England handed favourable World Cup draw – HAVE YOUR SAY

Fabio Capello’s England have been handed a favourable 2010 World Cup draw for the tournament in South Africa next summer. They were drawn in Group C alongside USA, Algeria and Slovenia, three well-organised teams but all lacking that spark and quality of players that England possess. England fans will be pleased that they avoided the big teams out there and the draw couldn’t have gone much better, so they should fancy their chances of progressing to the knockout stage.

England’s opening fixture will be against the well-organised USA who have a number of players that play in the Premier League. They include Everton‘s Tim Howard and Fulham‘s Clint Dempsey, but it is LA Galaxy’s Landon Donovan who is America’s star player and is the all-time record goal scorer for the team ranked 14th in the FIFA rankings.

They will also play Algeria in what is a reasonable draw for England, with The Desert Foxes only just scraping into the tournament after a playoff win against Egypt. Their key player is the talented midfielder Karim Ziani who plays in the Bundesliga for Wolfsburg, while Premiership fans will also be aware of Portsmouth‘s Nadir Belhadj. Algeria are ranked 28th in the World, and may be tough for England to break down.

England’s final opponents will be Slovenia, a strong European nation ranked 33rd in the World. They reached the finals after surprisingly overturning Russia in the playoff, and are another well-drilled team but lack the world-class players to truly hurt England. In Milivoje Novakovic they do have a tall striker, and the Koln forward will provide a physical test for England Captain John Terry.

If England progress from their group they are likely to play Germany or Australia who will both be tough matches, although Ghana and Serbia also have a good chance of progressing from a difficult Group D. Group G looks at though it may take the mantle as The Group of Death, with at least one of Brazil, the Ivory Coast and Portugal missing out on a knockout place.

How do you think England will fare in the 2010 World Cup, will they be able to progress from their group and can they even go all the way?

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