Friday, May 21, 2010

FIFA World Cup 2010: 20 more days to go.....

FIFA World Cup 2010 is here! Rise and Shine people, its that time of the year again when the crazy action, the madness, the drama and above all the mind-boggling brilliance of the players and their antics on the field unfolds!

With less than 20 days to go.....the excitement is building up for one month of pure revelry. With 32 teams making the draw, a lot of action is expected to take place on and off the field! With mighty stakes and   extremely highly-advertised matches, one can expect to witness a high-adrenaline, fist-pumping clash of the world's best players battling it out for supremacy!

The Draw looks interesting.....Out of the 32 teams, here is the list of who I think will make it to Round of 16 (Please Note: No offense against any team or country. This is purely my take from the 2-cents I know about following these teams. Ofcourse like they say anything can happen in sports so do not be surprised if all my choices turn out wrong, after all didn't some teams like Greece, Russia etc surprise us in the previous championships! I would love to be surprised :-))

Group A: South Africa, Mexico,Uruguay, France
My Pick:  France, Uruguay

Group B: Argentina, Nigeria, Korea Republic, Greece
My Pick: Argentina, Greece (Korea Republic, can you repeat FIFA 2002?)

Group C: England,USA, Algeria, Slovenia
My Pick:  England, USA

Group D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana
My Pick:  Germany, Serbia  (Surprise us Ghana :-))

Group E:  Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
My Pick:  Netherlands,  Cameroon

Group F:  Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
My Pick:  Italy, Paraguay

Group G: Brazil, Korea DPR, Côte d'Ivoire, Portugal
My Pick:  Brazil, Portugal

Group H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile
My Pick:  Spain, Chile

Now I know most of you would have your own say on who might qualify for Round of 16, differing opinions are very much welcome :-). It would be quite interesting to have a few other soccer-followers posting their views here. Maybe we can bet too ( Hope the Feds are not reading this ;-)...lol juz kidding! :-)

Some of the players to watch out for:
Italy: G.Buffon, A.Pirlo, D.D.Rossi
Cameroon:  Samuel Eto'o
Spain:  D.Villa , F.Torres, Xavi , Iniesta, Casillas, D.Silva
Brazil:  Lucio, Maicon, Kaka, Fabiano
Ivory Coast:  D.Drogba
Argentina: L.Messi, Tevez, Aguero, J.Mascherano
Uruguay:  Forlan
England:   Gerrard, Terry, Lampard, Rooney, A.Cole
Portugal:  C.Ronaldo, R.Carvalho, Deco
Netherlands:  Sneijder, Robben, R.V.Persie,
France:  T.Henry, Ribery,Y.Gourcuff, N.Anelka
Germany: M.Klose, Lahm, Podolski, M.Gomez (Gonna miss M.Ballack this time around :-()
Australia: T.Cahill
USA:  Donovan, Dempsey

Ofcourse the above players have kind of established themselves as assets for their respective clubs and countries. But well I will definitely be looking out for new stars in this edition!

Come June 11, and all the true-blue fans will be hooked to the beautiful game of soccer!
Hail FIFA World Cup 2010! The countdown begins.....

Note: For those of you who are new to the game of soccer, check out some of the beautiful moments of the game in my earlier posts under the 'Sports', 'Soccer' label during Euro-2008!
And juz so that you get into the right momentum before the World Cup takes off, check out this brilliant ad by Nike: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idLG6jh23yE

Le Souvenirs,
Amari.....





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