Reflections On The Group Stages

The Group stages finished last night with Spain's 2-1 win over a 10 man Chile side, so now would be a good time to look back on the highs and lows of the 2010 World Cup so far.

The Hosts: South Africa got drawn in a very tough group but can hold their heads high after a solid draw with a good Mexico side and, of course, after putting France out of the competition in the final group match. Their performance should inspire the growth of the sport in the country and that's no bad thing.

The Surprise Packages: New Zealand were both a surprise package and a disappointment. They went home having not lost a match, but more attacking adventure against Paraguay in their final match could have seen them through to the knock out stages. What did they have to lose?

The other surprise package - for me, at least - was Japan. They had gone into the Finals on a run of very poor results and manager Takeshi Okada was under pressure due to the formation he had chosen. After all, playing a midfielder as a lone striker is not something most international managers would do.

He stuck with it. It worked very well, especially in Japan's 3-1 victory over Denmark. So Okada gets the 'I'm the boss and I know what I'm doing' award.

The Big Names : Well, in truth, Okada has to share that award with another manager: Fabio Capello. After two insipid England performances, many were calling for Capello to drop 4-4-2 and play a 4-5-1 formation for the final group game. He didn't. England won. Job done.

This is more than can be said for the 2006 World Cup Finalists - France and Italy. Both were pretty appalling and both ended bottom of their groups.

France, managed by walking disaster zone Raymond Domenech, imploded even before a ball was kicked. Rumours of player unrest, rows with the coach, and then Nicolas Anelka's expulsion from the squad made France as entertaining off the pitch as they were dire on it.

Italy weren't much better. To me, it looked like they expected to stroll through the group and didn't put any effort into it. They only really played football for 20 minutes in the whole tournament and that was too late.

This Team Will Self-Destruct In Five Seconds

'The mission, should you decide to accept it, is to infiltrate a national football squad of your choosing, and render them next to useless.'

Unfortunately, this mission seems to be not so much impossible, but ridiculously easy. France, England, even Italy have all imploded at this World Cup Finals.

By far the best example, though, is France. The players have long been dissatisfied with coach Raymond Domenech and are doing their best to show it at every opportunity, although I do think calling him a 'son of a whore' (as Nicolas Anelka was reported to have done) is putting things a little strongly.

Domenech has been completely undermined by both his players - who refused to train yesterday - and by the French FA, who announced his replacement even before the World Cup started.

England, too, are doing a good job of sabotaging themselves too and I bet they offer themselves as some kind of sacrifice on the altar of martyrdom. John Terry's press conference yesterday suggested that player power was about to save the day and that Fabio would just have to lump it. This lasted for, ooh, nearly twenty minutes until one of Fabio's coaching staff told Terry that there would be no 'clear the air meeting'. The other players bottled it too.

Expect both France and England to go out in the first round. The players will only have themselves to blame.

Dropping Like Flies...And It Hasn't Even Started Yet

Well, the first match of the 2010 World Cup Finals is just under a week away, but already key players are dropping like flies.

Just to keep you all updated: Rio Ferdinand suffered an injury in a collision with Emile Heskey that will mean he misses the World Cup.

Nigeria's Jon Obi Mikel also misses out as his knee injury hasn't cleared up sufficiently for him to play any part.

Ivory Coast striker Didier Drogba fractured his elbow in a friendly against Japan and is currently rated doubtful by manager Sven Goran Eriksson.

Italy's Andrea Pirlo suffered a calf strain and will definitely miss their opening match.

Also injured are USA striker Jozy Altidore, who has an ankle injury and Brazil 'keeper Julio Cesar who has back problems.

We haven't even played a match yet. God only knows what the injury list will look like then!

Huh? Who Tipped Him And Other World Cup Nonsense

No sh*t story of the day? I'm glad you asked. Well, it's this story on Goal.com in which a former Italy coach tips Italy to win the 2010 World Cup Final. Fascinating.

In other World Cup nonsense, WalesOnline seemed very disappointed that Swansea ''keeper Dorus de Vries (no, me neither) didn't make the Holland provisional squad. After all, he had been 'tipped' to get in. And the identity of the man that tipped him to be a part of the squad. Well, none other than Swansea boss Paulo Da Sousa.

Elsewhere, Algeria boss, Rabah Saadane has revealed that he will be using special technology to analyse their world cup opponents. At least in part, this seems to involve watching tapes of the matches. You can't make this stuff up, you know.

Sorry, Raphael, I Don't Think So

I came across a piece on CBC Canada that suggested this world cup will won by an individual or individuals with outstanding skills.

This may have been written in haste, in reaction to the unbelievable performances put in by Lionel Messi in the past few weeks, I don't know.

The thing is: the argument doesn't really stack up. And it appears that the author, Raphael Honigstein (a man who usually talks a lot of sense) knows it.

World Cups are won by teams not individuals. Honigstein points to Maradona's Argentina team in the '86 World Cup as an example of an individual inspiring his team to victory. However, it is instructive that this is the only example he provides. I would suggest that this is because: this is the only example there is and it is very unlikely ever to be repeated.

Italy's victory at the last World Cup is a far better indicator of how big trophies are won - a well organised collective playing effective football.

Must Be Nice To Be Italy

I think, barring injuries and one or two uncertainties - like the fitness of Owen Hargreaves - most of us can pretty much predict the entire England 2010 World Cup squad right now.

And, to be honest, it's a squad that looks a little weak in terms of breadth and depth. After the first 11, there aren't too many truly top class players. Wayne Bridge, Peter Crouch - these are good Premier League players, but, if you are honest with yourself, they are not first tier international players.

So, it must be nice to Marcello Lippi, Italy head coach. Lippi has announced he has already decided on 17 of his 23 man squad for South Africa 2010, but is struggling to choose the remaining six.

The reason, and I quote, "It's a tough choice given that at the moment at least 35 players are playing to a high level."

Now, hands up how many of you really think that England is in with a chance of winning the 2010 World Cup? Yup, thought so.

Players Who Really Shouldn't Be At the 2010 World Cup...But Just Might

You'll hear ex-players, with their cushy jobs as 'state-the-bloody-obvious' media pundits, bang on and on about needing experienced players in national squads who know what to do when the team is up against it.

And, I concede, it's a fair point. However, what often happens is that managers end up playing safe and picking players that are way past their prime. I expect this World Cup Finals to be no different, and here a few of the players that may end up in South Africa this summer, but really shouldn't be anywhere near the place.

1: Vincenzo Iaquinta (Italy)

Agreed, Iaquinta has scored plenty of goals in a decade long career in Serie A and seems to have had something of a rennaisance at Juve under Claudio Ranieri and Ciro Ferrara. This presumably is why Marcelo Lippi recalled Iaquinta to the Italy squad for the 2010 qualifying campaign.

The thing is, though, he's just not world class. He's scored only 5 goals in 35 international appearances and 2 of those were in a friendly against New Zealand.

At the 2006 World Cup, he got only one goal in five matches and looked out of his depth. Lippi really should say 'thanks, but no thanks' to Iaquinta.

2: Martin Palermo (Argentina)

Argentina have a fine array of attacking talent : Messi, Tevez, Aguero, Milito, Higuain. The names just roll off the tongue.

They also have Martin Palermo. You might remember that Palermo scored the goal that took Argentina through to the World Cup Finals and saved manager Diego Maradona' job.

What you probably don't know is that Palermo is 36 and, until his recent recall to the national team, hadn't played for Argentina in 10 years. The reason for that is: he's not a great player as his time in Spain showed and there are loads of others ahead of him in the queue.

However, who knows what goes through the mind of Maradona? And he did score 'that' goal.

3: Mark Viduka (Australia)

I suspect that Mark Viduka is sitting on a beach in Oz at this very moment, sipping a lager and counting his money. What he definitely isn't doing is playing football, as the 32 year old is currently without a club.

When he could be bothered, Viduka was a great centre forward, but mainly he couldn't be bothered. He couldn't even be bothered to play for Australia when specifically asked by manager Pim Verbeek.

So, it's very, very unlikely that Viduka will get anywhere near the 2010 World Cup, right? Well, answer me this question. Name me three forwards currently in the Australian national squad? No? OK, name me one?

You see my point. Currently, Australia doesn't have a single striker that is known outside of Australia itself. So, if Viduka does decide to play a little soccer again, it's just a very small possibility that the lazy bugger will be recalled for the 2010 World Cup Finals.

4: David James (England)

At the other end of the likelihood spectrum we have David James, currently at Portsmouth and still - when fit - England's number one goalkeeper.

How this state of affairs came to pass is a mystery to me. England used to churn out top class 'keepers like a production line : Banks, Shilton, Clemence, Seaman. There were loads.

Now, they've got a 'keeper whose nickname is 'calamity' and who still, despite a significant improvement in his overall game, makes stupid mistakes on a regular basis.

In an ideal world, there is no way David James should be playing at the World Cup Finals. Unfortunately, unless Joe Hart makes an undeniable case for himself in forthcoming friendlies, he probably will be.