World Cup Preview

Group A Preview
When France was paired along with Uruguay, South Africa and Mexico, everyone believed that Lady Luck was shining on France. In FIFA ranking France is ranked at number nine, Mexico at 17, Uruguay at 16 and South Africa at 83. From the numbers it should be a cake walk for France and the second spot should be a fight between Uruguay and Mexico. But this could be very much far from the truth. France recent form has been appaling at its best. Meanwhile Mexico inspired by the young talents of Giovani dos Santos, Javier Hernandez and Vela has been creating huge trouble for experienced defences. Their performance in the defeat against England and the victory against Italy showed the glimpse of what Mexico is capable of. Meanwhile South Africa is in the middle of an unbeaten run and a look back at last year's confederation cup shows that, with the crowd backing they could be the most tricky opponent. FIFA world cup has always seen host nations doing well, even winning the cup. South Africa may not be winning the World Cup but with crowd behind them they could take some big teams along with them. Uruguay now looks like the minows in the team but has the firepower to upstage even the group favourite, France. Add all these factors to France's terrible form, Group A could emerge as the potential "Group of Death".

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Robben and Mata on Barca's Radar

Finally it looks like the FC Barcelona management has realised the need to find a replacement for the aging Henry. All of this summer's transfer saga has been around Cesc Fabregas. As I have written earlier Fabregas to Cost 80 Million, Barca were looking like losing focus of the bigger picture. But the latest set of rumours emerging is good news for Barca, which clearly shows an effort to strengthen the front left of attack. If the reports are to be believed, then FC Barcelona is trying to secure the signing of either Juan Mata of Valencia or Arjen Robben from Bayern Munich. It looks like both interest are in some early stage and we may have to wait and watch how these evolves. It is also to be seen whether these will have any effect of the attempt to sign Cesc Fabregas. I have earlier written an article the pointing out the benefits in signing Robben instead of Ribery, a target for Barca for sometime. The major benefit at that time looked like the price but now it is becoming clear that Bayern will not let Robben go cheaply.

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World Cup Preview - Argentina

Argentina arrives in South Africa in midst of another selection controversy. Pundits across the world is struggling to make sense of Diego Maradona's decision to omit Champions League winners Cambiasso and Zannetti. To an extent mayhem was expected in the selection process, as Maradona had to pick from a possible 100 players(he used that much for qualifying process). That in itself shoudld be a record. The final 23 players who is making to Argentina are Sergio Romero (AZ Alkmaar), Mariano Andújar (Catania), Diego Pozo (Colon); Nicolas Burdisso (Roma), Martín Demichelis (Bayern Munich), Walter Samuel (Inter Milan), Gabriel Heinze (Marseille), Nicolas Otamendi (Vélez Sarsfield), Clemente Rodríguez (Estudiantes), Ariel Garcé (Colon); Javier Mascherano (Liverpool), Juan Sebastián Veron (Estudiantes), Maximiliano Rodríguez (Liverpool), Mario Bolatti (Fiorentina), Angel Di Maria (Benfica), Jonas Gutiérrez (Newcastle), Javier Pastore (Palermo); Sergio Agüero (Atlético Madrid), Diego Milito (Internazionale), Martin Palermo (Boca Juniors), Carlos Tevez (Manchester City), Gonzalo Higuaín (Real Madrid), Lionel Messi (Barcelona). Zannetti's and Cambiasso's exclusion doesn't come as surprise for those who followed Argentinian qualification campaign. After a series of not so good performances, both the players fell out of favour with El Diego.

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