The World Cup history of Group C teams means Japan are favourites to go through. PHOTO: FILE
Ivory coast
As the highest-ranked African nation, Ivory Coast will arrive for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil with some unfinished business. They suffered first-round defeats to Argentina and Netherlands in their opening matches in the 2006 World Cup, their debut appearance, while 2010 again saw them earning defeat when they drew against a Cristiano Ronaldo inspired Portugal, while suffering a 3-1 defeat against Brazil.
This time around, the chances of making it to the second round are higher for the African giants. They have been drawn against Columbia, Greece and Japan in Group C and these three teams seem to pose a lesser threat than their previous World Cup groups.
They will pin their hopes on Didier Drogba, former Chelsea superstar and the captain for this year’s World Cup, while Manchester City’s in-form Yaya Toure will also be ready to achieve victories for his country.
Colombia
Colombia have risen from the ‘dark horse’ tag to become one of the main contenders to at least progress to the next round. Boasting a Fifa ranking of fourth at the start of 2014 and carrying one of the most expensive European footballers in James Rodriguez, they are in the competition to prove a point, as they will be making their first appearance in the World Cup after 16 years.
Their qualification at this year’s World Cup was no less than a roller-coaster ride. They won nine of their 16 matches to earn the second spot in South America, which included a 4-0 win against Uruguay, who had come into the game on the back of a two-year unbeaten run. But they had to wait till the last game to confirm qualification due to a few underwhelming performances.
Their coach, Jose Pekerman, brings with him a variety of different formations, but to varying degrees of success, which makes it very unclear as to how they will line up at the World Cup.
Defender Mario Yepes will be leading Colombia’s pack in the tournament.
Greece
Greece will enter the 2014 World Cup with a lot of confidence, even though they had to go through the playoffs to qualify. In the qualifiers, they finished second behind Bosnia-Herzegovina, though they were drawn in a weak group that also contained Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Liechtenstein. They only dropped points twice in their 10 matches in a 3-1 defeat against Bosnia whom they also drew earlier. Greece have a very good record of making it to the major tournaments after their surprise win at the European Championship a decade ago in 2004. They made it to the World Cup thrice out of the last four tournaments but only to add to their disappointment by being knocked out in the group stages on all three occasions.
Coach Fernando Santos likes to adopt a defensive approach, but a quarter-final appearance in the Euro 2012 means his strategy has had a considerable amount of success. Under his command, Greece will try to carry their pre-World Cup confidence to render a bold approach towards the tournament itself.
Greece’s star players Giorgos Karagounis (captain) and Kostas Kastsounaras, who holds the record for most caps, are again expected to deliver for the nation after appearing in all the qualifiers.
Japan
Japan became the first team to come through qualifications for the 2014 World Cup with a hope to make it further than their previous best of second round. With 10 points from six games, Japan finished second in the third round of the Asian qualification with Uzbekistan on top. In the final group round of the qualifiers, Japan cruised to the top spot, five points adrift of Australia to book a fifth straight World Cup berth.
Italian coach Alberto Zaccheroni has guided the nation to the 2011 Asian Cup glory which helped them secure a place in the 2013 Confederations Cup where Japan were thrashed badly by Brazil, Italy and Mexico.
However, they seem to have found good form as a draw against the Netherlands and a victory over Belgium in late 2013 helped them prove their mettle.Zaccheroni’s men hope to produce better results under the likes of Shinji Kagawa, Shinji Okazaki and Keisuke Honda. Being led by Makoto Hasebe, Japanese players will have to be at the top of their game.
Summary
The World Cup history of the Group C teams means Japan are favourites to go through as they made it to the second round in 2002 and 2010, while the rest have never progressed past the first round of the World Cup in recent times. Colombia are also in contention to make it to the second round, aiming to relive the glory of playing the quarter-finals in 1990. Ivory Coast and Greece have the same record of playing two World Cups and being knocked out twice in the first round, but they will be ready to surprise Japan and Colombia with their firepower.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 4th, 2014.
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who is the second african to played in an opening match of the world cup and in what year?