The day has finally come and so begins a month I have been looking forward to for over 4 years. Italy is the defending champ and I expect them to fight admirably and will make it to the quarterfinals on sheer tactics alone, but age will catch up with them and that's as far as they will go. As for my eventual winner of whole tournament, I like Spain. Their pace, depth and control of the game and the confidence coming off their 2008 Euro Cup triumph have them prime to hoist their first World Cup trophy.
Each morning I will be giving my predictions on the days matches.
Day 1:
- Group A (Johannesburg) Host Nation vs Mexico (10:00) -- The host nation will fight valiantly on sheer emotion and adrenaline. However, after the first half that will start to wear off and the better team will show. Although I'm not a huge fan of rankings, especially in a game with this much emotion, SA is currently ranked 50th and Mexico 17th. Prediction: 2-1 Mexico
- Group A (Cape Town) Uruguay vs France (14:30) -- France is a tough team to figure out, the 1998 World Cup champs looked horrible in 2002 by not advancing out of the group stages but bounced back extremely well in 2006 losing on PK's to Italy in the final. Had Zidane not done the head butt heard around the world and Gigi Buffon not been well, Gigi Buffon, they might of ended up winning the whole thing. How they will look this year is anybodies guess. Uruguay has some decent talent and play with a do or die attitude, which sometimes does them more harm than good. Either way I look for France to win this game and eventually the group. Prediction: 3-1 France
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