Group C, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland and "Don't Cry for Me" Argentina

A quick response to the question of why there is no GB team as in the Olympics, why do England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland play separately?  The answer is they were the first four nations to set up football associations and so when FIFA was established, they were each given a seat on the board and it has stayed thus ever since at least from the playing point of view.

The pattern we have seen in the first two groups is continued here in group C, consisting of one team which probably will not bother the scorers to borrow a parlance from cricket. Two teams, who will be in a head to head fight for second place and the one who should be head and shoulders and therefore clear favorites above the rest.

We will start with the minnows of Saudi Arabia, more quaintly known as the "Green Falcons" and they will look to swoop on any unsuspecting prey. This will be their sixth appearance in a World cup and in their first back in 1994, they shocked everyone including pundits such as myself by getting through to the next round thanks to this wonder goal.

They have never been able to repeat that success and I do not see them doing it here. 

Mexico (nickname the Tricolour)  is an interesting team, this will be their 17th appearance in a world cup final tournament, which is impressive in itself, but that is mainly due to them not having much competition in qualifying for the world cup over the years. What is definitely more impressive, is the fact that they have made it through the first round in their last seven attempts, that is a very high level of consistency, which only Brazil can match. However, I think the sequence will be ended this time round. 

This Mexican team is not as good a vintage as previous incantations were, they are rather lightweight in attack and their star striker, Raul Jimenez, has never fully recovered from a number of injuries he has suffered over the past few years.

This is in direct contrast with the double headed eagles of the Polish national team led by Robert Lewandowski. Between 1974 and 1986, Poland, have twice finished in third place which is quite an achievement. They have not managed to repeat that feat since then, but in Lewandowski have one of the best attacking players in the modern game. He is a goal machine. 

I saw a stat somewhere, that one hundred and thirty-seven of the players who will feature in this world cup were not born in the country they will be representing. That is a sixth of the players in total. Poland has one of those, their fullback, Matty Cash was born in the midlands of England but qualifies through his mother's Polish ancestry to play for Poland.

As I mentioned, I fancy Poland to outperform Mexico and therefore join the last team in this group, "Don't Cry For Me" Argentina, in progressing to the next round.

Now, even if your knowledge of football is very limited, chances are you have heard, in passing, of the name Lionel Messi, even if you do not know who he is. Over the ten years at least, he has been one of the best players in the world, and in the football milieu the argument rages as to whether he is the GOAT (an acronym standing for the greatest of all time). 

One of the reasons his detractors claim that he is not, is his distinct lack of success with the National team, as compared to, say that other Argentian number ten, the great, Diego Armando "cheating hand of God "Maradona. who led Argentina to the title in 1986, something which would not have happened today with the use of video technology to stop cheating such as this.

Hand of God 1986

Anyway, whatever you think of Messi, Argentina are one of the favorites to lift the trophy and at the age of thirty-five this is realistically his last chance of leading Argentina to glory.