Before we look at group E, we cannot ignore what happened yesterday. Saudi Arabia's historic victory over Don't cry for me Argentina was one of the greatest shocks in world cup history, a seismic event, to rank alongside the good Ol' US of A beating EnGerLand in 1950 and Senegal beating Les Bleus in 2002. I have had a lot of people contacting me directly asking my opinion and of course "gloating" over the fact that I got it wrong big time so to speak.
Don't cry for me Argentina had not lost any of their last thirty-six matches before yesterday, were ranked third in the world and were one of the pre tournament favourites. However, do not count them out yet, the Spaghetti munchers, for example, have often started slowly and then gone on to do well, don't cry for me Argentina lost their first game in 1990 and then lost in the final. Their next game against Mexico is now humungous in its significance.
This is the reason that we love the world cup so much. Nations, who would never normally do so, get to face each other in a competitive match and then the American expression "on any given Sunday" comes into effect.
This is also the impact the world cup can have on the world news coverage, one cannot ignore what happened yesterday whether you like football or not, you will have heard about it.
Now for the preview and we are only going to release one today. This group had a potential to become the beloved so called group of death, but in the end, barring any major surprises it should be pretty straight forward for the European nations in this group. We will start with the Nationalmannschaft or as we prefer to call them Ze Shermans. Their record is second to none.
They have reached the final a staggering eight times but only have a fifty per cent success rate and have finished third on another three occasions. That is an amazing level of consistency. Ze Shermans have a big match mentality and purr like a fine tuned BMW.
In 2014, Ze Shermans showed this ruthless efficiency in the semifinal against Brazil, for those who do not know, I will not say what happened, you can see for yourself below.
For the first time in decades, cracks have begun to appear in Ze Sherman facade, it is just that everyone is so used to the mantra coined by the BBC football pundit, the ex England striker Gary Lineker. "Football is a simple game. 22 men chase a ball around for 90 minutes and in the end Ze Shermans win." (In this world cup it appears it is now over 100 minutes)
Espania, are another team like Les Bleus, in that you just do not know what you are going to see from them, they are massively skillful on the ball, but their temperament has often been lacking and sometimes you feel you are watching the Pamplona bull run where everyone is haring about with seemingly no control.
In 2010, Espania finally won the world cup, for the one and only time so far, when their then manager Vincente del Bosque succeeded in combining all the different factions into one united force. One of the problems in Spanish football is that the two main clubs Real Madrid and Barcelona really do not like each other. Some of this dislike dates back to the Spanish Civil war so beloved of Hemmingway.
Real Madrid was and is associated with the Republicans of the late dictator of Spain, Generalissimo Franco, whilst Barcelona was associated with the losing Nationalists and also the Catalonian independence movement. This is not such as issue today, but there is still no love lost between the players from both clubs who suddenly find themselves having to join forces for the national side.
This is the only group which includes two previous winners and I predict they will cancel each other out.
Next up is Japan, the land of the rising sun, and they are the one team in this group which could cause a surprise or two. Their nickname is the Blue Samurai, Blue because that is the colour of their shirts and the Samurai represent the ancient knights of Japanese society, who had the right of killing someone of a lower social class on a whim.
The Japanese and Ze Shermans have one thing in common and I am not talking about being on the losing side in World War II. Rather, it is when they decide to do something they do it properly.
Japanese football turned professional in the 1990's and since then has been on the up and up. They have played in the last six tournaments in a row and have a fifty percent success rate of advancing to the next stage, one tournament yes, and one no. If they stay true to form this a "no" year.
Nineteen of their twenty six man squad, play outside of the land of the rising sun and this exposure to outside influences and different types of football along with the Japanese tenacity (think Kamikaze) is what makes them such a difficult team to beat. As I wrote, this is one group where the European hegemony could be overturned and to be honest, I would enjoy seeing it.
That leaves us with Costa Rica, we should not dismiss them lightly as it is only two tournaments ago that they won a group consisting of Italia, Uruguay and EnGerLand, beating the first two and drawing with the latter. They made it through to the quarterfinals and only lost on penalties to the Orangemen.
Costa Rica is supposed to be a beautiful country to visit, it is very stable as Central American countries go, no history of coup d'états, it is best known for its pineapple's, bananas and coffee production.
Below is highlights of their famous victory of Uruguay, one point to note, which we shall come back to, when we preview the Uruguay group, is the Uruguayan's rather agricultural approach to tacking.
Unfortunately for the viewers, the best player in the Costa Rican squad these days is their goalkeeper, Kaylor Navas who I feel is going to be a very busy man over the next few games.
To conclude, it should be Ze Shermans and Viva Espania, but we can hope the Japanese manage to pull off a surprise as they did at Pearl Harbour back in 1941 and catch one of the big powers with their pants down.
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