World Cup 2010 - Group B Preview

Onto Group B, a group I am sure there will be a couple of shocks. The four aiming to finish in the top two are Argentina., Nigeria, Korea and Greece.

Argentina would naturally be the favourites, but with Diego Maradona in charge you can not be sure.

Argentina


Key men: Argentina have the best player in the world, and more. Lionel Messi has been unplayable this season, Carlos Tevez has had one of his best ever seasons. Not to forget Gonzalo Higuain and Maradona's son-in-law Sergio Aguero. Their squad is full of quality.

Story of qualifying: It was a strange one. They looked for a bit like they might not, Maradona looked clueless and his use of over seventy players while in charge wasn't helping his team's spirit. They sneaked through though, with winners from Palermo and Bolatti giving them two crucial wins in the final two games.

How will they do?: Despite their manager being completely insane, I think they have too many talented players not to get past the group stages. Even if the likes of Messi do not produce, they have many other players to rely on. 1st

Nigeria


Key men: Nigeria have quite a few English based players. Yakubu is a threat up front, Mikel will run the midfield and they have Joseph Yobo will marshall the defence. They have the lightning paced Obafemi Martins, who also played in the Premier League.

Story of qualifying: Nigeria topped their group by a point, finishing above Tunisia. They qualified in dramatic fashion. They had to win their last game against Kenya. They came back from behind, then lost that lead with ten minutes left but Martins scored to put them through,.


How will they do: They have some good players, and have the spirit. I think if they perform to their best abilities they can go through but I don't think they will.  3rd

 South Korea


Key men: The Korean's will look to Manchester United's Park Ji-sung, he will be their magic man. Ex-Wolves man Seol Ki-Hyeon will miss the world cup after a knee operation, but they have Bolton's winger Lee Chung-Yong who was excellent this season.

Story of qualifying: They qualified easily. They won their group to qualify for the eighth world cup appearance that contained arch rivals North Korea.

How will they do?: This is quite an open group, and I think they can finish in the top two if not win it. 2rd

Greece


Key men: Theofanis Gekas was the only player to beat Wayne Rooney's nine goal tally with ten goals. They have their inspirational midfielder Giorgos Karagounis who was their star player when they won Euro 2004. Celtic man Samaras will be Greece's other option up front.

Story of Qualifying: They were the top seed in their group, but failed to finish top. They were forced to beat Ukraine in the play offs,.they won one nil on aggregate in two very tight games.

How will they do?: Manager Otto Rehhagel will try to make them hard to beat. They have an ageing squad, and I think they will offer little in the tournament. 4th

Argentina and Korea to qualify. I do think that the second place will be a close one between Korea and Nigeria though.

World Cup 2010 - Group A Preview

The first of my World Cup group previews and I will be kicking it off with Group A of course!

This group contains the hosts South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay and France. The obvious favourites would be France, but they haven't been in the best form of late and only qualified courtesy of Thierry Henry's left hand.
Mexico played England recently and impressed, despite going down three one while in last year's Confederation Cup South Africa looked strong and competed well with the likes of Spain and Brazil. Uruguay qualified by one goal in the CONCACAF play offs against Costa Rica.

South Africa


Key Men: Steven Pienaar. Had a great season in the Premier League in 2009-10 for Everton. Was one of their best players and hardly ever has a bad game. He is skillful, and can create something out of nothing. Their captain Aaron Mokeona will be influential in defence and midfield.

Story of qualifying: As hosts, didn't have to enter qualifying rounds but joined in to make up the numbers. If they hadn't been hosts they would never have qualified. They did not even qualify for the third round, which means they have not qualified for the next African Cup of Nations.

How will they do: If the home crowds get behind them, and support them well they could cause an upset. However, I don't think they will. 4th.

Mexico


Key men: Cuauhtémoc Blanco is one of the best ever Mexican footballers, and he has a role to play in the squad despite being 37 years old. Another old(ish) player would be Franco, who has just been released by West Ham. They have young attackers like Giovani Dos Santos and Carlos Vela of Arsenal who are quick and will help lead that front line. Javier Hernandez, who has just signed for Man Utd will also be in and around the team.


Story of qualifying: Mexico finished second in the fourth round qualifying behind USA. They finished three points clear of Honduras and Costa Rica, and it was never easy for them. They sacked Sven Goran-Eriksson midway through the qualifiers and brought in Javier Aguirre, and they never looked back.

How will they do? They pinned England back for long periods of the game last Monday, especially in the first half but weren't clinical enough. They found it hard to break down the English defence even though they weren't that good that night. I think they will just miss out. 3rd

Uruguay


Key men: They have to of the top scorers in Europe. Diego Forlan has been a revelation since moving to Spain a few years ago and Ajax captain Luis Suarez has been on fire in the Dutch league. If they can recreate their form in their group, they have a great chance.

Story of qualifying: They were pipped to a fourth qualifying spot in their group by Argentina, but overcame Costa Rica 2-1 on aggregate. If they come second and Argentina come first in their group, or vice versa, they will have their chance to gain revenge.

How will they do? They have two of the best attackers in the whole tournament, let alone their group and I see them doing well. 1st

France


Key men: The favourites of the group and finalists in the 2006 World Cup. They have some of the best footballers in the world, like Franck Ribery and Thierry Henry. Lassana Diarra has been ruled out, he would have been key and manager Domenech has oddly left out Arsenal star Samir Nasri and Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema. Nicolas Anelka will be their main forward.

Story of qualifying: Probably the most controversial games ever. In the play off second leg in extra time, Thierry Henry handled the ball and crossed for William Gallas to tap in. Irish players went mental, but the referee gave nothing. France went through as a result of this and many claim they do not deserve to be there. In their group, they came second to Serbia and performed below par.

How will they do? I think they will get through. Just. They have the quality the others don't and that alone could get them through. 2nd

The whole group will be tight, any of them could sneak through. Who do you think will go through? Have a guess!

*Note that this is not part for predicting in the prediction league.

MyWolvesBlog 2010 World Cup Prediction League

For the 2010 World Cup in South Africa this summer, I will be running a prediction league. Anyone can get involved; you just have to follow these predicting rules.

Before the tournament begins I will give the low-down on each group, information about the teams and what to expect. Around that time, I will create an article where you will make your first predictions. You will be able to predict who you think will win the tournament and who you think will be the top scorer. For the teams, if you correctly predict a team from the top seeded group you will receive seven points. If however, you correctly predict a country from the second pot, you will receive eight points. A correctly predicted team from the third pot earns you nine points, and from the fourth pot ten points. The same rule shall apply with the golden boot, with what country the player is from will determine how many points you get.

Incorrect predictions will not go unnoticed, for each incorrect prediction you make, two points will be deducted. That means if you predict a player to win the golden boot and he doesn’t, two points taken away.

For the group stages, you can predict up to three things in a game. You can predict the result (which team will win/draw), a score, and scorers in the game. If you predict the result correctly, you receive three points. A correct score earns you four points and for each correct scorer two points. Of course, if you predict incorrectly you will be deducted two points but only one point for each incorrect scorer. In any game where a team from the second pot meets the third, double points will be awarded, with deducted points remaining the same. You do not have to predict on all three things, but a minimum of two is required.

After the group stages, only the second round will remain the same points wise. With penalties being a possibility, you may only include them in the result area. You get the same amount of points for each correct prediction. In the quarter finals, this shall change. For a correct result six points will be awarded, a correct score earns eight points and each correct scorer four points. In the semis and third place play off correct results will earn you nine points, a correct score twelve points and each scorer six points. In the finals, twelve points will be awarded for a correct result, sixteen points for a correct score and each correct scorer will earn you eight points. A bonus MOTM prediction in the final can get you twenty points. Throughout the knockout stages, the deduction system will remain the same as it was in the group stages.

To join in, all you have to do is predict in the article I put up for each game. I will put prediction articles for games one day, possibly two days, before that game. I will turn off the comments after kick off.

For the winner, I have not decided if there will be some form of prize.

  

If I have not made myself clear enough, and if you have any questions don't hesitate to comment and ask.

Five questions for: Rohan Ricketts

Through the wonders of Twitter, I managed to find ex-Wolves midfielder Rohan Ricketts. He then answered five questions via facebook. The Internet eh?

Rohan started his career at Arsenal, but when he was twenty left to join Glenn Hoddle at Tottenham. He became only the twelfth player to play for both sides and only the fourth to make that switch. He became a regular for Spurs in the 2003/04 season, but after Hoddle was sacked, and under Jacques Santini and Martin Jol he found appearances hard to come by. First, he went on loan to Coventry and then to Wolves (joining up with his old manager, Hoddle). He then signed for us permanently, in 2005 and made forty four appearances in two years. He left in 2007 and had brief spells with Q.P.R and Barnsley, while he spent a year at Toronto. He now plays for Diósgyőri VTK.


How is the football going?
Football is going well for me as I am in good shape and can't wait for next season at my new club!


What was Mick McCarthy like as a manager?
Mick was very straight forward and very very honest! He new how to motivate a player and make him feel good if he needed to.

Who do you still talk to from Wolves?
I dont speak to any of the current players even though I know a few like Kightly, Wardy, Jody.

How do you think Wolves will do next year?
I think it will be hard for them but they will have more confidence I think. I would like to see them surprise everyone. The fans deserve it.

Who do you think will win the world cup?
I hope Brazil win the World Cup as they will entertain me along the way.


Rohan has a new podcast, RealTalkFutbol which you can see on twitter (click on 'twitter' to see)

Thanks a lot Rohan, and good luck with your new club.

Hopefully I will be able to do this with more footballers. If you know where I can contact any, don't hesitate in telling me!

Ins & Outs

I'm sure there will be many players leaving Wolves, and a few coming in. In fact, we've already signed two for next year, and let go or sold four.

 Ins

Mujangi Bia - Given another chance

Adlene Guedioura - A good bit a business. When we got him on loan we had an option to buy him and we took that option. At around £500k, that's incredibly cheap. For someone who has shone in his first few months in English football, he can get even better.

Geoffrey Mujangi Bia - Our other loan signing from Charleroi. Instead of signing Geoffrey permanently, we've decided to get him on loan for another year. I think that's a good idea, he impressed in his only Premier League start at Portsmouth and deserves another year. Will be a good player to have in the squad, especially as we are short of right wingers.



Outs

Jason Shackell - Has signed for Barnsley. We signed him in the promotion winning year, for £1 million. He only played around twelve games, three of them starts and the only bits I ever saw of him where when he went in goal after Hennessey was sent off at Preston, and on the tele when Mick brought him on to take a not so long throw in. I doubt we will have got very much for him. Good luck to him in the future.

Daniel Jones, Mark Little and George Friend - All released. Jones and Little came through the academy and both had a lot of promise. Little was a key member of the squad in Mick's first season, and I thought he might be good enough to play in the Premier League. Jones was man of the match in one of his very first games and Mick sung his praises. Could have been a solution to our left back problem when we were in the championship, but definitely not in the Premier League. George Friend was signed at the start of last season, and towards the end came in for the injured Jarvis and helped seal promotion. Hardly featured this season, only started at Old Trafford. Jones will probably sign for Bristol Rovers, Little for Peterborough and Friend for Exeter. All should do well in the future.

Jones - One of four who has left

I expect many more to be sold or released. Players like Halford, Iwelumo, Surman and Maierhofer have hardly featured and when they have played, haven't offered us enough to be top flight players. Hennessey and Stearman now have Premier League experience and might want to be playing first team football (both have been linked with moves to Liverpool).

Players coming in. We've been linked with many forwards. Fletcher from Burnley, Robbie Keane, Goodwillie from Dundee and Kris Boyd have all been mentioned. I think Fletcher might be a good buy, he's young and has been arguably Burnley's best player with twelve goals too.

The Belgian press have almost confirmed that Jelle Van Damme is signing for us. His manager and himself have said he will be signing with us. He's a tall left back, who is good in the air and previously played for Southampton in the Premier League (made six appearances). £2.5 million is the suggested fee. Not much has come from inside Wolves but they are good like that. They only tell us about signings when we have definitely signed them.

Who would you like to see join Wolves, and who do you think will be leaving?