Everyone’s a Winner

The 2010 World Cup has reached the knockout stages as the winners and runners-up of the eight first round groups progress to the Round of 16. It’s not so sweet, however, for the sixteen nations who finished in the bottom two places of their groups and can now enjoy their summer holidays. More than half of the European teams had to pack their bags early, with 2006 finalists Italy and France being the biggest casualties of the opening round. They were expected to top their groups, but both teams failed to win a game and finished bottom. For France, it was a case of deja vu as they repeated their 2002 performance by gaining just one point. It was also a bad start for the African nations as Ghana were the only team from that continent to go through, just as they had been in 2006

Mexican Karma & Irish Schadenfreude

The 2010 World Cup got off to a pretty dreadful start as the opening 16 games of the first series of matches in Round One produced a measly 25 goals. 13 of the 32 teams failed to score and only two matches produced more than two goals. A few teams that would have been expected to make it to the later stages such as France, England, Italy and Spain all failed to win their first match. Even Brazil and Argentina only won by a goal against teams they were expected to push aside easily. The Netherlands and the unfancied South Koreans were two of only three teams to win by more than one goal, with Germany setting the early pace by thrashing the Socceroos 4-0. Things started to pick up slightly when New Zealand grabbed a last-gasp draw against Slovakia and then the Ivory Coast and Portugal played out a hard-fought scoreless draw. North Korea managed to keep Brazil at bay for nearly an hour before the South Americans scored two great goals and the Koreans grabbed a late consolation. But, the first big shock of the first round came when pre-tournament favourites Spain couldn’t find a way past Switzerland who had the audacity to score with a goal that will surely be a contender for the competition’s funniest score

Hard to Handle

In 1950, England and the United States found themselves in the same opening group at the World Cup in Brazil. Because of a dispute with FIFA, this was England’s debut at the tournament and it was widely accepted that they would be the team to beat. The United States had made it to the semi-finals at the inaugural World Cup in 1930, but their hastily-assembled team was only expected to make up the numbers in Brazil. In fact, the England team was 3/1 to lift the Jules Rimet trophy, while the States were 500/1 outsiders. The England squad was comprised of professional players such as Stanley Matthews, Stan Mortensen, Billy Wright and Tom Finney, while the US team was filled with semi-professionals who also worked as schoolteachers, dishwashers and mailmen. The England team had just played three internationals in preparation for their trip to South America, while the North Americans had trained together for the first time on the day before they left for Brazil. On June 25th, England debuted with a 2-0 win over Chile and Spain won 3-1 against the USA

Fever Pitch

The 2010 World Cup will kick off in South Africa tomorrow and and one or two teams from Europe will be hoping to create a little bit of football history on June 11th. Since its inception in 1930, a European team has never won the World Cup outside their own continent, although there’s a feeling that the current European Champions could change all that. Spain go into the tournament as favourites, but also with the tag of perennial underachievers. They’ll be hoping for better luck as they appear for the thirteenth time and their ninth in a row. They’ve yet to reach the final and will be hoping to better their fourth place in 1950. They were also quarter-finalists in 1934, 1986, 1994 and 2002. They should top a group that includes Chile, Honduras and Switzerland and I think they’ll be the team to beat at South Africa

Escape to Victory

Europe has thirteen representatives at South Africa 2010 and a few of those teams would be delighted just to make it past the group stage. The six I’m looking at today include a few that once belonged to larger groupings. Serbia has appeared at previous World Cups as part of Serbia & Montenegro and Yugoslavia. They were quarter-finalists in 1954, 1958 and 1990 and their best showing was in 1962 when they finished fourth. They may progress again this year as they share a group with Germany, Ghana and Australia. Slovenia‘s players had previously played for Yugoslavia and the country played its first match as an independent nation in 1992. Their only previous outing at the World Cup was in 2002 when they lost all three games to Spain, Paraguay and South Africa. This year, they should overcome Algeria and their match with the United States could be decisive in a group that also contains England

The Beautiful Game

The expansion of the World Cup to 32 teams in 1998 also increased the number of competing teams from North and South America to eight. Brazil have won the most World Cups (five) and are the only nation to have appeared at every tournament, a record that will continue in 2014 as they are the next hosts. They have given the sport many of its finest players and probably the best team in the world ever: the 1970 World Cup winners (pictured above). They’ve made it at least as far as the quarter-finals on fifteen occasions since 1938 and there’s no reason to suspect that they won’t make it that far again this time. They shouldn’t have too much trouble getting out of a group that also contains Portugal, the Ivory Coast and North Korea. A good omen for fans of Brazil is that they are the only country that has won the World Cup outside their own continent, a feat they achieved in Sweden in 1958 and again in Japan & South Korea in 2002

Africa Unite

For the first time, the World Cup finals will be held in Africa and the continent will have six representatives at this year’s tournament. South Africa are hosts and are also the lowest-ranked team taking part in this year’s competition. They didn’t enter the first seven tournaments and were banned from competing until 1994. They qualified for the 1998 and 2002 finals, but only won one of their six games on those occasions. Previously, all host nations have made it past the first round at least, but South Africa have their work cut out for them in what is a very tough group to call. However, it’s unlikely that they’ll get too many points off France, Mexico or Uruguay and may take some consolation in the fact that they won’t have too far to travel to get home

Top of the World

27 of the 32 nations at this year’s World Cup originate in Europe, Africa and the Americas. The remaining five participants are Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and North Korea. They’ve all played on the world stage before, but will be doing well to win a match or even pick up points in South Africa. Japan first qualified for the World Cup finals in 1998 and this is their fourth in a row. Their best performance was as co-hosts in 2002 when they qualified for the knockout stages following victories over Tunisia and Turkey. They’ve only picked up a solitary point in the six games they’ve played outside of Japan. Most likely, they’ll also draw a blank this year as they share a group with Holland, Denmark and Cameroon