The most beautiful thing about the most important event (of any kind) of 2006 is that whilst so many think that Brazil are a shoo-in to win their 6th world cup, previous World Cups have produced shocks that a beyond human comprehension and prompt worldwide utter disbelief.
Who could forget Cameroon over Argentina in 1990, Senegal over France in 2002, USA over England in 1950? Or what about North Korea's miracle run in 1966 and South Korea's semi-final berth in 2002? What about the surprise packets of Croatia in 98 and Bulgaria in 94?
In all likelihood, there'll almost certainly be surprises on a similar scale in this year's tournament. Many of us are still struggling to come to terms with Greece's miraculous, but deserved, Euro 2004 win.
And it's good to see the Aussies there for the first time in 32 years. The group is tough but progression is a real possibility. We match up evenly with both Croatia and Japan, and both of these contests will be anyone's game, and it is not too ludicrous to rule out defeating Brazil. After all, anything can happen in the World Cup. We did so in th 2001 Confederations Cup, and whilst the Brazilian team was far from it's strongest, ours was missing numerous key players too. We are struggling with injuries however.
It's unfortunate for the Ivory Coast and Ghana to be drawn into the two hardest groups. Progression is possible, but unlikely for both African nations, who play enterprising and exciting football. Both teams are unlucky not to have reached the World Cup Finals before, as theyhave always been amongst Africa's strongest footballing nations.
Portugal, quite surprisingly, are a dark horse. They have a reasonably easy group (Mexico, Iran, former colony Angola), and some stars such as Maniche and Deco who are both as versatile as they are exciting to watch.
I've never really rated England at football, and along with Brazil, they are one of only two teams I would not want to win the World Cup. Australia (or at least the media), seems to be under some mediated impression that we should support England in football, even though it's ok to have a fierce rivalry with the Poms in cricket and rugby. England are nothing remarkable, and for the media to perpetuate the outdated colonial relationship between England is Australia is sadistic.
I don't want Brazil to win, and would love dearly to see them lose all 3 group games. Not so much that I have anything against the players or the nation in general, it's just if Brazil were to win the 06 World Cup, it would be their 6th, and create an illusion that they are somehow invincible and dominant. It would give them 3 more World Cup's than Italy and Germany, and it would be a statistical dominance that would be unhealthy for the beautiful game.
Should be a cracking tournament however, even if the luck of the draw threw up a few bland-ish and unfortunate groupings, and it will be hard for most of the world's population to tear themselves away from the most important world event since the 2002 world cup.
Go Aussies!
