The first round comes down to this…
Yes, I know I said I would try to post after each day’s matches and that only lasted a few days. Opps. But I’m making some time now to give my thoughts as all 32 teams head into their final matches.
Group A:
I know it’s not nice of me but the meltdown of France has been the story of this group. You have to laugh though. I’m hoping South Africa get a great result today. However, I just have to think that Uruguay and Mexico will somehow manage a draw though that will mean Mexico finish second which will have them facing Argentina next.
Group B:
Argentina is through. Who will join them? Will (winless) Nigeria give the South Koreans a difficult match or will Argentina roll over let Greece win? I think South Korea will have a tough match but Maradona will want his boys continue winning as they head into the knockout phase.
Group C:
Usually if after two matches there’s a team that are done and heading home….or at least will need some help from another team. However, it’s basically a case of win and move on….the playoff start here. What’s interesting is that if Robert Green hadn’t bobbled Dempsey’s shot and the Edu’s winner again Slovenia had counted, we’d still be in much the same situation with England on 4 points, the USA and Slovenia on 3 points and Algeria with 1 and still mathematically able to move on.
Group D:
Ghana and German will be hoping for Australia to beat Serbia so their result won’t matter. If Australia start to put a few past the Serbs, then they’ll need the Germany Ghana game to have one team beating up on the other. It’ll be interesting ot see how the Germans respond knowing that even a tie won’t be good enough to insure safety.
Group E:
This one is easy. The Netherlands are through and they will be joined in the next round by the winner of the Japan – Denmark match.
Group F:
Am I the only one hoping New Zealand can pull off a result against Paraguay and move on? This is another group where all four teams can move on. Win and move on. It’ll probably end up being Paraguay and Italy backing into the knockout phase at the expense of the Kiwi’s and Slovakia, but it’ll be fun to see a couple upsets here.
Group G:
Brazil and Portugal are though with the Ivory Coast and North Korea already packing their bags.
Group H:
If Honduras can beat Switzerland but a bunch and Chile beat Spain, then they could move on. More likely we’ll see Spain attacking Chile and the Swiss doing what they can to win 3 points which would leave this group with three teams on 6 points. It could come down to goal difference.
So, lets watch and see what happens.
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