World Cup 2010 – How the teams line up – Group A

Now that the Groups and fixtures are known following the final draw for the FIFA World Cup 2010, the world waits in anticipation for the World Cup to finally kick off. This article focuses on Group A.

Group A contains the host country, South Africa, as its seeded team. They are joined by France, Mexico and Uruguay.

The teams

South Africa
World Ranking: 86
Star player: Steven Pienaar

It is often stated that the success of a World Cup tournament depends, to some extent, on the performance of the host nation. It is believed that interest in the tournament wanes off with the elimination of the home team and therefore the organisers expect the host country to perform well. “Bafana Bafana” did not progress beyond the group stage in 1998 and 2002 and did not qualify for Germany 2006. For this very reason this group is regarded by many in South Africa as a so-called group of death, with South Africa facing a tough task to progress to the last 16. However, following their impressive performances in the latter stages of the 2009 Confederations Cup where they were beaten in the semi-final by a late Daniel Alves goal and eventually pipped by Spain for third place following a thrilling encounter that went into extra time, they should not be written off just yet.

Mexico
World Ranking: 15
Star player: Gerardo Torrado

Mexico ended up qualifying for the 2010 World Cup with relative ease after a disastrous start to their qualifying campaign. Mexico face South Africa in what may be expected to be a tough opening fixture in Johannesburg in a sold out Soccer City stadium, of which the majority of the nearly 95,000 screaming and vuvuzela-blowing fans will be supporting the local team. Should they not win the opening game, Mexico may face a tough task of qualifying for the second round.

Uruguay
World Ranking: 19
Star player: Luis Suarez

Uruguay became the fifth South American team to qualify for the 2010 World Cup after beating Costa Rica in a play-off. They may prove to be a bit of a dark horse at the World Cup and may end up surprising many football fans by achieving more than what is expected of them. The clash between Uruguay and Mexico will probably decide who will join France in the second round.

France
World Ranking: 7
Star player: Thierry Henry

Much has been written about the way in which France qualified for the World Cup at the expense of Ireland and many do not consider France to be genuine title contenders after they had to qualify through the play-offs. However, the 2006 runners-up are littered with stars and with the likes of Henry, Ribéry, Diarra, Anelka, Gallas, Benzema, etc. and can still be expected to perform well at the World Cup and are likely to win Group A with relative ease.

The fixtures

South Africa vs. Mexico – 11 June 2010, Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg
Uruguay vs. France – 11 June 2010, Cape Town Stadium, Cape Town
South Africa vs. Uruguay – 16 June 2010, Loftus Versveld Stadium, Pretoria
France vs. Mexico – 17 June 2010, Peter Mokaba Stadium, Polokwane
Mexico vs. Uruguay – 22 June 2010, Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Rustenburg
France vs. South Africa – 22 June 2010, Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein

France and Mexico are probably the favourites to progress to the second round from Group A, but there is a possibility of Uruguay sneaking into the second round at the expense of Mexico. Despite their low world ranking, the South Africans should not be written off either, as fanatical home support for them may lead to the hosts being a surprise package at the World Cup. When considering all this, Group A should prove to be one of the more exciting groups at the World Cup.

The next article in this series will focus on Group B.