Without the full slate known, until tomorrow, here was one blog that I picked up on bigsoccer.com
Re: Who is going to be the big Surprise in SouthAfrica 2010!!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Suyuntuy
I have some misgivings with respect to Paraguay.
They are a team that plays much better within their confederation, but when they play outside they tend to underperform. I think Colombia does better outside CONMEBOL, even if in reality they are a weaker team. Paraguay gets scared, and just defends.
In the last 18 months, Paraguay has lost to Qatar, South Korea, tied the Saudis and barely defeated Oman 1-0 (always as visitors or on neutral ground).
Colombia comes from defeating Mexico, El Salvador, Haiti (well...), Nigeria, and losing to France by one goal. To be fair, Paraguay tied France 0-0 (both games in Paris) and Colombia played Haiti and Nigeria at home (Paraguay didn`t play any game at home).
Otherwise, I know Paraguay has a better history in the World Cups and they are indeed the better team, but I wish they showed more of the grit the Colombians can show at times. If they did, and didn`t seem to get star-struck when facing the "big teams," they could go far.
After all, they have been a top CONMEBOL team for a while. They cannot afford to go aorund losing to the likes of Qatar, not even in a friendly, not even as a joke.
When I watched Colombia play Germany or England, I was expecting the surprise, it was obvious the game could go one way or the other. When I watched Paraguay playing France or England, I was thinking, "how long can they keep the 0-0?"
Totally fair. Paraguay doesn't seem to have the same tenacity they had a decade ago (around '97-'03 when they had a more fiery disposition). We'll see though. In my mind, Paraguay's performance is totally contingent on the draw, they are not a side that will be fine no matter what draw they get. If they get a draw with say, Ivory Coast, Italy and Mexico, they could go home with 0 points, easy.
That's really the interesting thing. Any group with really Ivory Coast, Ghana, or Cameroon in it is a potential group of death, potentially add Nigeria if they'd stop playing schizophrenic soccer, add the US if the coach were different and Charlie Davies wasn't nearly killed in a car wreck a month ago, Mexico can be added to that list as well, I'm pretty well convinced that Chile could be too.
I don't know if there's ever been a time where there was more potential for absolutely horrific (but entertaining) powerhouse groups in the world cup. This could potentially be a truly immensely entertaining tournament.
After all there just aren't many weak sisters around. Last time, Concacaf dragged two weak sisters in in Costa Rica (not nearly their '01-'02 selves), and T&T (at best never better than fifth or sixth best in concacaf). The AFC brought in the annual pathetic side in S. Arabia, and Iran ended up being nowhere near as impressive as their fans expected. CAF left 2 or 3 of their best sides at home, dragging annual also rans Tunisia, and new lambs to the slaughter Togo and Angola (both of whom I'd argue were not nearly as bad as presented in the former case, and as expected in the latter). UEFA brought Poland, and Serbia, Poland was never good enough, and Serbia suddenly forgot how to play after dominating a tough group in qualifying. Conmebol admittedly sent no dogs. But still, that's at least 8 dogs, and then you add factors in like the US imploding. Paraguay playing terrible, Croatia playing awful etc and you have what was a terribly inconsistent cup.
This time round, it appears Africa's qualifyers will be twice as strong as last time, and generally the sides considered the best 4, are all going (Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria) Asia is only bringing one potential dog, and N. Korea actually played some excellent defensive soccer in qualifying (unlucky and if i recall correctly, were hosed in not beating S. Korea, at S. Korea). Concacaf isn't really sending a dog. Sure Honduras is no world beater, but a lot of concacaf backers including me, view Honduras as the team most capable of pulling an upset or at least a quality result, against elite teams at a cup after Mexico and the US. UEFA appears likely to only send one team little is expected of (Slovakia) though perhaps 2 (Ukraine or Greece). And Conmebol is certainly sending their best 5 if Uruguay finishes Costa Rica off, as expected on wednesday. So really, the only definitive, expected to be dogs sides this time around would probably be the hosts, N. Korea, maybe Japan, Honduras (thought a more capable concacaf side than Costa Rica or T&T in '06), Slovakia and maybe one other UEFA side.
Makes for a very interesting cup.
Particularly when you realize the potential with sides like Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Mexico, USA, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Australia, S. Korea, Denmark, potentially Holland or Portugal and maybe Russia. That's a real big pile up of quality teams, all of which could/and will be unseeded. Basically, it's not hard to imagine 4 groups that in the past might be considered groups of death. Cannot wait for the draw.
Re: Who is going to be the big Surprise in SouthAfrica 2010!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Suyuntuy
I have some misgivings with respect to Paraguay.
They are a team that plays much better within their confederation, but when they play outside they tend to underperform. I think Colombia does better outside CONMEBOL, even if in reality they are a weaker team. Paraguay gets scared, and just defends.
In the last 18 months, Paraguay has lost to Qatar, South Korea, tied the Saudis and barely defeated Oman 1-0 (always as visitors or on neutral ground).
Colombia comes from defeating Mexico, El Salvador, Haiti (well...), Nigeria, and losing to France by one goal. To be fair, Paraguay tied France 0-0 (both games in Paris) and Colombia played Haiti and Nigeria at home (Paraguay didn`t play any game at home).
Otherwise, I know Paraguay has a better history in the World Cups and they are indeed the better team, but I wish they showed more of the grit the Colombians can show at times. If they did, and didn`t seem to get star-struck when facing the "big teams," they could go far.
After all, they have been a top CONMEBOL team for a while. They cannot afford to go aorund losing to the likes of Qatar, not even in a friendly, not even as a joke.
When I watched Colombia play Germany or England, I was expecting the surprise, it was obvious the game could go one way or the other. When I watched Paraguay playing France or England, I was thinking, "how long can they keep the 0-0?"
Totally fair. Paraguay doesn't seem to have the same tenacity they had a decade ago (around '97-'03 when they had a more fiery disposition). We'll see though. In my mind, Paraguay's performance is totally contingent on the draw, they are not a side that will be fine no matter what draw they get. If they get a draw with say, Ivory Coast, Italy and Mexico, they could go home with 0 points, easy.
That's really the interesting thing. Any group with really Ivory Coast, Ghana, or Cameroon in it is a potential group of death, potentially add Nigeria if they'd stop playing schizophrenic soccer, add the US if the coach were different and Charlie Davies wasn't nearly killed in a car wreck a month ago, Mexico can be added to that list as well, I'm pretty well convinced that Chile could be too.
I don't know if there's ever been a time where there was more potential for absolutely horrific (but entertaining) powerhouse groups in the world cup. This could potentially be a truly immensely entertaining tournament.
After all there just aren't many weak sisters around. Last time, Concacaf dragged two weak sisters in in Costa Rica (not nearly their '01-'02 selves), and T&T (at best never better than fifth or sixth best in concacaf). The AFC brought in the annual pathetic side in S. Arabia, and Iran ended up being nowhere near as impressive as their fans expected. CAF left 2 or 3 of their best sides at home, dragging annual also rans Tunisia, and new lambs to the slaughter Togo and Angola (both of whom I'd argue were not nearly as bad as presented in the former case, and as expected in the latter). UEFA brought Poland, and Serbia, Poland was never good enough, and Serbia suddenly forgot how to play after dominating a tough group in qualifying. Conmebol admittedly sent no dogs. But still, that's at least 8 dogs, and then you add factors in like the US imploding. Paraguay playing terrible, Croatia playing awful etc and you have what was a terribly inconsistent cup.
This time round, it appears Africa's qualifyers will be twice as strong as last time, and generally the sides considered the best 4, are all going (Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria) Asia is only bringing one potential dog, and N. Korea actually played some excellent defensive soccer in qualifying (unlucky and if i recall correctly, were hosed in not beating S. Korea, at S. Korea). Concacaf isn't really sending a dog. Sure Honduras is no world beater, but a lot of concacaf backers including me, view Honduras as the team most capable of pulling an upset or at least a quality result, against elite teams at a cup after Mexico and the US. UEFA appears likely to only send one team little is expected of (Slovakia) though perhaps 2 (Ukraine or Greece). And Conmebol is certainly sending their best 5 if Uruguay finishes Costa Rica off, as expected on wednesday. So really, the only definitive, expected to be dogs sides this time around would probably be the hosts, N. Korea, maybe Japan, Honduras (thought a more capable concacaf side than Costa Rica or T&T in '06), Slovakia and maybe one other UEFA side.
Makes for a very interesting cup.
Particularly when you realize the potential with sides like Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Mexico, USA, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Australia, S. Korea, Denmark, potentially Holland or Portugal and maybe Russia. That's a real big pile up of quality teams, all of which could/and will be unseeded. Basically, it's not hard to imagine 4 groups that in the past might be considered groups of death. Cannot wait for the draw.
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