Group B seems to have a bit of a split personality. Argentina is easy to call as the group winner, but second place is up for grabs. Most of the odds makers are giving Nigeria a significant advantage to clinch 2nd place, but neither South Korea nor Greece are pushovers, and could come up with some surprise results.
Country: Argentina
Manager: Diego Maradona
Best previous finish: Champions in 1978 and 1986
How they qualified for South Africa: They finished fourth place in the CONMEBOL qualifiers.
Key Players: Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez, and Javier Mascherano
Missing Persons: Inter Milan teammates Javier Zanetti (the most capped player in Argentine history) and Esteban Cambiasso are both championship, high-caliber players who were not selected for the final 23.
Comments: Their qualification in the CONMEBOL this time was turbulent to say the least. They squeaked in an automatic place by winning their last match in the qualifiers which enabled them to avoid a play-off against the CONCACAF runner up. This is a team that could win it all. They have great talent in every position. Their biggest weakness in my opinion is their manager. Diego Maradona, forever a legend for his outstanding performance in the 1986 World Cup, has been erratic, temperamental, and oftentimes just a plain asshat. If Maradona is a negative, on the positive side, they have won all but one of their international friendlies since last summer. The only loss was 2-1 against Spain, and their victories included wins against both Russia and Germany.
Prediction: Argentina should win their group outright and probably with 3 wins and 9 points. Perhaps there is a method to Maradona’s madness, but beyond the group stage, if they don’t make it to at least the semi-finals, the blame falls squarely on him.
Country: Greece
Manager: Otto Rehhagel
Best previous finish: Qualified in 1994
How they qualified for South Africa: Defeated Ukraine in the away leg a qualification play-off.
Key Players: Theofanis Gekas, Kostas Katsouranis, and Sotirios Kyrgiakos
Missing Persons: AEK Athens midfielder Grigoris Makos and Panionios defender Giorgos Tzavelas were both cut from the final squad.
Comments: The Greeks struggled through a relatively weak group stage to a playoff match against the Ukraine. They played their usual defensive style for both games, but got the one goal they needed to qualify for 2010 on a counter-attack late in the first half. They haven’t won a friendly since qualifying and didn’t score a single goal in the 1994 World Cup. However, no one expected them to do anything in Euro 2004, yet they became champs anyway.
Prediction: The Greeks rely on a heavily defensive style of play. I am not sure that this will help them against the other teams in this group. I think they will be lucky to get a draw against Nigeria and/or South Korea, and I am not sure they will improve on their scorelessness in World Cups. However, they did qualify from Europe which is one of the toughest regions to succeed in, so maybe they have a little bit of magic left from 2004.
Country: Nigeria
Manager: Lars Lagerbäck
Best previous finish: 2nd Round appearances in 1994 and 1998.
How they qualified for South Africa: Finished first in Group B of the 3rd Round of the CAF qualifiers.
Key Players: John Mikel Obi, Ayegbeni Yakubu, Dickson Etuhu, and Joseph Yobo
Missing Persons: Ikechukwu Uche….tied with Victor Nsofor Obinna for most goals scored during qualification, but was not selected for final squad.
Comments: Nigeria, like Argentina, is a talented squad who struggled to qualify for the 2010 World Cup. Their final round saw them draw 3 games and they needed a come from behind victory over last place in the group Kenya to win the group. In addition to a few international friendlies which yielded only one win, Nigeria placed third in this year’s African Nations Cup.
Prediction: Nigeria could finish 2nd in the group behind Argentina as they have the experience and the talent. Many people have them pegged to advance as the 2nd place team in this group, but they will have to have no lapses in their play for all three games. However, based on their international performances over the past year and the extremely short time that Lagerbäck (He was hired on February 26, 2010 and only to coach through the World Cup.) has been manager, I don’t think they will do it. I am giving a slight edge to South Korea in the critical third game of this group.
Country: South Korea
Manager: Huh Jung-Moo
Best previous finish: Fourth Place in 2002
How they qualified for South Africa: First Place in Group B in the AFC qualifiers
Key Players: Park Chu-Young, Park Ji-Sung, Lee Chung-Yong, and Park Chu-Young
Missing Persons: Kwak Tae-Hwi, their starting central defender was injured this weekend in a friendly against Belarus and will miss the World Cup.
Comments: South Korea is a superbly fit side who will play hard for the entire 90 minutes they are on the pitch. This will be their first World Cup with a manager who speaks the language so nothing should “be lost in translation” as games and the tournament progress. They are consistently well organized and no one will have an easy time against them. The question will be if they can gain three points from a win, and I think they will.
Prediction: Here’s what I see happening for South Korea: a win against Greece and a loss to Argentina. The deciding game will be against Nigeria, with the winner of that game taking second place and I am giving a slight edge to South Korea to win. Their first game against Greece is critical. They will need those three points to advance. If they don’t get them, they will be watching Nigeria after the group stage.
After much deliberation, here is my prediction on the final standings for Group B when all is said and done.
Argentina – 9 pts
South Korea – 6 pts
Nigeria – 3 pts
Greece – 0 pts
The Greek F.A. would like to protest your last place prediction, but they have not yet been able to collect enough spare change to make the phone call.
/financial disaster’d.
This is a really, really interesting group. I’m not sure I agree with your predictions, but I’m not really sure I can do better; I can see pretty much anything happening here. South Korea and Nigeria are kind of unknown quantities; Greece isn’t necessarily technically gifted but have a penchant for being organized and could give everyone problems; Argentina’s complete chaos, but if everything comes together just right they could be completely dominate.
I think Greece will get some points, though; the highest scorer in European qualifying wasn’t Dzeko or Rooney, but Theofanis Gakis of Greece, who scored ten times. He’s not a flash or flair player, but he’s a solid workman who fits in with his team; with Nigeria and Argentina being in a bit of chaos (with both manager changes and team selections), I think Greece could use a “good plan today is better than a perfect plan tomorrow” approach to make life very interesting.
That said, those games will probably be super boring.
Unless Maradona does something ridiculous like not play Messi and Tevez, I don’t see how Argentina can lose. But if he did do that, wouldn’t the team just tie him up and stick him in a locker?
Realistically, 2nd place is probably up for grabs. I went back and forth on the 2nd place predictions for the last two days… I had a scenario with Greece getting a draw and a win. But as I read up on this group, I really think South Korea is better than people might think and they want to show that their performance in 2002 was not just due to home field advantage, especially after they didn’t get out of the group stage in ’06.
I do however feel pretty confident that the South Korea/Nigeria game will be the one that decides who places 2nd.
I agree with you on South Korea; I know nothing about them, but they seem to be a nice combination of Greece’s organization and Nigeria’s reckless abandon.
I think that Greece is probably going to be in third or fourth place; I also think, though, that they’ll decide the group. Unlike, say, New Zealand, Greece has been around before; they’re going to be tricky, and I think that Argentina could potentially overlook them. European teams know this about Greece, so they prepare for it; being drawn with no European teams probably helps them.
But, yeah, I don’t see them advancing. I think that they could, however, deal a devastating draw in their last match against Argentina that knocks them down to second place.
Here’s what you need to know about South Korea- they all play as hard as Park Ji-Sung at Man U., they’re just not all as talented as he is.
I don’t know if anyone remembers them at the Japan/Korea WC, but I don’t know if there was a more fit/more relentless team in the tournament.
They won our group, didn’t they?
I’ve watched South Korea a few times. They are very well conditioned athletes, and it’s honestly surprising how good they are. They run with the full intention of tackling opposition, stealing the ball, and breaking out on the counter immediately. They don’t necessarily play a zone and try to trap, but rather apply heavy pressure.
They are very fast on the wings at times, and to be perfectly honest — I think they are going to be a real surprise and sleeper in possibly knocking out a team after the group stage.
My extreme hatred of Maradona (sorry, as an Englishman, it is what it is) makes me hope he falls flat on his face. That being said, their talent is spectacular, quite frankly.
South Korea are exactly the kind of team that could trouble Nigeria and Greece. They are very organised, very fit and play the ball along the ground. They are most comfortable when dominating possession and against the Super Eagles and the Pirate Ship thats exactly what they’re likely to do.
However I somehow feel that Argentina are just a little too fluky at the moment to win all three games, so its possible that one of the less fancied teams might pinch a result against them and that could change the group entirely.
Good preview, by the way. Very interesting read.
What if Nigeria wins the group?