First Team To
Advance: Italy
Second Team To
Advance: Uruguay
Teams Heading Home:
England, Costa Rica
This group is so enthralling because it has three teams,
Italy, Uruguay, and England, who all have ambitious World Cup aspirations to go
along with extremely talented rosters. Uruguay’s team sheet probably takes the
cake in terms of star players, with a duo of Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez up
top (plus, don’t forget about Diego Forlan) that is probably one of the best striker
tandems in the world. However, despite all the stars on their roster, Uruguay
never seem to come together as a team as well as they should, while chemistry
is one of Italy’s strongest attributes. Italy also have the veteran experience
of stars like Andrea Pirlo, Daniele De Rossi, and Giorgio Chiellini, to go
along with one of the best back lines in the world and a striker, Mario
Balotelli, who, when in form, can be one of the most electrifying forwards in
the world. Thus, I see Italy taking first in the group and the competition for
second place likely being between England and Uruguay. England has a fantastic
mix of veterans and youth, as well as a perfect balance of composure and pace,
but I just don’t see them having quite enough talent to overcome Uruguay,
especially with the recent injury to budding star Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Costa Rica certainly did well to make it out of CONCACAF and qualify for the
world cup, but it would be something of a miracle to see them take even a
single point from this very difficult group. My prediction for the leading
scorer of the group is Italy’s Mario Balotelli, while I see Italy’s Andrea
Pirlo taking home the title for most assists.
