WC 2006: GROUP D Official Thread

[MCdread]

When the WC begins, this forum is gonna be invaded by lots and lots of posters, and it's not hard to imagine a thread being opened for every little incidence of the event. So, like we did for Euro 2004, I suggest we open up one thread for each group of the first round, where ideally we shall discuss everything related to that particular group and the teams in it. It will be easier for us, the very interested forum members, to catch what's going on, and it will be more respectful to those poor fellows that live in blind darkness and ignorance and don't pay atention to football, but want to check the forum for other sports threads.
For obvious reasons, I will opern the thread on Group D, and I suggest other people to open threads about the groups where their favourite teams are as well.

So, group D, this is the group of Mexico, Iran, Angola and Portugal. The schedule is the following:

- Mexico vs. Iran, Sunday 11th, 18:00 CET (Nuremberg)
- Angola vs. Portugal, Sun 11th, 21:00 (Cologne)
- Mexico vs. Angola, Fri 16th, 21:00 (Hannover)
- Portugal vs. Iran, Sat 17th, 15:00 (Frankfurt)
- Portuga vs. Mexico, Wed, 16:00 (Gelsenkirchen)
- Iran vs. Angola, Wed, 16:00 (Leipzig)

...and the squads (don't know if there were recent injurees changing this):

Mexico
1-SÁNCHEZ Oswaldo (GK)
2-SUÁREZ Claudio
3-SALCIDO Carlos
4-MÁRQUEZ Rafael
5-OSORIO Ricardo
6-TORRADO Gerardo
7-ZINHA
8-PARDO Pavel
9-BORGETTI Jared
10-FRANCO Guillermo
11-MORALES Ramón
12-CORONA José (GK)
13-OCHOA Guillermo (GK)
14-PINEDA Gonzalo
15-CASTRO Jose Antonio
16-MÉNDEZ Mario
17-FONSECA José
18-GUARDADO Andrés
19-BRAVO Omar
20-GARCÍA Rafael
21-ARELLANO Jesús
22-RODRÍGUEZ Francisco
23-PÉREZ Luis

Iran
1-MIRZAPOUR Ebrahim (GK)
2-MAHDAVIKIA Mehdi
3-BAKHTIARIZADEH Sohrab
4-GOLMOHAMMADI Yahya
5-REZAEI Rahman
6-NEKOUNAM Javad
7-ZANDI Ferydoon
8-KARIMI Ali
9-HASHEMIAN Vahid
10-DAEI Ali
11-KHATIBI Rasoul
12-ROUDBARIAN Hassan (GK)
13-KAABI Hossein
14-TEYMOURIAN Andranik
15-BORHANI Arash
16-ENAYATI Reza
17-KAZEMEIAN Javad
18-ZARE Sattar
19-SADEQI Amir Hossein
20-NOSRATI Mohammad
21-MADANCHI Mehrzad
22-TALEBLOO Vahid (GK)
23-SHOJAEI Masoud

Angola
1-JOÃO RICARDO (GK)
2-MARCOS AIROSA
3-JAMBA
4-LEBO LEBO
5-KALI
6-MILOY
7-FIGUEIREDO
8-ANDRÉ
9-MANTORRAS
10-AKWÁ
11-MATEUS
12-LAMA (GK)
13-EDSON
14-MENDONÇA
15-RUI MARQUES
16-FLÁVIO
17-ZÉ KALANGA
18-LOVE
19-ANDRÉ TITI BUENGO
20-LOCO
21-DELGADO
22-MÁRIO (GK)
23-MARCO ABREU

Portugal
1-RICARDO (GK)
2-PAULO FERREIRA
3-CANEIRA
4-RICARDO COSTA
5-FERNANDO MEIRA
6-COSTINHA
7-LUÍS FIGO
8-PETIT
9-PAULETA
10-HUGO VIANA
11-SIMÃO SABROSA
12-QUIM (GK)
13-MIGUEL
14-NUNO VALENTE
15-BOA MORTE
16-RICARDO CARVALHO
17-CRISTIANO RONALDO
18-MANICHE
19-TIAGO
20-DECO
21-NUNO GOMES
22-PAULO SANTOS (GK)
23-HÉLDER POSTIGA


...I will later try to post some comments on the teams before they start playing.

 

[Hitro]

I think this is one of the most interesting groups. While Angola likely will have no chance and while Portugal seem favourites much else is possible.

 

[MCdread]

Mexico: 2005 was a superb year for mexican football. They won their first ever world title, in the U17 WC, beating Brazil 3-0 in the final if I remember correctly and showing quite a few talents, which promises a bright future. Most importantly in the near range, that is the 2006 WC, they were one of the most entertaining teams of the Confederations Cup, with good flowing football, and were the only ones that beat Brazil. I know, the U17 WC and the Conf. Cup... But still, that's better than most.
On top of that they were designated as one of the 8 seeded teams for the WC and got a good draw. It seemed everything was going fine, and even their argentinian coach, La Volpe, previously a target for the most violent criticism the media can come up with, was then on a popularity high.
However, they weren't as interesting in the recent pre-WC friendlies as they promised to be. They were lucky to finish the games with Holland and France with just one goal less. We're talking of two very tough opponents, but the fact is that in those games they spent most of the time defending (badly) and rarely could build a consistent attacking action (very timid ones). If they're not showing all their cards or ran out of gas is to be found out at the WC.
Imo, the team has 3 major stars: GK Oswaldo Sánchez, Rafael Márquez and Jared Borgetti. The latter didn't have a good european experience this season at Bolton, but when you watch him on the NT, you can see that he has a lot of quality, and especially when it comes to heading abilities, I really can't see anyone else in the world today that has his technique and efficiency when it comes to heading a ball to the net! Rafael Márquez of Barcelona everyone knows, he's a leader, he's got skills and he has no problems in "going physical" if necessary. he should be the pendulum of the back line. In his area, La Volpe will probably play with a 3 man defence, with perhaps Salcido and Osorio partnering Márquez. In theory the defence should be no major problem, but they were horribly weak in the air in the game against France for example.
The midfield key players should be Pardo and Zinha, but the latter has been injured throughout the season and it his physical condition is unknown. Theoretically, he should be the creativity man. Another good player is the possible Borgetti partner, Villareal's Guillermo Franco. The problem is that both Zinha (Brazil) and Franco (Argentina) are naturalised players, and this issue doesn't seem to have been well digested by most mexicans. The Federation has given the team and La Volpe everything needed for a good campaign: as most players play doesmtically, they have free for the NT for 2 or 3 months, something european coaches can only dream about. But otoh, if they fail to impress, La Volpe will certainly get the sack and proscript Blanco and coach rival Hugo Sánchez will have the last laugh...

Iran:
Iran was at the edge of becoming the asian superpower in the sport in the latest 70s, and their presence in the Argentina WC was very positive. Then football was set aside for politics, as the Ayatollah kicked the Shah in 1979 and the dreadful Iran-Iraq war begun a year later. There was no proper football in Iran for about 10 years: no domestic league and not even envolvment in WC qualifiers. The recovery has been slow but steady, and right now, I believe they are again the best team in their continent.
At the back there aren't many familiar names, unless there are any "fortunate" CFCers that gets access to some iranian channel through their satellite dishes. What matters is that they're motivated and try hard to make the team balanced, because the real power seems to be in the midfield and attack. Despite that there is a CD that plays in Serie A, Rahman Rezaei of Messina.
So, if Brazil have their "Magic Square", so does Iran : their 4 Bundesliga players (Mahdavikia, Hashemian, Karimi and Zandi; the latter was actually born and lived all his life in Germany, but had an iranian father or something like that), to which one can add the veteran and former Bayern Munich striker Ali Daei, which I think holds the world record for top goalscorer with the NT: almost 100 goals for Iran!
Of all these, the real player to keep an eye on is the playmaker Ali Karimi, who plays for Bayern too. At the moment He's probably the undisputed best player of Asia, and has real class in him. He's tall and strong and has excellent feet skills, so it's not easy to recover the ball from him. While opponents are trying, I guess a possibly dangerous play is to forget someone unmarked on the flanks, Mahdavikia or Zandi for example, to get the ball from Karimi and then crossing to Daei, who's a good header. Karimi also usually scores many goals for Iran.
This is therefore, a dangerous and tricky team, which, in this group, has a real chance to qualify for the second round! The final rehearsal was good: they trashed Bosnia (which took Spain 97 minutes and a dubious penalty to break at home) 5-2.

I'll do Angola and Portugal tomorrow.

 

[Hitro]

Karimi hasn't been too convincing at Bayern, though. Much like Daei.

 

[MCdread]

Karimi hasn't been too convincing at Bayern, though. Much like Daei.

Borgetti has barely played for Bolton and I bet you every Mexican opponent is trying to figure out a way to reduce his influence. Karimi is a 27 year old iranian player that is a newbie at the european scene. And Bayern isn't exactly an easy side (the competition is Ballack, Deisler and possibly Zé Roberto, Demichellis and Scholl. But he's got talent and runs the show for Iran. And Daei just needs to jump higher than his marker once in the game to possibly have an impact.

Angola:
As everyone knows, Angola is a former colony of Portugal, and since Brazil got out of the Empire, it was the crown jewell of said Empire. There was even a project some 50 years ago to change the capital of Portugal from Lisbon to Luanda!
Therefore, with lots of portuguese immigrants and investment, and with at least the Luanda region (the only one that mattered) being the most developped of Africa, at least after the remaining african countries got independent and Angola remained tied with Portugal, there were lots of portuguese football stars, both black and white, that came out of Angola and are among the best portuguese players ever: Guilherme Espírito Santo, Fernando Peyroteo, Jacinto João, José Águas, Rui Jordão (although the most famous, at least abroad came all from Mozambique: Eusébio, Coluna, Hilário, Matateu, Vicente, Nen&#233.
Since the independence however, perhaps because of the civil war, the destruction of the infrastructures and the escape to Portugal of all the white comunity and much of the black as well (coaches, club owners, sponsors, etc.) Angola never again produced an international class player. This team has none indeed.
Most of the players divide themselves between those that play in the domestic league (the Girabola) and those that play in Portugal, most of them in secondary divisions. A curious fact is that much like most of the african teams Angola spent the recent decades with foreign coaches succeeding each other in the team, and they never did anything remarkeable. Then it came an angolan coach, and incredibly it was him that brought discipline to a team previously more known for disorganization and players going to any party they wanted while on concentrations.
Before the WC he travalled the world, but mostly travelled Portugal trying to find players that had any angolan connection to bring to the team. He wasn't very successful though: he only caught two big fish, Pedro Emanuel, captain of FC Porto, and Edgar of Málaga (Spain). Both of them however played for the portuguese U21s and to be elligible for Angola they had ask FIFA until a certain deadline, which was long gone. So in the end, it is basically the team that did the miracle of qualifying.
In goal there is João Ricardo, a veteran of portuguese football, but that couldn't even find a club this season, and went on to work in his father's factory and keeping the shape after his job hours. He looked very shaky a few months ago, but seems to be with better rythm and form now.
Thre defensive hopes lie with the likes of Kali, Jamba or Lebo-Lebo. Don't worry, I had never heard of any either, even if the former plays for a portuguese team (that just got relegated from 2nd division to the 3rd).
In the midfield however, there a couple of interesting names, mainly Edson, one of the good playeres of the portuguese league - he has pace and a good shot - and Figueiredo, also veteran of portuguese league, which is the playmaker and should be easily spotted because of his white skin and blond hair. He's in the second division now, but he is a decent player with good vision and free kicks ability. His team mate Mendonça at Varzim should also play. Other possibilities got injured, and then there is Mateus, which is now at the center of the Mateus-gate in Portugal, because of a bureaucratic mess that may take his club, Gil Vicente, to the 2nd division. On the pitch though, he only played 4 games for Gil and 6 months ago was playing in an amateur team in Portugal...
The forwards are a tale of two players, the two best known players of the team: Akwá and Mantorras.
Akwá arrived at Benfica about 12 or 13 years ago, at the age of 17, with the label of the 79th new Eusébio. He was there for a year or 2 max, until they found out he was no Eusébio, and has been in arab leagues ever since. However, he's the team's best player, captain and star. He scored the crucial goal that qualified them and is dangerous.
Mantorras was the 101th new Eusébio about 10 years later, and in fact played quite well in his first season, but then played half of that season with a serious injuree on his knee, and the fact that he still plays football is already a miracle. He know is only used in the last 10-15 minutes of Benfica, when things are difficult because it is said that he can't play more than a few minutes. In fact he has scored some important goals, but quite frankly he's only at Benfica out of charity because the club knows that messed up and ended his career. He's a bit delusioned though, and keeps demanding more playing time, but the fact is that now he doesn't even play as a starter for Angola, and threatened to leave it if he wasn't given more time, but in the end had to shut up to come to the WC. Do not think that his problem is just the injuree though, he ain't that good anyway.
That said, I don't think much can be expected from these guys, but they sure will party, and as I have many angolan friends, I'll party with them, starting with this weekend's game, Portugal vs. Angola, Tugas vs. Banda!

Portugal:
We must be one of the curious countries of WC history: Portugal always had good teams and players (at club level, the 6th most successful country ever in Europe), but never qualified. For example, many experts will say that the 70s generation was the best ever, and yet, while both the 60s and 80s won trophies and were at WCs, the 70s did nothing.
More recently, the NT finally earned a spot in the club dominated universe of portuguese football passions and affiliations, and the team has been getting more results later, so that, for the past 10 years at least, it is undeniable that Portugal firmly established itself as one of top football nations.
This team is basically the same team of Euro 2004. Scolari prefers the players he knows and has a relation with to emerging talents that would be recent additions to the team at the cost of some of "his men", so for the past 2 years, it has been a very conservative team names wise. The qualification was easy and the team didn't meet any tough opponent in 2006, so it is hard to evaluate the current level of the team, we'll have to wait for the WC. On paper it should be the best team of the group thouh.
Goalie is Ricardo, unreliable, but fully trusted by the coach. Right back is Miguel of Valencia, with Paulo Ferreira as option both for right back and left back. In the center there was a massive blow with Jorge Andrade's broken leg a few months ago, so Ricardo Carvalho will have to play for himself and cover up Fernando Meira's mistakes. The big doubt is in the midfield, with 4 men for 2 places (Costinha, Petit, Maniche and Tiago), and no one yet knows who will play. Costinha was in a conflict with his club, Dynamo, and din't play for almost a year. It was clear from the friendlies that he hasn't any playing rythm (and those were against Cape Verde and Luxembourg!!!). Scolari's favourites with be Costinha and Maniche, who is also in a low form, and he will only take them of as last resort. At least he wants Costinha there, and is willing to sacrifice a player that had a great seson for Lyon, Tiago, and put a more defensive one, Petit, just to protect Costinha... From there on, there are no doubts: Figo, Deco, Ronaldo and Pauleta, with Simão Sabrosa waiting for a slip from Ronaldo to steal him the starting place, just like Ronaldo did to him in Euro 2004. Ronaldo has been very unstable lately and had two physical challenges out of frustration in the last two games that, if repeated, will earn him a straight red card. Rumours say that it is his new girlfriend Merche Romero, a TV star, that is "sucking" his energy.
Portugal is a team that is very good with the ball, but doesn't like to chase it, and doesn't have a great collective play, it relies more on the creativity of its stars, and that can be an asset as well as a liability.

 

[Darkness]

Jared Borgetti

He's a dangerous player allright. In the friendly against the Netherlands he got open just once the entire match. But that one time was enough for him to score. For the rest of the match he was mostly covered by the Dutch B-team defenders, but he still demanded a lot of attention, especially in the penalty area.


Portugal's a strange team. Somehow the balance just isn't right (IMHO). Figo just hasn't got it anymore. Build the team around Deco and see how far you can get.

Mexico didn't impress me much (outside of Borghetti's efficiency) in the friendlies against the Dutch and the French.

I don't know anything about Angola or Iran, so I'm playing it safe and I'll just predict Portugal and Mexico to advance to the second round (though I doubt they'll go much further).

 

[MCdread]

Portugal's a strange team. Somehow the balance just isn't right (IMHO). Figo just hasn't got it anymore. Build the team around Deco and see how far you can get.

The team isn't build around Figo. If it's build around anyone is Ronaldo.
That said, thus far in the preparations, Figo has been the best player and surprisingly looks to be in his best form since the 2002 injuree that compromised his WC (he played alright, but to avoid a surgery and go to that WC, he was playing with a boot two sizes bigger to accomodate his inflated foot, and didn't produce anything useful...). I guess all he needed to recover a bit of his former self was to leave that circus that is Real Madrid. Maybe other galacticos should try the same...

 

[Darkness]

The team isn't build around Figo. If it's build around anyone is Ronaldo.

An even stranger choice. Ronaldo's a hot-cold player. If he's the key man and he hits a cold streak Portugal may not even survive the group phase...
If Figo is playing as well as you say, then I'd rather have him than Ronald as the key player (I still think it should be Deco though).

 

[MCdread]

Yes, in my opinion Deco is definitely the best player and our key man.
But Ronaldo is the golden boy. Yesterday I was entering the cafeteria at work, which had a TV turned to the opposite direction I was entering and all I heard coming out of it were screams. I thought it was some report on East-Timor or Iraq, but it turned out to be teenage girls watching Ronaldo training in the team camp...
Figo otoh developped an intimate relationship with Scolari and they're absolutely loyal to each other.
But in the end, I think there is no other option, and naturally (if they want to go far that is), in the course of play, the web will be built around Deco.

 

[col]

Ronaldo is getting an increasing reputation for being unable to control himself. It is clear that opposing defenders will provoke more than ever knowing that he will retaliate.

col's tip for the first player to be sent off in the WC.

 

[Dell19]

It is group D though so 6 earlier matches for someone to get sent off in.

 

[Marla_Singer]

I've predicted Iran would win 2-1 against Mexico. I hope I haven't taken too much risk on that !

 

[Truronian]

I'm hoping Iran get through. I have a twisted desire to see Iran vrs. USA.

 

[Hitro]

The Mexico - Iran fixture is in my view one of the most interesting in the first sequence of matches. I guess it will also decide who will advance.

 

[Dell19]

I'm hoping Iran get through. I have a twisted desire to see Iran vrs. USA.

Wouldn't that require the US to beat Brazil and Iran to beat Holland or Argentina?

 

[classical_hero]

This has to be the easiest group of the lot. I predict that Portugal and Mexico will easily make it though this group.

 

[Red Door]

Yeah, Angola and Iran shouldn't be too much of bad news for Mexico and Portugal.

 

[Truronian]

Wouldn't that require the US to beat Brazil and Iran to beat Holland or Argentina?

Pretty much. The earliest they could meet is the semis. I never said it was likely...

 

[BCLG100]

Ronaldo is getting an increasing reputation for being unable to control himself. It is clear that opposing defenders will provoke more than ever knowing that he will retaliate.

col's tip for the first player to be sent off in the WC.

could be the second player to get sent off?

 

[Marla_Singer]

Alright, I've lost my bet and Iran has lost.

Now this being said, Mexico has confirmed they had poor forwards, and they needed defensive mistakes from Iran to have opportunities to score. Mexico should reach the 1/8 finals now, but they would need to play a very exhausted team from Group C in order to have a little chance to win that game.