by Adam Feneley

Created on: May 31, 2010   Last Updated: June 02, 2010

World Cup contenders 2010

It is upon us once again. The most popular, most widely watched and arguably greatest sporting contest on earth is back, the FIFA World Cup finals, this time in South Africa. 32 teams will do battle from June 11th – July 11th for the right to be crowned champions of world football.

The teams have already been split into 8 groups as follows:

Group A: France, Mexico, South Africa, and Uruguay

Group B: Argentina, Greece, Nigeria, and South Korea

Group C: England, USA, Slovenia, and Algeria

Group D: Germany, Ghana, Australia, and Serbia

Group E: Netherlands, Cameroon, Japan, and Denmark

Group F: Italy, Paraguay, Slovakia, and New Zealand

Group G: Brazil, Portugal, Ivory Coast, and North Korea

Group H: Spain, Chile, Switzerland, and Honduras        

Bookies have already named their favorites with Spain, but close contenders will be England and Brazil, with Argentina a bit of a wild card. Teams like Germany and Italy cannot be overlooked, as they tend to perform well at major tournaments despite having weaker squads.

A host victory seems very unlikely with South Africa looking very shaky and struggling for goals in recent freindlies in preparation for the world cup, but home advantage can count. I will personally be impressed if they make it past the group stages.

Group A looks like a fairly easy pass for France, second place could be very tight, Mexico have the strongest squad with players like Franco and Vela pushing their front line, but Uruguay are a force to be reckoned with and South Africa are looking to pull something off on their home turf.

Argentina will be strong favorites for group B. New Coach Diego Maradonna’s side has been very inconsistent during qualification for the competition and at times looked like missing out on a place in South Africa; but with players like Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano at their disposal they should walk this group.

Second place in this group will again be very close, Nigeria and Greece both look strong and South Korea, the surprise semi finalists in 2002, will be looking to emulate their strong performances in recent tournaments.

Fabio Capello’s England are favoiurites to win group C and a strong contender for the tournaments outright winner. With a backbone of quality in John Terry, Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney the squad appears to have strengthened since a disappointing showing in 2006

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