Who going the big surprise team in South Africa??

Who going the big surprise team in South Africa??

Well usually there is a few upsets and big surprise and nothing going according to anyones prediction in the group stages.

An highly ranked team is sent packing earlier than expected, whether it is in the group stage or in the knockouts.

Who can forget about the French exit in the 2002 on AFC soil?

It is the first time the World Cup Tournament is played in Africa and it is in European time zone though.

Will the South Americans team fizz out of their time zone? Or any of the European teams will find the altitude tough to work with? Will the African teams perform better than Cameroon's efforts to appear in a semi-final? Will any Asian team find African soil to their liking and have more than two teams pass the group stages.

Place your thinking and predictions and maybe some logical conclusion. However let it be known some predictions of upset does not have much logical pre-game evidence.

Discuss . . . AllWhitebelievr2010-05-30 22:49:14

You discuss first!

Chile.

I reckon group F will look like this

               pl. w. d. l. gf. ga. gd. P.
1. Paraguay     3   2 1 0 11 02 09 7
2. Italy        3   2 1 0 08 02 06 7
3. Kiwis 3   1 0 2 03 08 -5 3
4. Slovakia     3   0 0 3 01 12 -11 0

Results:-
Italy v Paraguay - 1-1
NZ v Slovakia - 2-1
Slovakia v Paraguay - 6-0
Italy v NZ - 3-1
Slovakia v Italy - 4-0
Paraguay v NZ - 4-1

I would be estatic with a result like that.tomrewi2010-05-31 09:03:55

Wat.

sorry meant 0-6 and 0-4

No African team has ever made an appearance in a semi-final of the World Cup.

For a negative surprise I'm picking Portugal - too much reliance on CR who's been underperforming with the national team over the last 18 months. No decent goal-scorers beyond him, backline getting old, tough group could all equal early trip home for them.el grapadura2010-05-31 11:47:52

Yeah I'm going to go with the USA, I reckon they could punch well above their weight this tournament.

And the AWs of course.

Awaits American --> weight gags.

Be the Reds! Junior822010-05-31 12:23:04

Nice pick about Portugal.

Not sure about your comment about the African teams in regards to my sentence.

Cameroon only got to the QF. But can any African team get to the semis this time round, like South Korea did in 2002 on home soil? Hence it would be better than Cameroon's past effort. That was my point what was yours?

Inability to read properly...

Tough for the Africans - Ivory Coast is clearly the best African team, but to get to the semis they will have to beat some of the best teams. Think Cameroon have a goodish starting XI and not an overly difficult group, but don't think they have the depth to get to the semis. Nigeria are a chance to get to the second round, but can't see them progressing much further than that.

Don't expect much from the other Africans, think Ghana will miss Essien big time.

Even so, I'm sure Slovakia aren't that bad.

Americans are a bunch of fat c**ts.

Is that what you were after?

Was hoping for lols, not fact.

Sorry. Not in a lol sort of mood.

Nigeria and Uruguay both have groups they can qualify from
and are probably on the 'easier' side of the draw
both could beat either the English, Germans or Serbs.

anyone thinking Uruguay won't be up for Argentina in the round of 16 is delusional

so Uruguay and/or Nigeria

I was going to punt Serbia to win their group until we beat them...

foal302010-05-31 21:03:46

South Africa will go better that most people think.

Well anyone who gets to the semis, it's unavoidable not to meet at least one of the best teams in the QFs plus at least another in either in the second round or/and round of 16.

I would like to see an organised African team that can defend well and then jump a top team in the counterattacks. They have the skills to play great attacking football but not enough to sustain a well structured defence in 90 minutes.

They don't do enough counterattack play and try to top the other team by possession football, which is difficult to do, if they slip by the group stages and play against the top half of the tournament. I often wonder if they are taking the right type of strategy at that stage even though the games do look good. they might have to forsake beautiful football for ugly football to get past into the knockouts. Most top teams will change into ugly football in the knockouts.

True generally, but if you consider that they could potentially have to beat Brazil, Portugal and Spain just to get to the quarter-finals then that's pretty tough.

Considering how difficult it is to continue in the knockout stages, most teams, outside the top 20, that gets to the second round will have to regard it being quite successful tournament for them. Which is why, if any team besides Europe and South America does get to the second round, it is big news for that country.AllWhitebelievr2010-05-31 22:56:29