By JEREMY BROWN
One Great Season
At this point, anyone could qualify and anyone could go home. Though it's unlikely Argentina, with a full six points and +4 goal differential, will capitulate now, especially since Maradona (Photoshop to the right sent in anonymously) has promised not to rest Messi and has seemingly every intention of wrapping up the top spot at the expense of a Greek side revitalized by their hard-fought win over Nigeria.
Greece are hungry, however, and they've proven not to be the group whipping boys as I so wrongly predicted. Their mettle, organization and surprising quickness earned them that much-deserved victory last round. Despite the probable inclusion of Messi, Maradona will likely field several second-stringers today, the prime candidates being fullbacks Clemente Rodriguez and Nicolas Otamendi, as well as defensive midfielder Mario Bolatti. And some guy named Diego Milito may get the nod as well. Maradona has commented that during training, when the A team takes on the B team, there's very little difference in quality. We shall see if Otto Rehhagel's men find this to be true. I think they will.
By the same token, pointless cellar-dwellers Nigeria could conceivably sneak into the second spot by beating South Korea by two goals or more (and provided that Greece doesn't somehow run up the score on Argentina. But Demichelis is slated to start so who knows). That appears unlikely, though, doesn't it?
The Koreans of the South are a much better squad than their Northern counterparts, and will not suffer a similar thwacking to a sputtering attack such as Nigeria's. But anything is possible (unless you're France, haha) and the Super Eagles could very well ride a wave of African support to a comprehensive win. We'll need to see more of Yakubu and Martins for that to happen, however. And perhaps this is the match where we get to see old man Kanu roll back the years. I predict this to be a very exciting clash.
| Team | Wins | Draws | Losses | Goals For | Goals Against | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Argentina |
2 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
1 |
6 |
South Korea |
1 |
0 |
1 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
Greece |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
Nigeria |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
0 |
Click here for Jeremy's bio and an archive of his previous stories.