World Cup Group E preview

Group E

Netherlands

Denmark

Japan

Cameroon

 

With a large hoard of creative players at their disposal, very few would write the Netherlands off from going all the way at South Africa 2010. However, the Dutch have never actually won the biggest tournament in World football despite possessing some of the best players of all time throughout their history. A major reason for this is that the expansive football, that looks so easy on the eye, is often their downfall when they meet the more resolute teams in the latter stages. The Netherlands quite often peak early at tournaments so there seems to be no danger in them exiting the World Cup in the group stages. Whether they can go all the way though is another matter!

The second qualification spot is up for grabs in this group. Japan are the outsiders as they have never won a World Cup match outside of Asia. This stat looks unlikely to change as their squad is far weaker from previous tournaments. It therefore seems as if it will be a straight fight between Cameroon and Denmark for that second spot. Denmark have made the knock out stages in all three of their previous appearances at the tournament whilst Cameroon have a history of promising so much but failing to deliver on the big stage. The Lions are fortunate to be playing on their home continent after a poor qualification campaign saw them scrape past Gabon. The Danes impressed during the build up to the tournament as they finished top of a group containing Portugal and Sweden. Despite a whole host of players at top european clubs, Cameroon tend to flatter to deceive at the big events so I fancy the gritty Danes to make another appearance in the second round.

 

TEAM – Netherlands

MANAGER – Bert Van Marwijk

QUALIFIED – 1st in Europe

STAR PLAYER - Robin Van Persie

VERDICT – Qualified

 

TEAM – Denmark

MANAGER – Morten Olsen

QUALIFIED – 1st in Europe

STAR PLAYER – Nicklas Bendtner

VERDICT – Qualified

 

TEAM – Japan

MANAGER – Takeshi Okada

QUALIFIED – 2nd in Asia

STAR PLAYER – Shunsuke Nakamura

VERDICT – Group Stage

 

TEAM – Cameroon

MANAGER – Paul Le Guen

QUALIFIED – 1st in Africa

STAR PLAYER – Samuel Eto’o

VERDICT - Group Stage

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 9:37 pm by leewilson.