World Cup Group A Preview

The first group that sees the hosts as the top seed kick off their tournament with any important game against Mexico, before finishing with France. This is arguably the toughest group to predict, with no outright favourite or winner. Premiership Tips will break it down for you.

South Africa

The home field advantage is with South Africa in this tournament. Whether it can be as favourable as it was to one of the hosts in 2002 remains to be seen. No hosts have ever failed to make it out of the opening group stage. South Africa are fighting with their backs against the wall to continue that record, as they are odds-against to finish in the top 2 places in Group A.

A intimidatory, noisy 95,000-seater Soccer City will play in their favour, but they don’t come here with the strongest squad on paper. Ranked only higher than North Korea of all competing nations, an experienced coach in Carlos Alberto Parreira made a good decision to cut an overweight Benni McCarthy from his final 23-man squad.

Itumeleng Khune has been touted as a goalkeeper with potential. Their first choice goalkeeper in the 2009 Confederations Cup, now aged 22 he can kick-start his career with a solid performance at the World Cup. Defensively they will be looking towards the experience of captain Aaron Mokoena, who has 100 international caps. Whether he can keep this defence in place when they face the likes of Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka, Diego Forlan, Luis Suarez and Carlos Vela remains to be seen. Going forward, Steven Pienaar is their most technically gifted player in midfield. He has some physical presence playing around him, but the hosts will be relying on him to create goalscoring chances for their strikers. It’s Dutch Eredivisie winner, Bernard Parker whom he’ll be looking to feed. The FA Twente striker should play alongside Katlego Mphela, although he’s been out of form in 2010.

Mexico

Heading into the World Cup fully prepared having played a dozen friendlies since February. They were unbeaten and with a solid defence until England put 3 past them at Wembley at the end of May. That was followed by a defeat to the Netherlands which suggested this Mexican team is still incapable of beating the big boys. However, they were friendlies, and they did finish their fixture of friendlies with a 2-1 win over Italy in Brussels this evening.

The Mexicans can be a rough bunch. They foul often, and break up several counter attacks by fouling early. You may recall back in 2002, 2-0 down to USA in the second round they decided to repeatedly stamp on Cobi Jones as he held the ball up near the corner flag. Javier Aguirre was their head coach then too. They don’t take defeat well. But when they’re not losing, they’ve got players that can hurt you in other ways. They offer pace on the counter attack, except for 37 year old Cuauhtemoc Blanco. The oldest outfield player going to the World Cup, he may still offer his bunny hop trick, but he’s unlikely to play a full 90 minutes in any game. Likely to be used as a desperate substitution if/when they’re behind. Carlos Vela hasn’t hit the heights at Arsenal, but he’s got a chance to prove himself on the world stage here. And with nifty runs behind the defence, if he team mates can slide the ball through to him, he’s going to have several chances in this tournament. Their two biggest games come against Uruguay and France, but they need to get something from their opening game with the hosts if they’re to progress.

Uruguay

An inconsistent team, Uruguay are both capable of picking up surprise results and then throwing points away unexpectedly. For a long run in this competition, they need to find some consistency out of the blue. Two players in their team that have been consistent, at domestic level at least are the two front men.

Since leaving Manchester United, Diego Forlan has been a star in Spain. He’ll be partnered up front by Ajax’s Luis Suarez, off the back of a 43-goal season in the Netherlands. His team mate for both club and country, Nicolas Lodeiro enters the tournament with just 3 caps to his name, could make a name for himself this summer. A speedy midfielder who possesses close control dribbling at pace will be looking to take opponents on to create goalscoring opportunities for him team mates. Defensively they look a bit fragile and their 3 goalkeepers have just 17 caps between them. Inexperienced.

France

Despite being favourites to win Group A, the French roll into this tournament expected to be one of the biggest flops. Will they even make it out of the group? Raymond Domenech has several world class players in his team, but hasn’t moulded them together well. Narrowly qualifying for the World Cup, their results in friendlies leading up to the tournament won’t have struck fear into their opponents. Runners up four years ago, this team looks a lot short of what they did then.

Back in 2006 they were helped by Zinedine Zidane and Lilian Thuram coming out of retirement to help them qualify, and then they performance above expectations. The same result won’t reoccur this time. Firstly, because Zidane and Thuram remain retired. But because this team has lost faith in its coach and aren’t playing well as a team. The likes of Franck Ribery and Nicolas Anelka will try to drag them through the group stage. Hugo Lloris is tipped as a future star in goal. Will Thierry Henry give one last hurrah on the world stage? This France team is in for a disappointing summer.

Value Bets

Uruguay to beat France 16/5
Mexico to Qualify 1/1
Mexico to receive First Red Card 7/1