Great Expectations

The World Cup, one of the greatest tournaments in the history of sports begins Friday in South Africa. Critics, dissenters, enthusiasts and loyalists will all be crossing there fingers to see their favorite team go as far down the tournament bracket as possible. While much time has been spent dwelling on the subject of which team will advance the furthest, I want to discuss which players will make the greatest impact.

An important for who performs well at the World Cup has to do with what happened before the World Cup - more specifically, the players who sweated salt in the Champions League and UEFA Cup. These rigorous tournaments represent the crème of the crop in European football. In fact, the Champions League is basically Europe’s own mini-World Cup played at the club level. The final four teams in the Champions League tournament (a tournament only available for the top 4 teams in each respective European domestic league) this year were the eventual champions, Internazionale, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Lyon. The final was between Inter and Munich, who beat out Barca and Lyon in the semi-finals. As far as their squads go, all of these teams employ a sizeable portion of the talent expected to flourish in this year’s World Cup.

Let’s start with Barcelona, a perennial powerhouse in European and domestic futbol. Spanish footballers run about 1/3 of the Barcelona juggernaut. At defense, Carlos Puyol and Gerard Pique are consistent starters and in the midfield, it’s commonplace to see Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets running circles around each other. In fact, Barcelona’s forwards are the only position were one does not see a permanent roster fixture in the Spanish nation team (although Bojan is knocking on Heaven’s gates). Outside of Barca’s Spanish flair lie more soccer greats: Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Maxwell, Rafael Marquez and Milito. Personally, it’s a pity that Barcelona didn’t win the Champions League with a team so well qualified (and honorable!) as it is currently. Yet, what’s more disappointing is the fact that these supernovas will also not perform well at the World Cup. The Champions League ran deep into the last weeks of May and, as a result, exhausted a great deal of energy from some of the world’s best players. That being said, don’t be surprised if Messi doesn’t live up to his expectations. Don’t be crestfallen when Franc Ribery (Bayern Munich) can finish. And definitely don’t be surprised when Samuel Eto’o, Esteban Cambiasso, Wesley Snjeider and Maicon (all Inter Milan) all get out paced by their opponents.

So, if Messi ain’t pulling slack, who will perform? A few players, namely Kaka, Rooney, Gerrard, David Villa (and maybe Torres if he recovers from some nagging injuries). Be on the look out for the players that have been lying low for the past 2 months. And, since any trend has an anomaly, I am going to guess that Xavi and Iniesta will still produce; although they played for Barca’s Champions League squad, they only made it to the semi finals AND they will be playing in the same positions for the same national team.

My predictions: Spain, Brazil and England will go far. Spain to win.
Wildcard: USA