FIFA 2010 World Cup Power Rankings: Group Stage Three

Wow, well that was all very eventful wasn’t it!

Round two of World Cup play through up action and excitement on and off the field, from Portugal looking like Eusebio had pulled on a shirt in his prime, to France not showing up to practice a la Georgie Best after a night on the drink. Luckily, we are here to clear up the fog and comprehensively rank the teams from top to bottom.

1. Argentina (last week ranking 4) – You can’t help but think this is what Kevin Keegan wanted his England team to look like.

Argentina are producing some magnificent attacking football with Gonzalo Higuain emerging as a surprising star among stars.

The defense could yet prove to be the Achilles heel of this group, a bad error from Martin Demichelis was buried by a four goal super show in attack.

As impressive as the attack is it is matched by the work rate of a team clearly playing for their manager.

It is nice to see Maradona hug and kiss every player individually on their way out to the field, what would France and England give to have that rapport?

The eccentric Maradona crosses himself eight times before kickoff, a total higher than Aaron Lennon manages to produce in a 90 minute match.

2. Brazil (2) – Group of Death?

No chance!

The Samba kings produced a 75 minute master class in the beautiful game in a 301 win over the Ivory Coast.

However, they hit a bump in the road after Elano suffered an injury due to the roughing up tactics of the Ivory Coast.

The game became heated and disjointed, with Kaka receiving a silly red card that will see him miss the Portugal game.

Could the physical Ivorian team have given future opponents a blue print on how to rattle Brazil? 

A classic Brazilian moment was seen when center back Lucio found himself dribbling at the Ivory Coast left back by the corner flag.

Lucio’s former club coach Jose Mourinho is rumored to have thrown the television from the window of his Madrid home in disgust at the positional indiscipline.

3. Netherlands (3) – Many predicted they would play good football, but who thought they would defend this well?

Wesley Sneijder grabbed the game winning goal with a brutal hit, giving the Dutch a second consecutive win against a well organized opponent. 

Those who criticize the Dutch should bear in mind the quality of opposition faced, and the fact that winger Arjen Robben is yet to join the party.

In consecutive games the Netherlands have been stifled in the first half, only to break stubborn resistance with a goal within 10 minutes of the restart.

Tactical adjustments, or a Mike Bassett team talk?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4x05Z3MSkQ&feature=PlayList&p=65133BA452CA8723&playnext_from=PL&playnext=1&index=102

4. Portugal (13) – Wow!

Portugal laid an almighty beating on a North Korea team that had given strong resistance to Brazil.

Two goals came from moves that began with the ball at the feet of the defenders, and some of the football was simply sublime.

The Portugese face a group decider with Brazil, although if Spain await in the second round it could be the most hollow group victory in World Cup history.

If they lose to Brazil, their potential goal difference battle for second with the Ivory Coast appears to be a no contest.

5. Chile (10) – Chile beat a stubborn Swiss team and face a game against Spain that will show is exactly who they are.

A loss could see them exiting from group play with six points, a win could establish them as a true contender at this tournament.

Alexis Sanchez is developing into a real star, if a Brazilian had matched his performance level would he be favorite for the Golden Ball by now?

6. Paraguay (12) – Established themselves as group favorites with a faultless victory over Slovakia.

Paraguay have a steel back line and are capable of quality attacking football that is easy on the eye.

Alca(t)raz is the greatest name in history for a World Cup defender….fact!

7. Uruguay (17) – Diego Forlan did what many television viewers would like to do, and silenced 80,000 vuvuzela’s.

A virtuoso display from the front man sent the host nation crashing out in group play for the first time in World Cup history.

Uruguay face Mexico and need only a point to win the group.

8. Spain (9) – Spain returned to winning ways and established themselves as a contender once more.

David Villa hit two goals as Spain bid to become the first World Cup winner to be beaten by the United States and Switzerland on the path to glory.

9. Ghana (8) – Asamoah Gyan is leading Ghana on a campaign of hope with a slogan Barack Obama would be proud of, “Yes We Gyan!”

On a serious note, Ghana have 2,000 fans in South Africa that are having their hotels, travel and food paid for by the country’s government, in what is a truly wonderful touch.

A game against Germany looms, a point against a 10 man Australian team could yet prove to be a missed opportunity.

10. Slovenia (23) – Slovenia scored a wonderful goal to take the lead against the USA, and followed it with their now familiar “we make it rain” celebration dance.

A point against England will see them progress, and join the following list as teams that make England fans break out in a cold sweat; Argentina 1986, Netherlands 1994, Croatia 2008, Slovenia 2010?

11.Serbia (26) – Resilient (pronunciation: re-zi-lient).

Marked by the ability to recover readily, as from misfortune.

That is what the dictionary will tell you, they may as well write in Serbian Football Team, 2010 .

The Serbs had suffered a heartbreaking late loss to Ghana and faced a game against the only team to distinguish themselves in the first round of play.

Serbia produced a strong performance to beat Germany 1-0.

For an example of the mental fortitude of this team consider this.

After 59 minutes Serbia had their entire back line on a yellow card and conceded a penalty to the Germans who “never miss penalties”.

The team saved the penalty and held on for the win.

12.Germany (1) – They were phenomenal in round one.

However a defeat, missed penalty and a red card see them pegged back Klose to the chasing pack.

The referee was about as shy handing out cards as a Las Vegas dealer, however Serbia were good value for their upset win.

The Germans are truly defying all stereotypes, first they entertain then they miss a penalty.

What next, a stoic German fan cracking a smile?

13.Switzerland (5) – A poor red card to Valon Behrami put the Swiss up against it.

Switzerland managed to set a new World Cup record of 559 minutes played without conceding a goal, before Chile’s late winner.

Switzerland are hard men who rattled Chile, and will be a strong favorite to beat Honduras, potentially setting up a three way tie to progress in the real ‘group of death’.

14. Mexico (20) – I sat watching Cuauhtemoc Blanco wrap up victory and felt I was in crowd for a USA ’94 World cup game.

Actually, given I was alone in my living room it was more like a 2006 Chicago Fire game but you get the point.

Mexico have a team that beautifully mixes old veterans with young flair players.

15. Denmark (22) – Denmark rebounded from an opening defeat to gain a credible win against Cameroon.

The Danes equalized through Nicklas Bendtner, a goal that was set up by Simon Kjaer playing the best pass of the tournament into the path of winger Dennis Rommedahl.

Rommedahl is the only World Cup player to be born in Greenland.

For fans of interesting yet useless random facts, that is as good as it gets!

16. England (6) – England looked slow and dehydrated in the week Rob Green was relegated to water carrying duties, coincidence?

Runors of unrest have been caused by John Terry giving a controversial press conference, and Wayne Rooney choosing to focus on his music career;

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/408739-wayne-rooney-and-rhianna-star-striker-releases-rap-song

17. USA (11) – The New York Times reported that referee Kouman Colibaly succeeded where so many failed, making the US mainstream media care about soccer.

The United States are furious at the injustice of a late winner wrongly disallowed.

However the first half performance must raise some concerns, do the USA team perform better when they are underdogs, or can they consistently perform well?

18. South Korea (16) – The South half of Korea was slapped back down to earth with a 4-1 hiding against Argentina.

Goalkeeper Jung Song-Ryong’s wife gave birth to his first son the day before the game.

Jung gave a touching insight into how a new father cannot get his thoughts away from his newborn child.

“With the baby boy on the way I was determined to play well but as soon as I got into the stadium I forgot all about it.”

19. Greece (29) – The Greek’s earned their first ever World Cup win with a 2-1 victory over Nigeria.

Vassilis Torosidis netted the historic winner before breaking out a celebration awfully reminiscent of Jan-Aage Fjortoft.

Greece face a difficult to task to take points from Argentina to progress.

20. Japan (15) – What the Dutch saw as a well hit winner the Japanese will have likely seen as a goalkeeping error.

Japan are another team who must produce a result in their final game to advance.

Coach Takeshi Okada stated prior to the tournament that he has devised tactics “to work against the world’s best teams”.

The question is, will they work against Denmark?

21. Italy (7) – A disastrous result for the defending World Champions.

Many people criticized Italy saying that they would top the group before losing in the knockout rounds.

That prediction may be high praise indeed the way this team are currently playing.

A strange amount of ‘Italian’ people in New York and New Jersey have been spotted wearing the USA jersey recently.

22. New Zealand (25) – Yet again Shane ‘Sugar Foot’ Smeltz lit up the tournament with his ability and his glorious nickname.

Coach Ricki Herbert must already be a contender for coach of the tournament.

23. Ivory Coast (14) – The rough house tactics that injured Elano and frustrated Kaka will surely be waiting for Ronaldo.

Didier Drogba’s late consolation goal looked to be relevant if they came into a goal difference battle with Portugal.

That was, until the second half of the Portugal v North Korea game.

24. Algeria (30) – Held England to a stalemate and look set to wrap up the title of best set of players at this World Cup born in France.

Algeria showed a strong defense, a fact lost in all the criticism of England.

Nadir Belhadj in particular will look to cause the USA problems.

25. Slovakia (24) – They go into their last game needing a win over Italy.

The Slovak’s are playing poorly, but is there a better time in history to play Italy?

26. Australia (32) – Bounced back well to gain a point from a tough Ghanaian team, playing with only 10 men.

An optimist will tell you Harry Kewell got through the game without being injured, a pessimist will tell you that is only because he was red carded after 25 minutes.

27. South Africa (19) – Will exit earlier than any host nation in history.

They have produced us with some wonderful images of the players singing and dancing as they get off team coach and take the field.

Hands up who would love to see Rooney and Gerrard follow suit.

28. Republic of Ireland (unranked) – Let’s be honest, they would have been better than France.

29. France (18) – Images of the fitness coach hurling his credential appear to sum up the current state of affairs.

A tame surrender against Mexico has been followed by the second coming of the French Revolution.

Nicolas Anelka was sent home and the entire squad have refused to take the training field during the build up to their final game against South Africa.

This French team make the Oakland Raiders seem harmonious.

30. Cameroon (28) – Two defeats in the bag with Holland to come, things look bleak indeed.

Samuel Eto’o can now add scoring in multiple World Cups to his sizeable resume.

Maybe that will calm his detractors.

The Olympic Gold Medal and all-time Cameroon goal scoring record was apparently not enough.

For all the criticism Eto’o is on the end of, he was the only Cameroon player to applaud the fans rather than sulk off down the tunnel immediately after the game.

31. Nigeria (21) – Another home continent favorite that will be bitterly disappointed to exit so early.

Nigeria had a lead against Greece but a silly red card and huge miss led to an early exit.

Vincent Enyeama earmarked himself as a quality player and could be on the radar of many European clubs.

32. Honduras (31) – A rugged team has simply been outmatched.

It will get no easier against a Swiss team needing three points to progress.

33. North Korea (27) – Stubborn against Brazil, they frankly did not belong on the same field as Portugal.

Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il tends to separate North Korea from world events, he may be onto something.