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Schedule

12/06 09:00 Johannesburg - JEP Argentina vs Nigeria
12/06 06:30 Nelson Mandela Bay/Port Elizabeth Korea Republic vs Greece
17/06 09:00 Mangaung / Bloemfontein Greece vs Nigeria
17/06 06:30 Johannesburg - JSC Argentina vs Korea Republic
22/06 13:30 Durban Nigeria vs Korea Republic
22/06 13:30 Polokwane Greece vs Argentina

**All times CST

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbbxYi8FhIE[/youtube]

Mikel's out.
Essien, Ballack, Mikel and maybe Drogba out. Chelsea players are cursed..

That's definitely a huge blow to Nigeria. They have a bunch of guys who could randomly change the game with their incredible athleticism like Utaka, but they just don't have much talent. Martins will have to carry them and I'm not convinced he can do it.

Now I definitely see this group being Argentina and South Korea to go through.

Ya I originally had Nigeria but losing Mikel is persuading me to change my mind.

If Argentina gets first in their group they could conceivably have the easiest walk to the finals out of anybody in the entire WC. They start off with an easy group and then they would face second place of France's group, then probably Germany or USA.

I don't see them losing any of those matches even if Maradona still doesn't have his starting lineup.

I'm so ready:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-Vlbt49l5A[/youtube]

We will most likely be starting our '10 journey in a 5-2-3.
It'll look like pretty similar to this:
---------------------------------------------------Tzorvas---------------------------------------------

Vyntra (ugh)---------------Papastathopoulos------------Kyrgiakos--------------Torosidis

---------------------------------------------Katsouranis (Libero)-----------------------------------

---------------------------Karagounis------------------------------------Tziolis--------------------

Charisteas------------------------------------Gekas------------------------------------Samaras

Considering Otto hates using youth (no Ninis who is a stud), that's about as good of a lineup as we can get.
Toro on the left (natural righty) instead of Spyropoulos is just a pure athlete move as Toro is more likely to push up.
Katsouranis goes back to his Euro '04 role for the first time in a long time. He's so stagnant for our offense and is a wasted man on the pitch most of the time. But in this free man position he can really do some damage (if the lazy **** can give a damn).
Vyntra is so shaky. Seitaridis is actually in form for the first time in like 4 years so we'll see how long Otto keeps Vyntra as a starter.
Tziolis is a defensive upgrade in the middle but he's going to have to play out of his skin to win over the fans.
Karagounis' legs just can't carry him anymore. He'll probably go 60-70 minutes each game he starts.
Charisteas' experience and sheer work ethic and fitness will have him the starting lineup again over the shorter and faster Salpiggidis.
With the South Koreans, Otto really wants to use our height advantage for set pieces.
Gekas and Samaras need to prove to the world unlike in '08 that they can play and contribute on the big stage.

There hasn't been much talk about this group, and I've actually heard a lot of people call it a weak group. I don't see it that way at all. I think it's actually one of the tougher groups to call. Granted, Argentina should roll, and the 2nd place team may not have much chance of advancing past the round of 16, but I think it's going to be a tough battle for 2nd.

I'm going to go with South Korea, partly because of personal bias (I'm not Korean, but I live here), partly because of exposure (I've seen them play more than any other team), and really because I think they are playing better and are healthier than the other teams right now.

Even with Mikel's injury, Nigeria should still be tough, but I think the race for the 2nd spot may be decided in the group's first game, South Korea vs. Greece. I'm pumped for that.

대한민국 화이팅!

I wouldn't be too surprised to see south korea finish second in this group. However, I expect Nigeria.

Especially playing in their own continent Nigeria has an advantage, but I'm still picking South Korea.

I think in terms of recent form, Korea has been in the best form out of all the teams in this group. I'd think they'll be able to beat Greece, but that game against Nigeria should be tough. Though, considering how they handled themselves against Ivory Coast's full squad in a friendly a couple months back, I wouldn't be surprised if they won that game as well and locked themselves into a 2nd place rank at the very least before the game against Argentina.

I'll pick Argentina and Nigeria advancing from this group.

I'm picking Argentina and Nigeria but this group is wide open.

BTW from what I've read, Maradona will go with a 3-4-3. 3 forwards will be Messi, Tevez, and Higuain.

I think Maradona's lack of trust in Diego Milito will hurt Argentina. He is better than Tevez and Higuain IMO

magik9113 wrote:I think Maradona's lack of trust in Diego Milito will hurt Argentina. He is better than Tevez and Higuain IMO

I'm not so sure about that but I do agree that Milito is the type of guy you have to utilize in a WC setting. Tevez is fantastic and a crazy hard worker so he deserves a starting nod and IMO Milito would probably be the best compliment to Tevez out of Aguero, Higuain, and Diego. Target strikers are worth their weight in gold when it comes to the WC.

Argentina Definitely has the best cast of the world cup. Don't know about team,as that depends on how the defense will behave, but you can't name any other team in the world cup that has guys with the talent of Messi, Aguero, Samuel, Milito, Higuain, Veron, Tevez, i can go on and on.

So Argentina might play with a back 3 featuring Heinze? Good luck with that because other than Tevez none of their forwards/wingers like to track back. Messi sure as hell doesn't.

they are not as good as last couple WCs but still give me Nigeria for the second place. i think they have the talent edge against other two and i have a feeling refs will be partial to african teams in general, not only SA.

though Greece has by far the best coach in the group so it would be wrong to completely count them out.

j-far wrote:So Argentina might play with a back 3 featuring Heinze? Good luck with that because other than Tevez none of their forwards/wingers like to track back. Messi sure as hell doesn't.

I think it makes sense, if you look at the team, they have no real full-backs, but they have wide-midfielders like Gutierrez who's willing to track back. (and like you said, Tevez as well)