Brazil
Having won a record five World Cups, Brazil’s national side is pretty much synonymous with the competition. No football fan can fail to respect this team, who provide some of the most electric gameplay that supporters could ever hope to see. The much touted Brazilian flair, present today in stars like Kaka, is to many people one of the best things about international football.
Brazil’s last win was in 2002, as they went out in the quarterfinals in Germany in 2006 to eventual second place France.
They qualified top of their South American group, and with the usual list of incredible players to call upon, almost all of them playing for top flight teams somewhere in the world, all eyes will be on this team.
If Brazil don’t manage to go all the way in South Africa, it is worth noting that as hosts, they are the only team already to have qualified for the 2014 World Cup. It is a safe bet that they will be going in as favourites on their own soil.
Ivory Coast
One of the rising stars of football, the Ivory Coast haven’t won an African Nations Cup since 1992 and this is only their second World Cup appearance (they didn’t make it through the “Group of Death” in 2006 – apparently they are no more lucky with group draws this time around), yet this is a team everybody is talking about.
At 25-1 they are the favourite African team with the bookmakers, and with this being the first World Cup on African soil, if there was a good time for a first time African winner it would be now.
A lot of the attention on this team is because of Chelsea star Didier Drogba. Drogba, whilst controversial, has become a reliable source of goals for Chelsea, and is at 22-1 to win the Golden Boot at the World Cup.
Other well known players like fellow Chelsea player Saloman Kalou, Manchester City’s Kolo Toure, Arsenal’s Emmanuel Ebboue and Sevilla’s Didier Zokora make this a squad full of players who have proven themselves in European top flight football.
With former England coach Sven Goran Eriksson recently appointed manager, this team is one that really could go all the way for Africa, in Africa, if they can just get out of this tricky group.
Portugal
With similar odds for an outright win to the Ivory Coast, it’s really hard to call which of these teams is most likely or most deserving of a place in the next round. Like the Ivory Coast, a lot of the attention on this team is centred around one man – Christiano Ronaldo.
Captain Ronaldo is ahead of Drogba in the top goalscorer market at 18-1. The Real Madrid striker has sparked a lot of controversy both in his club and international career, and, like Drogba he has been accused of taking dives on a regular basis.
Ronaldo is not the only major weapon in Portugal’s armoury though, the team is full of stars from home teams like Porto and Benfica as well as other top European teams like Chelsea, Manchester United, Valencia and both Madrid teams.
North Korea
This is the first time North Korea have qualified for the FIFA World Cup since 1966. They had an interesting qualification run including their coach, Kim Jong-Hun, claiming after a 1-0 defeat by South Korea that South Korea had poisoned their squad.
Ranked 105th in the world by FIFA and 1500-1 outsiders to win the tournament, it looks like their chances of getting out of this tournament’s hardest group are slim to none.
Prediction
This is a remarkably tough group to call, apart from it looking inevitable that North Korea will be going home. Brazil can never be ruled out, but between the Ivory Coast and Portugal it is hard to decide. Based on the premise that the Ivory Coast will draw support and inspiration from the competition being held in Africa, along with the advantage of playing in a familiar climate, I predict:
1. Brazil
2. Ivory Coast
3. Portugal
4. North Korea
