Predicted Order of Finish: Brazil, Australia, Croatia, Japan

After Brazil, there is very little between the other teams in this group. All could advance and none are poor. After Group C, this foursome could provide the most exciting matches of the tournament and the second place decider could come down to who can get a draw against a Brazil team that will have no problems qualifying for the group stages.

When you have Ronaldinho, Kaka, Ronaldo, and Adriano upfront and Robinho coming off the bench, there would seem to be little to worry about. But the Brazilians are shaky in the back and while they’ll have no worries in the group stages, they could have unexpected troubles against some of the world’s top teams.

Australia are extremely confident after their playoff win against Uruguay. And with Tim Cahill returning from a near devastating injury, the Socceroos could make a run in the knockout round. Harry Kewell, Cahill, and Parma’s Marco Bresciano lead an impressive five-man midfield with Mark Viduka as the lone striker. Coach Guus Hiddink is looking to bring the same magic to the Australians as he did to the South Koreans and has found a way to balance their innate strength and speed with an intelligence that has been lacking in the past. The Socceroos will get out of this group and surprise teams in the knockout stages. For proof, see a recent draw with Holland.

Although they have the pedigree and experience, Croatia are in trouble amidst recent losses to Poland and Spain and a draw with Iran. They are somewhat solid in most parts of the field but are having trouble putting it all together and are far too reliant on Juventus’ Robert Kovac in defense.

The headlines this week from Japanese star Hidetoshi Nakata stating that the 2002 co-hosts “have no heart” are not what a team looking to convince they are not one-tournament-wonders. Japan played very well in the last Finals, but a very tough group and lack of home field advantage could see them go home with few or no points.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 8th, 2006 at 5:48 am and is filed under World Cup 2006. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.