First Team To
Advance: France
Second Team To
Advance: Switzerland
Teams Heading Home:
Ecuador, Honduras
Many people are disregarding this group as a boring group
with fairly poor talent, but I’m actually really excited for it. Though
Honduras isn’t likely to make any noise and France seems to have a bit of a
free pass into the second round, I think the race for second is absolutely
fantastic. Switzerland have a team full of young and exciting players, while
Ecuador have the one and only Antonio Valencia (and a number of other Valencia’s
too). The Swiss are a remarkably rounded team, with a back line commanded by
Fabian Schar, a solid midfield under the eye of Gokhan Inler, and a pacey group
of forwards lead by Xherdan Shaqiri. Meanwhile, Ecuador are pretty much as far
from balanced as you can be, as they have a poor group of strikers and
defenders but their midfield performs quite admirably. The shining star of
Ecuador’s midfield has to be Manchester United’s Antonio Valencia, who plays
like a stale loaf of bread for Manchester United, while he looks like Pele when
playing for Ecuador, easily gliding past players on the wing and sending in
beautiful crosses, which are usually put woefully into the stands by Ecuador’s strikers.
In the end, I expect Switzerland to win over Ecuador, but there’s no doubt in
my mind that the games will be exciting. My prediction for the leading goal
scorer is France’s Antoine Griezmann, who wasn’t even set to start for France
until Franc Ribery injured himself, while I predict Gokhan Inler will lead the
group in assists.
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