We all know that opinions after games or certain decisions made are often divided but why is it that one group of people often think so differently to another? We are going to be asking your views over the next three weeks in the form of a handful of 60 second questionnaires. At the end of the World Cup, one participant will be selected at random to win £100 as a thank you for providing their insight.
World cup winner and Brazilian coach Dunga believes his side are capable of so much more after a nervy 2-1 victory of minnows North Korea. The five times World Champions found it tough going against a side that have only qualified for one finals before, over forty years ago. Korea lined up in a 5-4-1 formation, although did counter attack well at times in the first half.
Following England’s draw with the USA last Saturday, WCS blogger Doron has put together a number of player ratings, where 1 is the worst, 10 is the best and 6 is your average solid performance. England will be hoping to get their World Cup hopes back on track when they play Algeria this Friday.
So England drew and collectively, a country groaned. Surprisingly the spark amongst the rubbish on show was Emile Heskey and not Wayne Rooney. I will argue that Heskey should not start England’s next game. I am no scout, I know very little about how Algeria play and therefore I am not considering that they may have a 4ft centre back who Heskey would dominate. I am writing this purely as an England fan who wants to see the England team do as well as possible and believes that in order to achieve this, Wayne Rooney is central to English plans.
So with the World Cup kicking off later today I thought I would stick my neck out and make some predictions (which I should point out, usually turn out to be very very wrong!). Also, if you are interested in finding out when the World Cup is on the TV you can check out the following World Cup TV Listings Guide.
The Fiorentina and Italian play maker Riccardo Montolivo believes he is the ideal replacement for Andrea Pirlo, who will miss the early stages of the tournament through injury. The AC Milan deep lying play maker is set to miss the Italy’s opening two group games against Paraguay and New Zealand after injuring his calf muscle in a recent friendly against Mexico. Italy are the defending World Champions and will be aiming on July 11th to reach a joint record five World Cup titles – currently held by Brazil.
Having already seen key striker, Marco Streller withdraw from the World Cup, coach Ottmar Hitzfeld now has a new concern. Captain, Alexander Frei injured his ankle in training after a tackle from Steve von Bergen. He has been sent for a scan so the extent of the injury can be conduced.
Manchester United and Portugal winger Luis Nani has been ruled out of the World Cup due to a shoulder injury. Nani hurt his shoulder in Lisbon prior to the squad flying out to South Africa, however at first it seemed like a minor injury and the player would be able to compete in the opening fixture on June 15th against the Ivory Coast. The winger played in eleven qualifying games and was second top goalscorer with three goals. He joins team mate Rio Ferdinand as another major star to miss the World Cup through injury.
Slovenia captain Robert Koren has warned his Group C rivals they will not roll over for anyone and believes his team can upset the group favourites – England. Slovenia take on Algeria and the USA before facing England on 23 June in their final group game. Many have written Slovenia off and an early exit has been predicted, but ex-West Bromwich Albion midfielder Koren, who is now a free agent, believes they can challenge for a place in the knock-out stages.
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