Group F
Brazil
Australia
Croatia
Japan

 

Brazil
The reigning champions and five time winners, Brazil is the strong favorite to win the World Cup again. Ronaldinho is the best player in the world, and he is surrounded by world class talent. Brazil won their qualifying group, but only kept six clean sheets in 18 matches. That wasn't a problem as they usually outscored their opponents, but it gives the other countries a glimmer of hope. But just a glimmer when considering Brazil's attack force featuring Ronaldo, Adriano, Ronaldinho, Kaka, and Robinho coming off the bench.

 

Probable Starting 11: Dida, Cafu, Lucio, Roque Junior, Roberto Carlos, Emerson, Ze Roberto, Kaka, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Adriano

 

Formation: 4-2-2-2

 

Key Player: Ronaldinho
Coach: Carlos Alberto Parreira

 

Australia
Australia finished first in their group, which would have qualified them for the finals unitl FIFA changed the rules and made them play a South American team in a playoff. Justice was served as Australia beat Uruguay on penalty kicks to reach Germany 2006. The Aussie's feature several Premiership players on their squad (Viduka, Cahill, Kewell, Neill, Schwarzer), and I think they will edge out Croatia for second place.

 

Probable Starting 11: Mark Schwarzer, Lucas Neill, Craig Moore, Tony Popovic, Vince Grella, Scott Chipperfield, Jason Cullina, Marco Bresciano, Harry Kewell, Tim Cahill, Mark Viduka

 

Formation: 3-5-2

 

Key Player: Mark Viduka
Coach: Guus Hiddink

 

Croatia
Croatia won their qualifying group, twice defeating Sweden, to qualify for their third consecutive World Cup finals. Croatia made it to the semi-finals in their first appearance in 1998. The Croatia coach, Zlatko Kranjcar is the father of their play maker Niko Kranjcar. I expect the father-son combination to just barely lose out to Australia for second place in the group.

 

Probable Starting 11: Tomislav Butina, Josip Simunic, Robert Kovac, Stjepan Tomas, Niko Kovac, Igor Tudor, Darijo Srna, Marko Babic, Niko Kranjcar, Dado Prso, Ivan Klasnic

 

Formation: 3-4-1-2

 

Key Player: Ivan Klasnic
Coach: Zlatko Kranjcar

 

Japan
Japan finished first in their qualifying group to reach the World Cup finals. They made it to the second round in 2002, but that will be more difficult this year. If they were in another group, Japan may have been favored to advance, but there isn't a bad team in Group F. Japan will be competitive, but I think Australia and Croatia are just a bit better.

 

Probable Starting 11: Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi, Akira Kaji, Tsuneyasu Miyamoto, Yuji Nakazawa, Alex, Takashi Fukunushi, Hidetoshi Nakata, Mitsuo Ogasawara, Shunsuke Nakamura, Tatsuhiko Kubo, Naohiro Takahara

 

Formation: 4-4-2

 

Key Player: Shunsuke Nakamura
Coach: Zico