Yes, England find themselves facing arguably one of the easier World Cup Groups when they venture to South Africa in 2010. After spending a whole day contemplating over whom I would like to see England play, whilst concocting “groups of death” for some so-called better teams, I can admit that I am rather relieved with our future opponents; USA, Algeria and Slovenia.
Although USA were to be considered as one of the harder teams in the group 2 pot, they should really pose few problems to a hopefully on-song English side. Our cousins from across the pond should however not be taken too lightly, as they did beat current European Champions Spain in the Confederations Cup semi-final earlier this year. Yet, if England is to win the competition there are definitely more competitive nations out there to be beaten.
As for Algeria and Slovenia, both sides confirmed their place in the World Cup through play-off games. Algeria beat Egypt, after losing to their fellow North Africans only 4 days previously, and is probably one of the weaker sides in the competition. Slovenia faced tougher opposition in their play-off, coming through a hard fought 2-leg affair with Russia on away goals.
If, as they should do, England gets through the group stages of the competition, they do however face a tough task in the last 16. Group D will provide England with their opponents, a group which involves Germany, Australia, Serbia and Ghana. You would think it doesn’t get any worse than that, but Group G eclipses it with North Korea feeling the full force prospect of facing Portugal, Ivory Coast and Brazil. Wooft!
As for the hosts, South Africa actually appears to have an opportunity to qualify. The opening game of the tournament sees them play Mexico, hopefully this will be more exciting than it sounds. Uruguay just about scraped it into the finals, so for South Africa to draw them in their group, is the best possible outcome there also. However, much to Irish announce no doubt, the un-seeded French must have picked up a “get out of jail free card” when the draw saw them placed in with the hosts, the only group not to be occupied with a top-seeded team. Let’s just hope they forget the Red and Blue on their flag like they did in 2002.
Elsewhere, no other fixtures really catch the eye. Netherlands v Cameroon may be an interesting tie, but the likelihood is that both sides will have already seen off Denmark and Japan to qualify to the next stage, making that a non-entity. Below par Argentina have 3 solid opponents in Nigeria, South Korea and Greece. On paper Maradona’s men should progress, yet maybe there will be a real shock here.
European Champions Spain will be having a Latino party with Chile and Honduras, which will hopefully spark some life into a boring Swiss side. And finally, current World up holders Italy, should have no problems getting to the last 16 after dispatching New Zealand, Slovakia and Paraguay.
So, could this be England’s year? Scotland hopes not.
