World Cup : Part 2. by alex

World Cup 2010 : Who will actually win?

  So far,  this World Cup has sprung out  many surprises up to date. Favorites such as Brazil, England, Argentina and Portugal have all been kicked out in the knock out stage leaving only four teams left standing. The four team being featured in the semi finals this edition are Uruguay, Netherlands, Germany and Spain. I would break the teams up based on their current strengths and weaknesses to predict who will come away with the cup.

  The first semi final would feature Uruguay against Netherlands and my verdict is for Netherlands to qualify for the final. They have the quality in depths and have two reliable players to depend on with the likes of Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben. In their previous clash with Brazil in the quaters, the two tormented with the Brazilians defense and helped their team in achieving a rare victory over the five time champions. Uruguay on the other hand, were quite fortunate to made it this far. They have yet to face a powerhouse in the knock out stage and the Netherlands game will be a huge task for them. In their previous clash in the quaters, I felt that Ghana were cheated as they were on their way to victory as an injury time goal was destined to be at the back of the net but denied by the hand of Luis Suarez. Thus, I wont see any problem for Netherlands to go all the way to the final.

  As for the other semi final, we would have a cracking match ahead of us with the likes of Germany taking on Spain. Both team are equally balanced in strength, depth and skills. It would be hard to predict who will win this tie but my instinct Spain will make it through. Germany have worked their way up well to reached this far with a young team averaging 25 years old. They might have done well against England and Argentina but Spain holds the upper edge against them with a win to claim their Euro 2008 title. Both side has quality midfielders and I see that area is a deciding factor in whoever will win. Experience does count in big matches and I see this as the truning point for Spain to pull through as Germany clearly would miss the influence of captain Michael Ballack.



  Personally my bet is on Netherlands and Spain being in the final and Spain edging Netherlands out to win the coveted trophy. But this World Cup has already been full of surprises and we might see even more before we even get to the final. Who knows even Uruguay might even the World Cup by pure luck as they did in their previous rounds? Jokes aside, we will have to stay tune until the final chapter of the World Cup to reveal the true winner.

Stay tune with Alex for the final episode and analysis of the whole World Cup series.