Group B is one where it is hard to see past two European Qualifiers but of the surprises, perhaps Paraguay are best placed to take advantage of any slip-ups.

England once more enters a tournament with high expectations from the media and supporters. For more than five years, we have been told that this is the Golden Generation of English Football, the best set of players we have had in decades, perhaps since 1970, and that they are in the footballing peak. Even the manager has lost his normally cautious persona, informing us that England will win the World Cup. Not can, will. And this is with Peter Crouch in the squad. And without Wayne Rooney for the Group stages at least. Short of The Queen or Tony Blair corking it, there is nothing more that I can add to his injury situation that you do not already know such is the volume of column inches devoted to England’s best loved toe.

And what of the rest of the squad? Aside from Theo Walcott, there were no real surprises in the 23 chosen by Sven Goran Eriksson. It was more a case of whether the normally cautious Swede would have the guts to pick the players on form rather than the tried and trusted usual suspects. Even though Aaron Lennon and Stewart Downing were included, the starting XI pretty much picks itself, aside from Rooney’s injury. To such an extent that the XI who kick-off against Hungary and Jamaica are going to the be the ones who start the tournament:

Robinson; Neville, Terry, Ferdinand, Ashley Cole; Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, Joe Cole; Owen, Crouch

The formation is a straight 4-4-2 but if Rooney were fit, Crouch would drop out for a 4-4-1-1. In his absence though, it appears to me that Eriksson has missed a trick. The midfield is unbalanced, bereft of a purely defensive player showing that the lessons of two years ago have not been learned when England sacrificed Gerrard’s attacking abilities for his defensive qualities and defended too deep against France and Portugal, succumbing to defeat in both games. Personally, I would sacrifice Crouch and push Gerrard forward. In the league and particularly the FA Cup Final, he showed what potency he has in attack and how he can galvanise the team into action, redemptive and proactive.

Sweden is perhaps the best-known team to the Premiership. They are also England’s Bête Noir. Having failed to beat the Swedes since 1968, there seems to be little prospect of that being repeated this time round either. Four years ago, England were far superior in the opening forty five minutes but failed to capitalise on that dominance, being pegged back to 1-1 by the final whistle and grateful to hold on. At Euro 2004, the abiding Swedish memory has to be Zlatan Ibrahimovich’s glorious back-heeled goal against Italy. Ibrahimovich has however, had a mixed season for Juventus, apparently ready to be sacrificed by the Turin outfit for his inconsistency. Defensively, the Swedes are always solid, but at the last World Cup they were undone by their attacking frailty being dumped out by Senegal in the Second Round. But that is history and yet again they are England’s biggest threat in the Group Stages. In qualification, they had one of the more impressive records but were beaten home and away by Croatia, indicating that they may be not quite so much of a force as they were previously. Their biggest injury concern is over Freddie Ljungberg who is advised to sit out the Group Stages due to a foot injury which is good news for England as the Arsenal player was showing signs of coming back into form, for his club at least. There is little doubt that he is a threat, a useful threat with 12 goals in 56 internationals. England will be wary of Henrik Larsson after his performance as a substitute in the Champions League Final, earning him the Man Of The Match award. Whether he can influence enough play at this World Cup will be interesting to see. He is in the twilight of his career and will be a huge player for the Swede’s to replace.

Paraguay are the Group’s awkward opponents, proven by their Silver Medal at the last Olympics. Despite qualifying for the Second Round at the last two World Cups, there is no reason to believe that they will progress that far in Germany unless England or Sweden implode spectacularly. It is likely that Roque Santa Cruz will miss the England game, depriving them of one goalscoring threat whilst his partner Nelson Haedo Valdez could earn himself a big move from Werder Bremen if he plays well. Despite this, they have a reputation for shipping goals alarmingly; note their recent meetings with England and Peru whilst Brazil and Ecuador enjoyed shooting practice against them in qualification. However, Argentina failed to beat them, losing and drawing their matches in the campaign so they should not be taken too lightly yet provide England and Sweden with a comfortable win provided those two nations apply themselves appropriately.

Trinidad and Tobago are the whipping boys. Sorry there is no other category to put them into. To be brutal about their chances, if they concede less than ten goals, it should be considered a result. Realistically, they are looking at shipping between nine and fifteen goals. One cannot overlook the fact that their squad whilst managed by a respected coach is limited to players in the Championship or below. Yet they provide the “romance” of the tournament, exceeding expectations by qualifying but fearful of humiliation. Their big game is England but despite being well organised, they should succumb to a five goal defeat. If they do not, England will be brutalised by the media. And supporters, akin to their reception after failing to beat the Irish at Italia 90.

Predicted Results:

Predicted Table:

Arsenal Players in the Group

Ashley Cole (England)
Sol Campbell England)
Theo Walcott (England)
Freddie Ljungberg (Sweden)

Players that Arsenal should sign

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden)
Nelson Haedo Valdez (Paraguay)

Today’s Tunes are from the evergreen and hugely talented, Mr. Terry Edwards. A founding member of The Higsons and Butterfield 8 (with Mark Bedford from Madness), and a list of guest appearances on recordings that reads like a Who’s Who of the Indie music scene for the last twenty years, these are two of his own compositions:

Boots Off

Detroit

This week sees the start of my World Cup Countdown, starting with Group A:

On the face of it this Group ought to be decided when the two European countries meet in Dortmund on June 14^th. But that would be to overlook and underestimate the two other nations, something that historically is perilous.

The opening fixture in recent tournaments has been something of a banana skin. In 1990 Argentina succumbed 1 – 0 to Cameroon, 1994 saw Germany barely squeeze past Bolivia by the same scoreline, Brazil beat Scotland 2 – 1 four years later whilst France set the tone for their whole tournament by losing to Senegal in 2002. This time round, the hosts take on Costa Rica, a far more difficult fixture on paper than any of their predecessors encountered.

Germany have not been at their best over the past four years. It is now a well documented fact that since they won 1 – 0 in the final match at Wembley they have lost every encounter with one of the top – ranked nations yet have found the lesser nations somewhat easier, as their 4 – 1 win over the USA and this weekends 7 – 0 win over Luxembourg show. Their last poor performance was in Florence when the Azurri were three goals to the good inside the opening quarter of an hour, something that laid Klinsmann open to a fair amount of media criticism. That said, this is the World Cup and the Germans have an enviable record. They last failed to reach the Quarter Finals nearly seventy years ago in 1938. Since then, they have won the tournament three times and lost in the final three times. The parallels between four years ago and this summer are uncanny, with the Nationalmeinschaft being ridiculed in their own land as the poorest team since records were started and yet they should cruise through this Group. The English media will no doubt focus on the team captain, Michael Ballack, following his move to Chelsea and on Arsenal keeper, Jens Lehmann. Yet is up front that perhaps the focus should be on the forward line where they seem to have most problems. Much will rest on the shoulders of Miroslav Klose, scorer of 25 goals domestically this season. It is likely that he will complete the strikeforce with Lukas Podolski, another Polish born member of the squad, but it is Ballack who they will rely on for their inspiration.

Poland have a less glorious past to live up to. The third places of 1974 and 1982 seem distant memories and the current squad are unlikely to threaten to emulate their predecessors. They should however improve on the shambles of four years ago that saw them thrashed by Portugal and lose to South Korea meaning they returned home at the end of the Group stages with only a meaningless win over the USA under their belts. Familiar to England from the Qualifiers, they seemed on track to win the Group after the Northern Ireland debacle only to fail by losing at Old Trafford. Recent friendlies are hardly inspiring, including defeats to the USA and Lithuania. Much of the goalscoring pressure will rest on the shoulders of Maciej Zurawski of Celtic and Miroslaw Szymkowiak of Trabzonspor. Their aim should be for second place where they will qualify for Round Two and their probable exit at the hands of England or Sweden.

Costa Rica have played and lost to Germany and Poland on each occasion the teams have met, indicative of the previous strengths of the two rather than the Costa Ricans weakness. The Central Americans were eliminated four years ago on Goal Difference, largely due to a 5 – 2 defeat to Brazil but coupled with a failure to score a hatful against China. These could be their failings ago, a susceptibility to concede regularly without scoring in the same quantities at the other end. Only one of their players turns out regularly in Europe these days although Paulo Wanchope had a decent career in England before leaving for a year in Malaga. He is still their main goal threat although Walter Centeno did score for AEK Athens at the Bernabeu and is considered their creative hub.

That Ecuador qualified is a source of amazement considering they picked up so few points on their travels. At the altitude of Quito they were virtually unbeatable but their away form is perhaps the best indicator of their expectations this summer. However, one should never underestimate a nation whose national dish is a soup made from Bulls testicles. Their main goalscorer is known to Southampton fans and hardly worshipped at St Mary’s but Agustin Delgado has a decent record of 29 goals from 67 internationals. Four years ago, they beat Croatia but lost to Mexico and Italy whilst this time round, they must realistically be looking at the Group and be thinking that they can beat Costa Rica and nick a draw against the Poles. However, this may be a tall order as they lost 3 – 0 in Poland last year.

Predicted Results:

Predicted Table:

Arsenal Players in the Group:

Jens Lehmann (Germany)

Players that Arsenal should sign:

None

Today’s Tunes are from a Chicago band called Leave. The quartet have been around for five years, these tracks are heavily influenced by The Byrds but take on a more powerful sound aligning them to the Paisley Underground of the early to mid – 1980′s, reminiscent of early REM and The Long Ryders. Taken from their 2005 album I’d Rather Not Say, this is the title track I’d Rather Not Say and Sleep All Day. There are more tracks at their website, here, and there is a Myspace Group, here. Enjoy.

The World’s Biggest “Bring and Buy” Sale begins in eleven days although it looks like the dealers have got their early to snaffle the best bargains. Starting with Tomas Rosicky’s move to Arsenal, Chelsea appear now to be following suit with the arrivals at Stamford Bridge this week of Salomon Kalou from Fejenoord and Andrij Shevchenko from AC Milan. Not that the latter can necessarily be called a bargain at £35m, roughly €50m. It is a move that has been much touted in the last three seasons with Shevchenko’s wife being close to Roman Abramovich’s partner. That Chelsea are signing one big name, the Ukrainian’s shirt will cost £40 in the shops with another £10 in letters for his name, and this seems to indicate that Hernan Crespo is on his way to pastures new despite his absurd claim that Chelsea have offered him a contract extension. It appears that he will not be going in the opposite direction as Milan are in pole position to sign Ruud van Nistelrooy once the World Cup is over.

By signing Shevchenko it would appear that Mourinho is signalling a change in tactics to having two out and out strikers on the pitch but this raises questions about how his midfield will be structured, or otherwise he expects Didier Drogba to leave England, potentially to Real Madrid or Barcelona. The latter would seem to be an odd choice whilst the former cannot realistically do anything until they appoint a new President and Head Coach, probably early in July.

What these transfers do show is that Chelsea will not be entering the race for Fernando Torres after the World Cup. That appears to be between Arsenal, Manchester United, Newcastle and Barcelona. Personally, I would love to see him at Highbury in tandem with Henry as he has the pace and touch to compliment the TH14, rather more guile than Adebayour. That said, the reports from the Dutch Training Camp are that van Persie is playing better than ever, so I would not be surprised if Wenger does not attempt to sign another forward. He will however be on the lookout for a new centre-half as Sol Campbell has been told that his face does not fit any longer, which with Cygan hopefully on the move as well, means a shortage of central defenders at the club. True to form though, Wenger is linked with Franck Riberry, a winger, and Morocco’s answer to Theo Walcott, Adil Chihi – no, I’d never heard of him either but he is to make his international debut before he plays for his club side, 1FC Koln. And apparently, he is not a defender. Back to the days of you score four, we score five to win games then.

On the subject of two Spanish clubs, according to reports Cristiano Ronaldo has informed Manchester United of his intention to leave the club should either side show an interest in him. This is presumably just paper talk as I cannot imagine for one minute that Darth Ferguson will allow him to walk out “just like that”, as the Late Tommy Cooper would have said. However, this kind of speculation does show that the Old Trafford Disneybucks are not a happy crew with even the Club Doctor getting the boot. The Phantom Menace would perhaps be a better nickname for the US based club given their failure to win the Premiership for four seasons.

Joan Laporta’s outburst regarding English Clubs stealing Barca’s best young players is as disingenuous as it is laughable. Still smarting over the loss of Gerald Pique to United and Cesc Fabregas to Arsenal, Laporta now faces a dogfight to keep hold of Fran Merida with Arsenal poised to swoop. That Merida has the same agent as the one who brokered the deal to take Fabregas to North London is no coincidence but it should be noted that this scenario is of the Catalan clubs own making, incompetence amongst the heirarchy seems rife as they failed to get the requisite number of signatures on the amateur contract signed by Merida. Laporta understandably is upset and wants the Footballing Authorities to stop the deal, overlooking the fact that they cannot under European Union Laws. Another aspect that highlights the hypocrisy of the Catalans is the multinational nature of their own Youth Squad. But then when has a fact ever got in the way of a good quote.

Laporta is still smarting from Fabregas’ departure, urban myth has it that he walked into his office on the day after winning the Presidential elections to find a folder on his desk with Fabregas’s details and a note saying, “Sorry, you will have to explain how this one got away”. This time though, Merida is on his watch and is his own fault.

Terry Venables rehabilitation in the eyes of The Powers That Be at the FA seems to be complete when he will be appointed as Steve McClaren’s Number Two later this year. I have no problem with this in footballing terms as he has enough experience to bring wider tactical knowledge to the England setup and this can only be a marked improvement on the lack of nous shown in the last two or three tournaments by the current incumbent and his predecessor. Where this will become a right royal pain in the arse is in the back pages of the media, as his detractors and supporters go toe-to-toe to slug out for supremacy. Already this week, Martin Samuel in The Times has put forward Venables’ version of events regarding his departure after Euro 96. I do not dispute what may or may not have happened but I am heartily sick and tired of the so-called reporting that goes on around the team that has nothing to do with the events on the pitch. Just this morning we have more so called revelations that Sven’s partner has been working in cohorts with the paparazzi to sell photos of them. Well, tell us something that we don’t know already know – it’s how half of the photos that appear in the Press are obtained.

Todays Tunes come from The Casbah Club. The band have a fine musical pedigree, comprising Simon Townsend, Bruce Foxton, Bruce Watson and Mark Brzezicki and are supporting The Who this summer, amongst other gigs they have lined up. Their album is coming out in June called Venustraphobia. You can find out more about the band at their website here or their myspace page here.

Vibrate

Any Way She Moves