FIFA Ranking: 33 Most Caps: Amadeo Guevara 138 Most Goals: Carlos Pavon 58 Coach: Luis Suarez Luis Suarez (not that one) has announced his 23 man squad for the World Cup. A little earlier (by a week or so) than the other finalists. They build upon qualification for the last World Cup and have a fair sprinkling of players from Europe. Celtic fans will no doubt be looking at the performances of Izaguirre with great interest. A solid defence with some threat upfront. They thrashed Canada in qualification and were unbeaten at home aisde from a slip up against Panama and beat the final group qualification favourites USA and Mexico forcing El Tri into the playoff position. The player to look out for is Andy Najar an attacking midfielder of some promise who currently plays at Anderlecht after impressing greatly in the MLS as a teenager and scored again this weekend propelling the club to another defence of ther title ahead of Club Bruges. Arnold Peralta has been replaced in the squad by Edder Delgado which is a blow to a squad short of experience at the top flight. [video=youtube;F_x2GYNwxxI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_x2GYNwxxI[/video]
FIFA Ranking: 6 Most Caps: Heinz Herrmann 117 Most Goals: Alexander Frei 42 Coach: Otmar Hitzfeld Switzerland had a mini heyday in the early years of international football picking up a silver medal in the 1924 Olympics of Chariots of Fire fame, and where Uruguay triumphed in what was essentially the first World Cup in all but name. Since then until the last decade or so they have been renowned for a rather dour defensive game as exemplified in their win over Spain at the last World Cup. Domestically things have been on the change with a modernization of coaching techniques resulting in a fruitful crop of skilled youngsters making an impression at youth level. These 'impressions' included the triumph at the u17 World Cup in 2009 and a runners up spot at the u21 European Championships. Closer inspection does reveal that both successes were courtesy also in part to the rather weak nature of the opposition , but the improvement in ability of the players for La Nati has also seen Swiss clubs such as Basel starting to make an impression in Europe. The success has also seen more emigration of young players out of the Swiss League generally to the Bundesliga and Italy including Silvan Widmer (a good target for us) ending up at Udinese. Swizterland have also benefitted from the troubles in the Balkans with a large sprinking of players of Croat, Albanian and Serbian origin ending up in all sections of the national system. Hitzfeld has retained a solid defensive unit which was extremely effective in qualification and the team progressed without losing a single game. One does have to bear in mind however that the opposition within the group aside from Iceland were rather poor in arguably the weakest group in qualification from UEFA. One will not see any of the former stalwarts of the Swiss team aside from Benaglio, Inler and Lichtsteiner in what is now a relatively young team in age and experience even though many like the Degen twins are still playing in the Swiss league. Others like Tranquillo Barnetta have left their peak form behind several years ago. Indeed Hitzfeld will be relying heavily on a handful of players who have come through the u17 and u21 sides to progress into the latter stages. Ricardo Rodriguez is a team mate of Benaglio at Wolfsburg and like his counterpart the vastly experienced Lichtsteiner is used effectively as a wingback despite Hitzfeld utilizing a back four. His crosses are fairly accurate and he does like to attack the box and shoot when given the opportunity. To shield the defence Hitzfeld uses Napoli team mates Inler and Dzemaili as cover with the former given far less license to roam forward as he does at Napoli. This in turn does create a degree of conflict given the paucity of utilitarian options to fill in attacking midfield aside from Shaquiri. Granit Xhaka of Moenchen-Gladbach has over the last couple of seasons increased his stock as an all round midfielder who generally plays infront of his defence, acting as a playmaker. However his skills and tenacity seem to be slightly wasted in Hitzfeld's system where he is asked to play on the left of a three behind the solitary forward. In contrast the other highly talented player that is continuing to attract interest from many clubs is Shaqiri. At Bayern despite scoring and assisting when given the chance he has been played on the wing and while injuries the previous season to Ribery and Robben afforded him chances to shine, this season has seen his playing time decrease affecting his sharpness when he has been called into play. However for the national side he is given the role he enjoys the most that of the attacking playmaker. Blesses with decent enough close control and eye for space and goal he will enjoy playing off the sole centre forward. Upfront the choice in recent months has become rather straightforward. u17 graduate Haris Seferovic has struggled in both Italy and with Sociedad and while Mehmedi has scored fairly regularly in qualification the Swiss are hoping they have unearthed a real gem in Josip Drmic who has shown his prowess in the Bundesliga in a poor Nuremburg side that was relegated, scoring at a rate of 1 goal every 2 matches. That form translated into a brace in a recent friendly against his country of ancestry Croatia. His pace, control, movement and intelligence more than make up for any lack of outright physique with Leverkusen snapping him up at the end of the domestic German season. Switzerland will be solid and heavily reliant on Drmic and Shaqiri. They should expect to progress but their defence is still suspect at it's heart particularly if one is relying on Djorou/Senderos and if Inler is missing. Rodriguez can also neglect his defensive duties and is another avenue of attack. The top sides like Argentina for example more than exposed the side and Ecuador and France should expect to score goals. However the sheer dogged determination may just see them qualify. Hitzfeld who will retire from all forms of management after the World Cup will himself expect to see the side make the quarterfinals but looking at the overall squad, they are a bit thin on talent throughout. Star player Josip Drmic along with Shaqiri and Xhaka. He may be young but he has a very bright future ahead: [video=youtube;X3gpO8MUaeM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3gpO8MUaeM[/video]
FIFA Ranking: 17 Most Caps: Lilian Thuram 142 Most Goals: Thierry Henry 51/123 games Coach: Didier Deschamps Didier Deschamps the water carrier managed to squeak past Ukraine in the two legged UEFA playoff last winter to get Les Bleus to another finals where they hope the arguments and cliques that tore the team apart in 2010 and required ministerial intervention to get the team to play their last group game will not break out. To that end Deschamps has already stamped his authority by eliminating one potential troublemaker in Nasri. A wise decision giving his previous form at creating friction with everyone. However he has left in Evra and Ribery who are also a pair of players whose heads are pretty far up their backsides. So should this side falter which it is quite capable of doing so in the face of some questionable personell choices than one can expect the same old splits to resurface. Deschamps has moved to a fluid 4-3-3 system from the 4-2-1-3 which stumbled in qualification and in the first leg against Ukraine where the solitary attacking midfielder Nasri was actually ordered to play extremely deep rendering him ineffective and a good scapegoat for the sides failure. But no one who likes football will be crying to see the petulant child absent from Brazil. Lloris is a proven shot stopper but his decision making and ventures in sweeping up behind his defence could lead to opportunities as he often seems rather bored in goal. While he is great at getting out at crosses he seems to be attracted to balls he cannot reach. His passing/kicking is also not great compared to Landreau or Ruffier. Ruffier while he has had a solid season at St-Ettienne with plenty of clean sheets'shut outs' is great at one one ones and reflexive saves his positioning and command of his backline compared to Lloris who is Deschamps captain is not on the same level. Which will be an issue should Lloris end up injured. Deschamps has ditched the veteran and 2010 ringleader of the internal putsch Abidal and rightly so where age has been exposing his deficiencies. His first choice pairing is likely to be a combination of power and finesse. The power is supplied by Liverpools Sakho whose aerial dominance and speed complements the neat technical abilities of Raphael Varane who in his outings for Real Madrid shown a maturity and reading of the game well beyond his years as a future captain of the French side. Sakho however has had far from a stellar season with Skrtel his concentration wandering at crucial times and showing despite his captaincy at PSG an inability to take charge. This leaves the door open for Porto's Mangala another physical specimen with many of the same footballing characteristics and a target for several of the PL clubs within the top four. Deschamps will probably leave Koscielny to warm the bench. At right back Didier has the option between two decent attacking right backs in Debuchy and Sagna who can provide much needed threat down the wing and relieve the undoubted pressure Valbuena will face in his right sided attacking role as decoys. Both are suspect defensively but Sagna's extra pace may get him the nod despite an average season with Arsenal and his abilities decline. On the left Evra who somehow managed to edge out the far better Benoit Tremoulinas will also likely remain on the bench in deference to PSG youngster Lucas Digne. A hard working leftback who runs up and down the whole day he provides an excellent foil to Ribery should he be fit and his replacement Antoine Greizemann. Digne loves going forward comfortable with the ball at his feet and prepared to take on defenders at will. Again his defensive abilities compared to Tremoulinas are not that great. The flanks are great avenues for the opposition to attack as Norway showed in the friendly last night despite their 4-0 defeat. As for the midfield trio it is a very fluid one. All of the three incumbents can interchange at will from being the anchor to going forward in an attacking role. Cabaye is nominally expected to anchor the midfield while providing a creative outlet from deep with his range of passing. His deputies Rio Mavuba and Moussa Sissoko are not in the same class in terms of their passing but a real physical hard running presence that can cover the grass all day to win the ball and release the forward trio on the break. Paul Pogba stolen from Le Havre by Manchester United who then whined when he was stolen by Juventus (there is no honour amongst thieves) has had a great season with the old lady of corruption, scoring and assisting freely. He can play the defensive midfield role although he will probably have license to roam and has a rocket of a shot to unleash when the opportunity presents itself. His confidence in his passing abilities though might be his undoing in a defensive role has he sometimes tries to take the hardest route past a press and has lost the ball this way several times. He still needs to learn the art of the simple pass from the master regista Pirlo. Blaise Matuidi whose attributes are similar to Sissokho and Mvuba is the player who may well play the real anchor given the desire of Cabaye and Pogba to get forward. A brute of a player while unspectacular he is a fierce tackler who will win the ball. The inclusion of Schneiderlin gives Deschamps a player whose tireless patrolling of midfield will be invaluable late on in matches and the energy to chase games in what will become stretched matches in the heat. If a creative spark is needed later in matches the very gifted Clement Grenier could have been shuffled into an attacking midfield role with his eye for pinpoint passes and through balls as well as taking very decent set pieces that Cabaye is likely to dominate. A pity that youngster Adrien Rabiot a tall elegant central midfielder with a languid grace to his passing was omitted but his time will come. However injury to Grenier has led to his replacement by talented Remy Cabella a tricky right winger which will no doubt frustrate Newcastle United as more scouts will see his abilities. France have now also lost Ribery to a persistent back injury. The replacement Cabella is not short on quality and also loves playing quick combinations in and around the box as does the complementary Greizemann. He normally plays down the left playing quick one twos with his left back or cutting in to attack the box. Greizemann a slight youngster who has been a shining light at Sociedad is rather nippy and technically very sound and picks out his players better than Ribery who can at times like to dwell too much on the ball frustrating forwards like Giroud and Benzema who prefer quick delivery. Benzema I do nor rate him that highly given some of his indifferent performances in big matches, his relative clumsiness and rather average accuracy when getting his attempts on target. However he is a good link up player who can drop deeper and act as a foil for the attacking midfielder such as Cabaye to create chances or both wing fowards Ribery/Valbuena as they attack the box. Furthermore his pace allied to his ability to create chances is superior to his deputy Giroud whose sole valuable attribute is his aerial power and desire to work hard. Thus Deschamps is quite happy to sit Giroud on the bench . Loic Remy is a possible alternative as a more pure finisher rather than the creative striker Benzema is should France be chasing games and need to play an extra striker. But in addition to his fraility physically and mentally he offers less than Giroud might in terms of working for the team and getting stuck in which will be required if they do go behind. Valbuena' La petit velo' is Messiesque in size and also in some of his technical repertoire creating space from nothing.With his pace and technique and more than decent set pieces, passing, crossing and shooting he can as he has shown in recent seasons provide goals and assists at will. While Norway did not bother to double mark him last night and consequently paid the penalty other teams most certainly will and try and hustle him out of matches. They will also try and nullify the likes of Debuchy and Sagna by trying to take them the other way so denying Valbuena the chance for his trademark combinations. Deschamps will thus as he did last night constantly ask both wing forwards to switch flanks away from their natural foot. France are pretty decent but lack a truly outstanding midfield general or striker to take them over the edge and have defensive frailties that can be exposed down the wings and channels. The star player may be expected to be Ribery but Pogba has the ability to break out if he can replicate his club form this summer: [video=youtube;tGfC_32hCCE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGfC_32hCCE[/video] FIFA Team Profile: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCEvxlHMcDg National Anthem: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K1q9Ntcr5g
FIFA Ranking: 26 Most Caps: Ivan Hurtado 107 Most Goals: Agustin Delgao 31/71 games Coach: Reinaldo Rueda
This group is reserved for the men from middle earth. For a small country, they've got a very decent team and will edge this group from the Gnomes of Zurich. The baguette botherers blow up again. Sacre Bleu! Quel horror! Honduras finish bottom, but still get a dull 0-0 against the French (who have two sent off for dissent and depart spitting and waving their arms furiously at the cameras).
Ecuador will be stuffed because the games aren't played at altitude. Their record outside Quito in the qualifiers is pretty lamentable.
The BBC commentators got into a right old trying to work out if France's 2nd goal should stand... They didn't wait for the 2nd phase which showed the goalie pushing the ball over his line.
France have the right idea, let the kids play. The scorer of their third goal can only be about 15 . The corner flag was taller . He'll be a superstar when he grows up
