the Confederations Cup, the World Cup will be no different
The all whites home kit is... all white
Don't get the wrong idea though, they aren’t racist. See, road kit all black
New Zealand reminds me of an early 90's USA team. They dont have much talent, they dont have a record of being good (at least not recently) and they do poorly at tournaments... if they even qualify. However, I think New Zealand soccer is on the rise. Much like American soccer, it needs some people to give it a spark. Here in the states we had numerous players do this over the past 20-30 years, most recently has been Landon Donovan. For New Zealand, that poster child of New Zealand soccer, as of right now, is Simon Elliot. The powerful defensive mid has the size to dominate and the skill set to do well. He is punished because he doesn’t have much help around him, but he is usually the one player that you go "well at least that guy is alright" when you watch a New Zealand game. I fear the worst, however, for the all whites. While they did get into a seemingly weak group, they are still the weakest link. I doubt they get a win, and even a goal would be quite a miracle. I would love to be wrong, as I really love their jerseys (simple class).
Roster:
Goalkeepers: James Bannatyne, Glen Moss, Mark Paston
Defenders: Andrew Boyens, Tony Lochhead, Dave Mulligan, Ryan Nelsen, Winston Reid, Ben Sigmund, Tommy Smith, Ivan Vicelich
Midfielders: Andy Barron, Leo Bertos, Jeremy Brockie, Tim Brown, Jeremy Christie, Aaron Clapham, Simon Elliott, Michael McGlinchey
Forwards: Rory Fallon, Chris Killen, Shane Smeltz, Chris Wood
Slovakia
The team not many know about likely wont fix that
A really bland home kit
However, a somewhat interesting road kit
Slovakia is a quiet team with not much talent. That is not to say that they dont have any, but what they do have is miniscule and likely wont have much of an impact here on the grand stage. The lone recognizable name in their squad is the Liverpool defender Martin Skrtel. The big defender is quiet gifted in the air and a thorn on the defensive end. However, he is surrounded by some rather mediocre players. They wont be a simple pushover for the rest of the group, but they aren’t going to pose much of a test for Italy or Paraguay, at least I dont think so.
Roster:
Goalkeepers: Dusan Kuciak, Ján Mucha, Dusan Pernis
Defenders: Marek Cech, Jan Durica, Peter Pekarík, Martin Petras, Kornel Salata, Martin Skrtel, Radoslav Zabavník
Midfielders: Marek Hamsik, Kamil Kopunek, Jan Kozak, Juraj Kucka, Marek Sapara, Miroslav Stoch, Zdenko Strba, Vladimir Weiss
Forwards: Filip Holosko, Martin Jakubko, Erik Jendrisek, Stanislav Sestak, Robert Vittek
Matches:
6/14: Italy 2 - Paraguay 0
6/15: New Zealand 0 - Slovakia 1
6/20: Slovakia 0 - Paraguay 2
6/20: Italy 4 - New Zealand 0
6/24: Slovakia 1 - Italy 2
6/24: Paraguay 3 - New Zealand 0
Derived Standings:
Italy 9 pts, +7 GD, 8 GF, 1 GA
Paraguay 6 pts, +3 GD, 5 GF, 2 GA
Slovakia 3 pts, -2 GD, 2 GF, 4 GA
New Zealand 0 pts, -8 GD, 0 GF, 8 GA
Best Kit in Group: Italy Road
- Honorable mention to Paraguay home and New Zealand's kits
Worst Kit in Group: Italy Home
- Honorable mention to Paraguay road and Slovakia home
Because this group meets up with Group E, here is the first round of the knockout phases as I see it:
Netherlands 3 - Paraguay 1
Italy 2 - Cameroon 1
The World Cup is just over 2 days away... I feel like a kid at Christmas again!
Cheers,
15 to 32
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