World Cup 2010: Update On Tournament Favourites

What is on paper a strong team could end up being a weak one when tested by a tricky oppo­nent. How the play­ers gel and work together, how effec­tive the coach is in bring­ing the best out of play­ers, the strength of the defen­sive line and often the rise of  a rel­a­tive unknown to help carry the team can all influ­ence who ends up winning. Other fac­tors which must be con­sid­ered include the lack of key injuries and hav­ing some luck in order for a team to advance far in this highly antic­i­pated tournament.

Luck does not nec­es­sar­ily imply win­ning the whole tour­na­ment due to for­tu­nate cir­cum­stances but as often the case some tough teams get elim­i­nated on a par­tic­u­lar nation’s side of the draw which can pave the way for that spe­cific coun­try to advance fur­ther in the tour­na­ment. Other lucky inci­dents can come in the shape of ref­eree calls such as penal­ties given,  a red-card missed or overlooked, the wood­work com­ing to the res­cue on more than one occa­sion or even scor­ing against the run of play.

In 2006 Italy was not expected to win but with a strong defen­sive unit, a great goal­keeper, a clever coach, some luck and the team work­ing together as one cohe­sive unit the Azzurri were able to tri­umph in Berlin. If the World Cup started today, then Brazil would be one of the main picks because of the tal­ented play­ers who can change the course of a match in a sin­gle move or a split-second. The Brazil­ians have tal­ent all over the pitch.

Other con­tenders would include Argentina largely due to the pres­ence of one of the most gifted play­ers of his gen­er­a­tion who hap­pens to be Lionel Messi. He is sim­ply a genius and while he does not per­form as well with the national team, Messi can still turn­around matches with one cre­ative move. The main rea­son the Argen­tines have not been per­form­ing up to their poten­tial is a result of hav­ing Diego  Maradona as the national team coach. Maradona was a great player but he is sim­ply out of depth in terms of man­ag­ing a tal­ented coun­try and his  inex­pe­ri­ence shows when­ever his play­ers step on the pitch. He is an inca­pable coach who must rely on Messi to change games by him­self if Argentina has any chance of advanc­ing through the tour­na­ment. Maradona ought to sur­round Messi with the right play­ers because it is a shame to see such a  tal­ent go to waste on the inter­na­tional stage.

It could be argued Messi is even a bet­ter player at this stage of his career than Maradona was. Again the stress is on com­par­ing the two tal­ented play­ers at the same age and period of their career. At 22-years-old Messi has accom­plished more than Maradona and if he can lead Argentina to a World Cup tri­umph then few can doubt Messi has the bet­ter record as a player and whether he is the more tal­ented of the two legends.

Another dan­ger­ous team would be Eng­land because of Man­ager Fabio Capello and what he brings to the table.  Capello is a great and highly skilled Man­ager when it comes to moti­vat­ing play­ers, cre­at­ing har­mony, sup­press­ing egos, build­ing team spirit and exploit­ing weak­nesses in other teams. The main issue at this point is the injury cri­sis which has affected the national team in recent weeks. Ash­ley Cole and David Beck­ham will miss out unless left-back Cole makes a late come­back while oth­ers such as Rio Fer­di­nand have spent most of the sea­son injured or recov­er­ing from an injury.

One other fac­tor which could cause dis­trac­tion is the behav­iour of cer­tain play­ers with John Terry on top of the list of play­ers being care­fully fol­lowed due to his much-publicised affair. The media is now try­ing to keep an eye on his actions and any sim­ple mis­take made by Terry will be aggres­sively cov­ered by the British Press.  To their advan­tage the Eng­lish have Wayne Rooney to rely on and at this stage of the sea­son the striker can do no wrong as he con­tin­ues to score at a tor­rid pace.

The Spanairds can­not be under­es­ti­mated because by win­ning Euro 2008 they showed they deserve to be respected. The Spaniards have Fer­nando Tor­res and David Villa as well as Cesc Fab­re­gas, Xabi Alonso, Car­les Puyol, Iker Casil­las and David Silva. Those are all tal­ented and expe­ri­enced play­ers. In addi­tion, who can for­get the mid­field duo of Xavi and Andres Ini­esta who often pull the strings for the might Barcelona? Barca does depend on Messi but he is sur­rounded by great play­ers and some of them hail from Spain as evi­dened by a few of the names men­tioned above.

The Azzurri have the small­est chance from amongst the favourites because of the strug­gles faced by Juven­tus this sea­son, the aging of the team and the fact three key play­ers are no longer as effec­tive: Fabio Can­navaro, Gen­naro Gat­tuso and Andrea Pirlo. Gat­tuso is actu­ally spend­ing con­sid­er­able time on the Milan bench while Can­navaro has been one of the weak links in Juve’s defen­sive line this sea­son. Only Gior­gio Chiellini is to be given credit in the Juve and Azzurri back-line.

Any­thing can hap­pen though and World Cham­pi­ons usu­ally do not give up eas­ily. The onus will be on hav­ing a healthy Gian­luigi Buf­fon who is as good as any­one in goal when healthy enough but once again Can­navaro is too old and slow to com­pete over a month even if Mar­cello Lippi says it is only four weeks and not a sea­son. This is a shock­ing excuse from a coach of Lippi’s stature who is now resort­ing to var­i­ous forms of ali­bis to jus­tify his choices. This shows the extent of the pres­sure on his shoul­ders and this could eas­ily back­fire as Lippi was one of the main archi­tects of the Azzurri tri­umph in Ger­many 2006.

Finally, France can­not and will not win when one con­sid­ers the national team is coached by some­one like Ray­mond Domenech who is still cling­ing to the job despite his obvi­ous inep­ti­tude. As for the Ger­mans, they are rarely the type of team which is flashy but they tend to play solid foot­ball dur­ing the World Cup as shown in the 2002 and 2006 edi­tions. Their strength is in the group and the effort, hard-work and com­mit­ment dis­played by the play­ers who often rely on their phys­i­cal prowess and method­i­cal approach to win matches. Per­haps wait­ing till end of May will give a bet­ter idea as to the teams which can be con­sid­ered as the clear favourites but at this stage it would be a sur­prise if any other team can be regarded as a seri­ous contender.

Tagged as: Argentina, Beckham, Brazil, Buffon, Cannavaro, Capello, Casillas, Chiellini, David Silva, Domenech, England, Fabregas, Ferdinand, France, Gattuso, Germany, Italy, Lippi, Maradona, Messi, Pirlo, Puyol, South Africa 2010, Spain, Terry, Torres, Villa, World Cup 2010, Xabi Alonso, Xavi