Wahoo Wire

Image Courtesy of fifa.com

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Group E

Group F

Group G

Group H

Chile

Chile is impressively back in the World Cup after a twelve year absence, finishing second in qualifying; one point behind Brazil and ahead of Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. La Roja are led by manager Marcelo Bielsa who is the only manager in this group to have been to the World Cup before (with his home country of Argentina in 2002). Bielsa has brought beautiful attacking football to the squad, favoring a 3-4-3 or 3-1-3-3 with six attacking players, a defensive midfielder, and three defenders. Given their mixture of youth and experience, the team has had no trouble adjusting to the new system and finding the back of the net. Luckily for Chile, the worries over weather and altitudes do not apply to them as, like South Africa, Chile is in the southern hemisphere and mountainous. Additionally, they play Spain in their last game so they do not have to worry about their hardest game until they have probably already qualified for the knockout round.

Leading the attack for Chile are wingers Mark Gonzalez and Alexis Sanchez. Gonzalez was actually born in Durban, South Africa, and currently plays for CSKA Moscow after spells at Real Betis and Liverpool. Sanchez, also known as “wonder boy,” is only 21 and plays in Italy’s Serie A for Udinese. The defense is led by Goalkeeper Claudio Bravo who has helped place my favorite Spanish club, current (but not for long) Segunda side Real Sociedad, into promotion zone (they currently lead the league with 2 games left). Bravo is finally fit after a knee injury and will be very important in determining how far Chile goes.

Honduras

Honduras is in their second World Cup ever, with their first coming in 1982. Led by manager Reinaldo Rueda, this team is older, focuses on the attack, and has an inexperienced defense. They made it to South Africa on the last day of CONCACAF qualifying after they beat El Salvador and the US managed to tie Costa Rica, thus giving Honduras the third and final guaranteed spot in the World Cup from the region (along with Mexico and the US). They will have to hope this past weekend’s performance against Romania (a 3-0 loss) was purely getting their jitters out or this could be an embarrassing couple of weeks.

The team has a fair amount of players that ply their trade in the Honduran league. In terms of overseas big names, Wilson Palacios, a midfielder for Tottenham Hotspur, has spent the past two and a half years in England’s Premiership. The 25 year-old is highly rated though has not scored much in England. His younger brother Johnny Palacios is a defender on Honduras and hopes to make a switch to Europe after the World Cup. David Suazo has spent 10 of the past 11 years in Italy’s Serie A, including a year with Inter Milan in 2007. Defender Maynor Figueroa and Midfielder Hendry Thomas play for Wigan. The quality is there but the team’s struggle with inconsistency could send them home early.

Spain

Spain has qualified for the World Cup in style. Easily one of the favorites to win the tournament, Spain won all ten qualifiers and has only lost once in its last forty five games (that was to the US in the Confederations Cup semifinals last summer in South Africa). Even with all this momentum, the European Championships 2008 winners face a set of major injury concerns and pressure from high expectations and the previous World Cup failures. They are led by manager Vicente Del Bosque who thrives off of the many options he has and knows a thing or two about winning; having coached Real Madrid for four years and winning a title each year (two Champions League, two La Liga). Del Bosque usually implements a free flowing and attack oriented 4-1-3-2, but should Fernando Torres be unfit, then a 4-5-1 will still be sufficient to see this team dazzle viewers. If they play like they did the other day against Poland, Spain might be unstoppable.

The main injury concerns on this team are Andres Iniesta (thigh), Xavi (torn calf muscle), Cesc Fabregas (fractured leg), and Torres (knee surgery). Iniesta and Xavi are the midfield maestros, Fabregas is the super sub with great passing and leadership, and Torres is half of arguably the most deadly striker combination in the world. Luckily all seem to be probable, but how they hold up over the next three weeks will make or break Spain’s quest for a first World Cup title. Barcelona bound Striker David Villa will be fit and coming off of a great year with Valencia that saw him score 21 goals. The strong defense will also be healthy with Iker Casillas in net and Sergio Ramos and Carlos Puyol making sure the keeper sees minimal action. Again, their only weakness is injuries and expectations, on paper they are perfect.

Switzerland

Appearing in their second consecutive (and 9^th overall) World Cup, Switzerland will hope to get second place in this group. The road to South Africa was not easy, having at one point lost to Luxembourg, but after an unbeaten streak they edged out Greece to win their qualifying group. At the helm is manager Ottmar Hitzfeld, famous for leading two german clubs (Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund) to Champions League titles. He is aware of his team’s lack of stars, but they are disciplined, hard working, and will not be going out without a fight. The Swiss will hope to emulate their success in 2006 which saw them not allow a single goal, yet they got eliminated on penalties in the second round. Their most important match is their first versus Chile, if there is a winner of that game, they will be in the driver’s seat for second place in the group.

The most important player for Switzerland will be striker Alexander Frei. They will need goals to make it anywhere in this tournament and he will be heavily relied upon to score should he be healthy (Frei tore knee ligaments in the 2008 European Championships and was rumored to have picked up an injury in training recently). Another important player in the Swiss attack will be Tranquillo Barnetta, the 25 year-old winger for Bayer Leverkusen. The midfield will be held down by Udinese’s defensive midfielder Gokhan Inler who is a workhorse and has been sought after by big clubs such as Arsenal. The defense will be anchored by Philippe Senderos, formerly of Arsenal and now of Fulham, who did not play much this season. A surprise inclusion to look out for is FC Basel’s 18 year-old midfielder Xherdan Shaqiri.

Overall Prediction

Even with injury problems and previous World Cup failures to worry about, Spain will have no trouble cruising through this group. The main battle for second place will be between Switzerland and Chile. Given Chile’s attacking style and Switzerland’s lack of firepower, I see Chile advancing on goal differential or beating both Switzerland and Honduras. Honduras is too inconsistent and do not have enough young blood upfront. I expect them to at best get a draw in finishing last.