France will take the group

[Gunner11]

Unfortunatley, I see France taking this group with Uruguay finishing second. Mexico are just not playing well right now and have to many issues with the line up, plus history is against them. Even tough South Africa are now training in Brazil to get ready, I do not see them handling the pressure and they will be the first host team to not make it beyond the group stage.

[Darren]

Just curious, what does history have to do with anything? History is history, and have very little, if any, bearing on the upcoming tourny.

[Gunner11]

History is what allows us to predict the future, hence what we are doing in these forums. We take what we think we know about a team and make a prediction about what might come next. Without the history, the vegas line for Brasil winning the cup and New Zealand winning the cup would be exactly the same. I will be the first to admit I am but a student of the game, but based on what I know now, I predict France, Uruguay, Mexico then South Africa after the first stage.

[Darren]

Except that I beleive the quality of players play a much, much bigger role in the vegas line. As example, before Spain won the Euros, they were still precieved as underacheivers but they had such a wealth of talent that they were still given very good odds.
As well, if you are only discussing World Cups, the tourny only partakes once every 4 years, and the players are remarkably different in age.
I agree history does have some bearing, but not as much as some ppl like to make it out, in my humble opinion.

[Czech_Rubes]

isn't there another thread to this same topic where I picked Mexico, Uruguay, France and South Africa in that order?

[dvanderwax]

I think history has a lot to do with it too. The most famous teams, who have already won the world cup, normally find a way to advance someway somehow just like the experienced hand of Henry. I pick France and Uruguay to advance

[Darren]

If history had alot to do with it, Real Madrid would never have had fallen out of the Round of 16 in the Champions league in the first place.

[woodpecker]

we pick Uruguay and Mexico to advance. despite the mess in Mexico they actually will show up and play unlike France.

[gunnerhead]

No Nasri, Benzema or Vieira. I understand Vieira's exclusion but Nasri and Benzema?

How exactly did Diaby make it to the provisional squad?

[Czech_Rubes]

I think Domenech picked his team using a time machine and went back to October.
The ommission of Nasri is devastating.
Benzema isnt on form, but Henry isn't either. His inclusion will just enrage the Irish.

[Darren]

Domenech always picks strange squads. Nasri and Benzema have huge potential, but they don't always show up for big games. But then, neither does Diaby. Very odd Diaby made it over Nasri.

[dvanderwax]

I dont think its odd that Diaby was picked over Nasri seeing as he is the stronger end to end player, scores more goals, tackles harder. What did Nasri get, 5 goals this season? To be honest I thought Nasri was poor this year, well mediocre, especially with the absence of Cesc.

The Benzema thing surprised me too. Thats a massive loss as he is supposedly the French player of the future. It'll be good to see Henry play again though considering in recent weeks Barcelona have fielded 12 year olds over him.

[Czech_Rubes]

Daniel makes a good point about tackling.
France named a bunch of players who can fill a role similar to Nasri, but not many who will play the type of role that Diaby is accustomed to... but with both Diarras... I dunno.
It's tough. Domenech picks squads that not everyone can see. Some call him a visionary, some just think he's confused... I fall into that latter group when judging him.

[gunnerhead]

Diaby is hardly the quality defensive midfielder. He doesn't always use his strength to his advantage and when he does, I feel it's more useful just behind a striker rather than (in our case), win the ball and hand it over to Cesc and Song does.

France has both Diarras and Toulalan for that role so Diaby's inclusion still confounds me.

Nasri started the season with a broken leg -- not a fracture, not a muscle pull -- a broken leg. It took him a while to get back into the groove and by the time he did, there were so many injuries in our squad that he never had a chance to play in a regular starting line up.

[izzi]

Very surprised about exclusion of Nasri and Benzema from the squad...

France are still a talented team, but Domenech is an awful manager in my opinion. We'll see what happens. I think they'll get out of the group but I'd be surprised if they went much further.