World Cup 2010 Prediction Group H
So the last, but certainly not least given Spain are involved, group of the World Cup is being looked at now and it looks to be an interesting tussle, though Spain winning is pretty much a given surely. The other contenders from Group H are Switzerland, Honduras and Chile who will all believe they have a great chance of reaching the second stage of the tournament. Who do I think will make it? Well, glad you asked, but before I give you the rundown here’s the lowdown.
What can be said about Spain? They are one of the big favourites for a reason. The quality of their squad, their current form and the fact that they have broken their recent perennial underachieving bottlers tag all say they can win their first World Cup in South Africa. Spain have one of the best keepers in the world in Casillas (though apparently he’s not at his very best form), some world class defenders in Gerard Pique, Sergio Ramos and Carles Puyol, two of the best forwards in the world (and the best international partnership) in Fernando Torres and Golden Boot Favourite David Villa, while their midfield is an embarrassment of riches. Marcos Senna, a key player at Spain’s previous tournament win, is missing, but I don’t expect them to miss him too much. Under their coach Vicente Del Bosque they seem to play as a unit and with a good spirit too. They got through a difficult qualifying group by winning every game, scoring on average almost 3 goals a game and conceding just 0.5, which is equivalent to scoring six for every one goal conceded. They were unbeaten between losing consecutive Euro 2008 qualifiers away to Northern Ireland and Sweden in Autumn 2006 to June 2009 where they were stunned by the USA 2-0 in the 2009 Confederations Cup, which contained 35 matches and 15 straight victories. Since then they have racked up another 12 consecutive wins, most recently beating Poland 6-0. Expect them to keep possession for such long spells of the match that opposing teams barely have any chances to break this latest sequence. As I said, favourites.
Switzerland will be Spain’s first group opponents and they should prove to be a test for most of the sides in their section. Of course, in the last World Cup, the underrated Swiss beat finalists France to top their group before playing a disappointingly negative and conservative game to go out on penalties to the Ukraine without conceding a single goal. In Euro 2008, which they hosted, they failed to get past the group stages after losing to the Czech Republic and the first of many of Turkey’s last minute winners. They did beat Portugal in their final group game however and would surely have got through the group had talisman Alexander Frei not been injured early in the Czech game which they were dominating until that point. Similarly, much of Switzerland’s chances with depend on the form of record scorer Frei (though the bad news is that he’s currently injured again, though not out of the tournament) once more. Switzerland’s qualifying form was, once again, durable if unspectacular only losing one match in what must have been a complacent home loss to rank outsiders Luxembourg. Their current form, however, is not convincing, losing warm-up friendlies at home to Uruguay, Costa Rica and Norway, though they did manage a creditable draw in their last outing. Expect them to be tactically disciplined at the back and energetic going forward, looking out for Hakan Yakin, provided the 33 year old plays, who is an excellent playmaker from whom Swiss moments of magic can spring.
Honduras are generally regarded as the outsiders of the group, but the noises from inside the camp have been positive and it would, in reality, be no big surprise to see them progress (unless it was at the expense of Spain of course). My biggest worry about the side is that their away form was not too impressive in qualifying, only winning two of their 9 away matches. They also only scored 8 goals out of their 32 away from home in 9 games. Furthermore, warm-up form has been bad for the Hondurans also, who despite ending their recent losing hoodoo against the USA have been beaten by Peru, Turkey and Romania away from home (they also could only draw against Belarus and Azerbaijan). On their day though, Honduras’ dynamic and powerful side can be dangerous, particularly with strong players such as Wilson Palacios and Maynor Figueroa in the side. Carlos Pavon and David Suazo will be expected to score the goals and while both of them have a combined age of 66, their years haven’t diminished their goal threat (yet). I’d like to see Honduras do well, but I am wary that they will not be able to reproduce their best form in front of a foreign audience.
The final team in the group, and that I have to analyse, will possibly be the most exciting attacking side in the tournament, if all I’ve heard is true. Argentine coach Marcello Bielsa has got his side Chile playing an aggressive 4-2-3-1 formation which involves pressing the ball high up the pitch and attacking in numbers. Think Barcelona without the same calibre of player. This is a high-energy game, but the players should be extremely fit and used to something close to the high altitudes that they will play in within South Africa. There are obvious positives and weaknesses to this strategy however, they score plenty (only Brazil scored more in qualifying from South America), but Chile are hardly impenetrable at the back despite 8 clean sheets; when teams can break the blitz defence and counter attack effectively they usually score more than one. Furthermore, another weakness is the size of the squad, which is probably one of the smallest at the World Cup. This may leave the side vulnerable when trying to defend set-pieces or crosses into the box. Their form has been fairly decent in the build up, with only a solitary defeat away to Mexico and a draw against Venezuela breaking their winning sequence since qualification (no huge names, but impressive nonetheless). Their only friendly in South Africa was against New Zealand and they won this 2-0, so they should go into the tournament reasonably confident of qualifying from their group.
Now for the final set of group predictions…
Honduras begin the group against Chile in what should be an entertaining encounter with a few goals. Unfortunately for the central Americans, I can see Chile‘s game really troubling Honduras to give them a 3-1 win.
Spain kick-off the last of the opening fixtures against Switzerland and though I expect the Swiss to be game I think they will succumb to Spain‘s great possession play and lose 2-0.
Chile would then face off against Switzerland in a game Chile know they can qualify from if they win. However, it is a must-not-lose game for the Swiss. Chile will probably dominate play, but I expect the Swiss to cause Chile trouble on the counter. Thus, I think the final score could well be 2-2.
Spain then face Honduras in a first game at altitude since last year in the Confederations Cup. However, I think they will be up for the challenge dominating to win 3-0 to end Honduran hopes in the competition, whilst sealing their own qualification in style.
Therefore, going into the final set of games, Spain will have already qualified, but Chile would need a point or more against the European champions to guarantee their progression. Fail, and Switzerland could qualify by winning against Honduras with a four goal swing. However, I don’t expect the Swiss to find Honduras easy opponents to get past and they may only win 2-1. This would leave Spain needing to give Chile a thrashing for them to have a chance and in Pretoria I can see Spain being able to move the ball well enough to open up Chile and score at will giving them a 4-1 win that sees the Chileans unexpectedly defending for the last portion of the game, but they hold on to a three goal deficit to secure qualification on goals scored.
Here would therefore be my last predicted group standings…
- Team Win Draw Lose F A GD Pts
- Spain 3 0 0 9 1 8 9
- Chile 1 1 1 6 7 -1 4
- Switzerland 1 1 1 4 5 -1 4
- Honduras 0 0 3 2 8 -6 0
Therefore, Spain would go through to the next round to face Portugal and Chile would face Brazil in the 2nd Round.
Well, that’s all the groups done, so let’s go through to the knockout stages now to see what I think would happen should my predictions be proven right (two results right so far!).
