Preview: Uruguay vs France
May 12th 2010 04:33
Our second World Cup 2010 preview will focus on the second Group A match that features Uruguay vs France. Both teams are actually favourites to come through the group and go on to the second round and rightly so. Uruguay have already impressed during their qualifiers where they even finished ahead of Argentina although many might regard that as child's play given how badly Diego Maradona's team struggled under his lead. Whatever the case, there is no lack of star quality in the South American team and much of the focus will be on Diego Forlan and Luis Suarez - both of whom are hotshots in European football and will provide much of the thrust required by Uruguay if they hope to start well in the World Cup 2010 finals with a win over France.
France might have some interesting names traveling to South Africa with coach Robert Domenach's announcement of his provisional squad of 30 players on Tuesday. There will be no room for Real Madrid's Karim Benzema after the coach accused the player of being too selfish and will not fit in the team makeup. The old guard are also starting to be phased out with the omission of Patrick Viera although Thierry Henry remains in the team - possibly due to his influence over the younger players and helping to create the controversial goal that sent the French to the World Cup finals in place of the hard done by Irish. Djibril Cisse has been rewarded for his goalscoring ways in Greece and a largely unproven midfield group will have to carry the burden of banishing France's nightmare campaign under Domenach in the last two major tournaments.
Group A is undeniably a tough one despite South Africa's lack of results leading up to the finals and Mexico often greatly underestimated. Uruguay and France may be giants in their own right partly due to what the two countries did in the past, but what matters most is right now. Playing the underdogs have always benefited the South Americans more and they will certainly be cast in that light against France - who apart from having won the World Cup previously also have players who are continuously hyped up by the media. Henry is a spent force at the top level but he continues to feature for the national team and his public criticism and outburst against Domenach during the qualifiers certainly hints at who the real boss is behind the scenes.
If Domenach can somehow get his team to work properly together, there is no doubt that they will grind out the result against Uruguay. But the dangermen in Forlan and Suarez will prove a constant threat. Suarez in particular has become one of the hottest properties in European football after scoring tons of goals with Ajax over the last couple of seasons. It should not be too long before the player attracts attention from some of the biggest clubs and Manchester United have already been monitoring his progress for some time. A settled partnership with Forlan will also be something working in Uruguay's favour and hopefully the match will not suffer from a conservative French approach.
France might have some interesting names traveling to South Africa with coach Robert Domenach's announcement of his provisional squad of 30 players on Tuesday. There will be no room for Real Madrid's Karim Benzema after the coach accused the player of being too selfish and will not fit in the team makeup. The old guard are also starting to be phased out with the omission of Patrick Viera although Thierry Henry remains in the team - possibly due to his influence over the younger players and helping to create the controversial goal that sent the French to the World Cup finals in place of the hard done by Irish. Djibril Cisse has been rewarded for his goalscoring ways in Greece and a largely unproven midfield group will have to carry the burden of banishing France's nightmare campaign under Domenach in the last two major tournaments.
Group A is undeniably a tough one despite South Africa's lack of results leading up to the finals and Mexico often greatly underestimated. Uruguay and France may be giants in their own right partly due to what the two countries did in the past, but what matters most is right now. Playing the underdogs have always benefited the South Americans more and they will certainly be cast in that light against France - who apart from having won the World Cup previously also have players who are continuously hyped up by the media. Henry is a spent force at the top level but he continues to feature for the national team and his public criticism and outburst against Domenach during the qualifiers certainly hints at who the real boss is behind the scenes.
If Domenach can somehow get his team to work properly together, there is no doubt that they will grind out the result against Uruguay. But the dangermen in Forlan and Suarez will prove a constant threat. Suarez in particular has become one of the hottest properties in European football after scoring tons of goals with Ajax over the last couple of seasons. It should not be too long before the player attracts attention from some of the biggest clubs and Manchester United have already been monitoring his progress for some time. A settled partnership with Forlan will also be something working in Uruguay's favour and hopefully the match will not suffer from a conservative French approach.
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