FIFA Confederations Cup 2013 Predictions: Projections for Every Country

The big international tournament of the summer kicks off this weekend in Brazil with the start of the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, a tournament which pits the best nations from each FIFA zone against each other.

As something of a dry run for the World Cup next year, the tournament gives eight sides the chance to get some intensive competitive action under their belts and plan for the year ahead, with plenty of these sides still to confirm qualification for the main event in one year's time.

Group A sees Brazil, Italy, Japan and Mexico pitted against each other, with Spain, Uruguay, Tahiti and Nigeria playing in Group B.

The top two from each group progress to the semifinals, with the final itself scheduled for June 30.

But who can expect to get that far? Here are our projections for how well each of the eight nations can hope to do this summer.

Brazil

As hosts and the biggest national name in world football, Brazil will be under extraordinary pressure and expectation from the home fans.

Anything short of victory in any given game or overall in a competition is seen as failure.

Felipe Scolari is still putting his team together, and this will be his first competitive action since taking over for another spell in charge of the national team, so he may get some amount of leeway, but Brazil will still be expected to go far in the Confederations Cup.

A tough-looking group kicks off against Japan, presently the only other nation aside from hosts Brazil themselves to have guaranteed qualification to the World Cup next year.

Mexico are next up, and despite being out of form in their qualification campaign, will still present a tough challenge. And finally, Italy vs. Brazil will be one of the stand-out fixtures from the group stage.

Two wins from the three games should be enough to go through comfortably, but Brazil will want more than that—they'll aim to top the group. And, on this occasion, they'll do it.

We'll predict that Brazil do enough to go all the way to the final, without being in fantastic or consistent form themselves at the moment, but end up as runners-up.

Italy

Italy have a very good squad to choose from, but their problem appears to be getting the best out of those picked to play in attack.

They'll be among the favourites to do well in this competition, but their opening game against Mexico could be telling. Neither side is registering an awful lot of goals, so it should be a very close encounter—a single goal might not only be enough for the win, but enough to push their nation through to the knockout stages.

In terms of predicting how well they'll do, we'll go for Italy to progress through the group stage unbeaten, but in second place.

Given our predictions for Group B, Italy will face a tough ask in the semifinals, and that's where their Confederations Cup campaign will end.

Japan

Japan might be seen as the underdogs but they should have no inferiority complex in Group A. They are in form, recently sealed their progress to the World Cup finals and have named a strong and experienced squad for the Confederations Cup.

They will trouble Mexico and Italy, but playing the first game against Brazil might hurt them as there will be so much expectation on the host nation, who will have to win.

Japan will win a game in the group stage somewhere along the line, but it won't be enough to see them through to the knockouts.

Mexico

Six games, one win and only three goals says it all about Mexico right now—they are really struggling to find form and rhythm in the final third of the pitch.

In saying that, they've been extremely solid at the other end of the pitch; those other five matches have been draws, they remain undefeated in the CONCACAF qualifying zone and have conceded just twice in six games, the best in the group.

With just three matches to play though, a lack of goals is going to cost them in this tournament. They might cause an upset with a big performance against Italy or Brazil—though upset is maybe too strong a word given Mexico's standing in world football—but lack of consistency will find them out.

Mexico won't get out of Group A, and may even end up bottom in a disappointing campaign.

What they must take from the Confederations Cup in that case is lessons learned in how to kill off games to ensure they finish in the top three in World Cup qualifying—where they sit right now, though having played a game more.

Nigeria

It's all going rather well at present.

The 2013 Africa Cup of Nations winners progressed unbeaten from their group stage in that competition this year, and won all their knockout games to take the title. Then, in World Cup qualifying, they sit top of Group F, again unbeaten after five games.

Now they'll take on Spain, Uruguay and Tahiti in Group B of the Confederations Cup and the African side must feel they have a chance of making the knockouts.

The real battle in this group could well be in the second round of fixtures, when Nigeria face Uruguay.

It's such a close one to call, with Uruguay perhaps having the better group of players but Nigeria being in far better form this year.

We'll predict that the South Americans come out on top and Nigeria end up in third place, but don't be overly surprised if they power their way through in the top two.

Spain

World Champions and double European Champions, Spain are the clear favourites for further success at the Confederations Cup.

A strong squad has been named and Vicente del Bosque's main problem is going to be deciding who to leave out.

Straight forward stuff here: Spain are our prediction to win the Confederations Cup outright, and no great surprise.

So we'll go further, and predict that Spain win all five of their matches, that Nigeria give them the best game, that six different scorers hit the target and that by the end of the tournament, Javi Martinez has forced his way into the regular starting XI for his nation going forward.

Tahiti

Tahiti will be astounded to even be in this competition. Up until 2012, only Australia and New Zealand had ever won the OFC Nations Cup, but Tahiti stunned the continent by winning it last year, beating New Caledonia in the final after the runners-up had done the hard work by beating New Zealand in the semis.

Their squad is almost entirely made up of locally based players, with 33-year-old Marama Vahirua (a former France under-21 international) the only fairly recognisable name in the side. He has yet to be capped by Tahiti, the country where he was born.

Eighteen other members of the squad play for either AS Dragon or AS Tefana, two sides from the top flight in the country.

Tahiti will not be expected to win any games, and will in all likelihood not even score a goal.

In World Cup qualifying for next year's tournament, Tahiti ended third in the final group stage of Oceania's region, winning just once from six games and losing 4-0 to New Caledonia along the way.

Uruguay

And so to Uruguay, the Copa America holders and the biggest enigma of the Confederations Cup, perhaps.

A great historical side with no shortage of excellent individuals, the team has remained almost completely unchanged since their Copa America victory—except key players have gotten two years older.

Uruguay were suddenly and shockingly out of form over the past year, struggling to stay in contention for qualification for next year, until a big 1-0 win in Venezuela recently put them back into the playoff spot in the CONMEBOL qualifying region.

That, along with a friendly victory over France, should boost them going into this tournament, and they will know that even if they lose the opener against Spain, bouncing back to beat Nigeria is likely to be key.

We'll predict that Uruguay do just that, finish second in the group and go on to play Brazil in the semifinals, where they will lose out.

In the third-place playoff against other beaten semifinalists Italy, we'll tip Uruguay to emerge victorious. More importantly for the country, they'll hope it provides a platform to go on and secure qualification for next year's World Cup.

Follow @karlmatchett