World Cup Preview: Group C

I was supposed to give you this group last week, but it totally slipped my mind with all that was going on in club play. We are previewing Group C which in my opinion is a group that could go anyway with Columbia, Greece, Cote d'Ivoire, and Japan. We'll start with the Los Cafeteros of Columbia who I am predicting should advance out of the group stage depending on a certain factor. If Radamel Falcao is healthy enough to play in the World Cup, then I think Columbia has a good chance of advancing in a tournament they haven't qualified for since 1998. The team finished second in qualifying behind the brilliance of Falcao, James Rodriguez, and Teófilo Gutiérrez who had six goals in qualifying. In my opinion, the team should have no problem beating Greece, but things could get interesting against Japan and Cote d'Ivoire. They'll have to rely on their physical presence to defeat some of the teams while having to match their skill with that of The Ivory Coast. They really need Falcao to be healthy enough to play because he's an important part of their attack. If he's healthy then I feel Columbia finishes atop of their group, but if not then I think they'll finish in second.

I never liked the style of football that Greece plays when it came to big competitions because I love attacking football. Greece famously won their only big competition in 2004 all by playing defense while relying on the counter attack. The team only conceded four goals in qualifying all based on their defensive style of football, but their going to have to have a hope and a prayer when they lock up with Columbia and Cote d'Ivoire. Kostas Mitroglou is going to have to prove that he is a goal scoring machine after his impressive play against Romania in the playoff round. As you see from the last sentence, the team finished in second in their group behind Bosnia and Herzegovina because of goal differential. Goal differential could play a big factor in whether they move on in the world cup if they find themselves tied for second place. The fact that Greece starts their world cup campaign against Columbia will tell a lot about how well the team will do moving forward from that game. Orestis Karnezis is going to have be dynamite in goal because Greece is certainly going to need it.

For Cote d'Ivoire (or The Ivory Coast), this could spell the end of an era for what they are calling their Golden Generation considering Didier Drogba is 36 years old heading into the world cup. The only two other times they qualified, they didn't advance past the group stage so I feel there is a sense of urgency with this team to advance and they just might. Salomon Kalou, Yaya Touré, and Kolo Touré are going to have to work their hardest for the Les Elephants to have hopes of moving on in a group that I think they should. The team's defense has been known to get soft late in games as most of their goals they allowed were late in the games and we all know that every game is 90 minutes. I think they'll be one of those teams that gets into a goal differential battle with Greece or Japan.

For The Blue Samurai's of Japan, if history has that rare moment where it repeats it's patterns then Japan shouldn't even make it out of the group stage. In 1998, they were eliminated in the group stage, 2002 it was the round of 16, 2006 they were again eliminated in the group stage, and in 2010 they were eliminated in the round of 16. Keisuke Honda, Shinji Kagawa, and Shinji Okazaki are going to have to hope that the team is hitting it off on all cylinders because when they do, Japan is a very dangerous team. Their first match in Brazil against the Cote d'Ivoire should seal the fate for Japan where a win is huge and a loss is doom. Hopefully during this time, the team will practice their defense against set pieces cause that could come back to haunt them in the tournament.

Group C
1. Columbia 9 PTS
2. Cote d'Ivoire 4 PTS
3. Japan 2 PTS
4 Greece 1 PTS

Columbia gets eliminated in the quarterfinals
Cote d'Ivoire gets eliminated in the round of 16