2010 FIFA World Cup Around The Corner - Who Will Emerge Victorious?

    12-09-09 signals exactly nine months away from the biggest tournament in the world of sports, the FIFA World Cup. The world's best 32 nations square against each other to be crowned world champions.

    Here, I pick the best of the lot to win the World Cup in South Africa next year.

1  .  Brazil - As usual, the five time champions go into the tournament as hot favourites. Having already booked their places in South Africa next year after humiliating arch-rivals, Argentina, they look superb now. Their record in major competitions says it all. After the 2006 World Cup, in where they were eliminated in the quarter finals by eventual losing finalists, France, they went on to clinch the Copa America title and just a few months ago emerged victorious in the Confederations Cup. They have great players in all departments - Julio Cesar in goal, Lucio in the heart of defence, and with attacking players Kaka, Robinho and Luis Fabiono often getting in the scoresheet, the Samba Boys will of course want to add a sixth World Cup in their already impressive trophy cabinet.

2  .  Spain - The European Champions who entertain their fans with wonderful football are for the first time looking like serious contenders. Spain has one of the best midfielders in the world in Xavi and with the Barcelona man being supported by his fellow midfielders Cesc Fabregas, Juan Mata, Andres Iniesta, David Silva and Xabi Alonso who are all world class midfielders, this would only frighten the rest of the teams competing for the World Cup trophy. And not to mention, they have a strike force of Fernando Torres and David Villa who are reliable goal scorers. Their ability to replace a player when he is injured shows that Spain have quality in their bench too. Pepe Reina, Xabi Alonso, Albert Riera and Gerard Pique are players that can replace the likes of Cassilas, David Silva, and Puyol if they are injured. Having not won the World Cup before this would only fire up Spain to be the world champions in 2010.

3  .  Germany - While many see them not as strong as Brazil, Argentina and Spain are, the 4th best team in the world currently do fair well in major tournaments. These is what Germany have acheived in the past 12 years:-

Euro '96 - Champions

World Cup '02- Runners up

World Cup '06 - Third Place

Euro '08 - Runners up

    Plus, Germany have kept many important players who lost to Spain in the finals of the Euros last year.( eg:- Miroslav Klose, Lukas Podolski, Mario Gomez and Micheal Ballack )This coupled with emerging youngsters Mesut Ozil, Marko Marin and Aaron Hunt who are certain to be on the plane to South Africa, they cannot be ruled out of competition. After disappointing their fans in recent friendly matches, the three time world champions would want to book their tickets to South Africa by beating Russia in their next qualifying match and send a  message that the Germans are a force to be reckoned with. Joachim Leow's charges know how to win important matches and they would want to get a crack at winning the World Cup.

4  .  England - They have seem to put behind their disappointment of not qualifying for the Euros last year. A perfect record of eight wins out of eight in their qualifying group, the Three Lions have sealed their passage to South Africa in an impressive way by thrashing Croatia 5-1 in their last match. Fabio Capello has instilled discipline and a winning mentality in all of his players mind. The team has finally gel together and are scoring goals for fun these days. With one of the most solid defence in the world coupled with many creative midfielders and strikers, England cannot be written off this time

     So, there is it. Four teams who I feel are true contenders to be crowned world champions.

    Many of the readers would scratch their heads thinking why Italy and France are not in this list. Simple - They are not the same teams who contested the final of the World Cup in 2006. Both these countries did not impress in last year's European Championships and they did not even get pass through their respective group stages of the Confederations Cup .