By: James K. Attaglo Wilson
Our 2014 FIFA World Cup preview continues as the tournament keeps salivating from afar. Today our attention is on groups C and D.
Group C consist of Columbia, Greece, Ivory Coast and Japan.
This group is going to be difficult for all the four contenders because it looks very open but Columbia and Ivory Coast may go through to the next stage.
First, let’s have a look at the South Americans. Jose Pekerman’s side reached the World Cup with quite an impressive record haven’t come second in the South American zone behind Argentina where they won nine out of their 16 games.
The absent of star man Radamel Falcao is a big loss not only to the Columbians but to the pundits of the game as well but they equally have enough firing powers in the likes of James Rodriguez ( Monaco), River Plate’s Teofilo Gutierrez and Porto forward Jackson Martinez.
Columbia best World Cup record came in 1990 (quarter finals) where they had a certain Valdarema with the rest being just group stage (1962, 1994, 1998).
Probable Line-up:
David Ospina
Cristian Zapata
Pablo Armero
Mario Yepes
Santiago Arias
James Rodriguez
Fredy Guarin
Juan Guillermo Cuadrado
Juan Fernando Quintero
Jackson Martinez
Teofilo Gutierrez.
The African representative in group C, Ivory Coast stand the chance to either top the group or qualifying alongside the South Americans.
Sabri Lamouchi’s side did not lose a game in the qualifying campaign with their midfield trump card Yaya Toure scoring four goals on the road.
Yaya Toure is unquestionably the African star man in this year’s World Cup. He was the best midfielder in the just ended English Premiership where he propelled Manchester City to win their second trophy in three years.
In-form striker Wilfried Bony may be paired with the former Chelsea talisman Didier Drogba in the Ivorian’s attack and this pair can cause havoc to any team they come against. Ivory Coast have been there in 2006 and 2010 but could not go past the group stages which they are determine to overturn in Brazil.
Probable Line-up:
Boubacar Barry
Jean-Daniel Akpa Akpro
Arthur Boka
Souleyman Bamba
Kolo Toure
Yaya Toure
Max Gradel
Cheick Tiote
Didier Drogba
Wilfried Bone
Another equally good contender for a slot in this group is the Blue Samurai’s. Coached by the experienced Alberto Zaccheroni, Japan open their campaign with an intriguing clash against the Ivory Coast which could determine who amongst the two will qualify with Columbia.
A lot will depend on the prowess of Keisuke Honda and central striker Shinji Okazaki since Shinji Kagawa is coming out from a miserable league campaign with his club Manchester United.
Japan has appeared four times at the World Cup with their performance being the last 16 stage (2002, 2010), Group stage (1998, 2006).
Adding to the numbers in this group is Fernando Santos’ Greece who qualified ahead of Romania via the play off’s.
Greece play a very defensive football with a counter attacking option anchored by Borussia Dortmund’s Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Andreas Samaris of Olympiacos and Fulham’s Giorgos Karagounis.
Greece have made it twice to the World Cup (1994, 2010) ?but have ended up bowing out in the group stages.
On paper group D is one of the duckiest group to assess because it’s a group which has two European giants against two tricky South American sides (Uruguay, England, Italy and Costa Rica).
Oscar Tabarez is blessed with a solid, experienced soldiers who’ve been working together for years now and have formed a real spirit, one which helped them get to the semi-finals of the last World Cup in South Africa.
Uruguay is going to be a real obstacle for both England and the Azzuris. If Uruguay manage a win in their first match against their Costa Rican counterpart then they will surely knock out either Italy or England out of the group.
Uruguay have an enviable record when it comes to the FIFA World Cup being two-time winners (1930, 1950), and three-times fourth place (1954, 1970, 2010).
Probable Line-ups:
Fernando Muslera
Diego Lugano
Diego Godin
Martin Caceres
Jorge Fucile
Alvaro Gonzalez
Cristian Rodriguez
Gaston Ramirez
Diego Forlan
Luis Suarez
Edinson Cavani.
For the first time in so many years England goes to a World Cup with somewhat less expectations and is a good omen for Roy Hogson and his young team because there’s a theory which states, with lower expectation comes less pressure.
Hogson is blessed with some young talented chaps (Raheem Sterling, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, and Adam Lallana) who can create something out of nothing. Again, England have not lost a group game in the group stage of the World Cup for the past twenty years.
England World Cup record stand at: winners (1966); semi-finalists (1990) and six-time quarter-finalists (most recently in 2006).
Probable Line-up:
Joe Hart
Glen Johnson
Leighton Baines
Phil Jagielka
Gary Cahill
Steven Gerrard
Raheem Sterling
Ross Barkley
Daniel Sturridge
Wayne Rooney
Adam Lallana/Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
For the first time in so many years the Azzuri’s pulse are going to be tested to the fullest in the group stage.
Italy’s style of play is centered on solid defence, typically supported by a world-class goalkeeper in the person of Gianluigi Buffon. Cesare Prandelli’s side is clearly the dark horse in this group and they can surprise England. Their best bet is to beat England in their opening match and move out of the group with Pirlo in the helms of affairs in the middle.
Italy’s World Cup record stands at: Four-time winners (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006), twice runners-up (1970, 1994), third (1990), fourth (1978).
Probable line-up:
Gianluigi Buffon
Ignazio Abate
Leonardo Bonucci
Giorgio Chiellini
Alberto Aquilani
Andrea Pirlo
Thiago Motta
Claudio Marchisio
Ciro Immobile
Mario Balotelli
Marco Verratti.
If Costa Rica should pull out of this group it is going to be one of the surprises of this year’s tournament but haven’t said that it is also difficult to totally rule them out because Jorge Luis Pinto’s men were considered dark horses by some judges even before the World Cup draw.
Their best World Cup record was in 1990 where they made it to the last 16 and also bowing out of the group stages in 2002 and 2006.
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