The FIFA World Cup kicked off today, June 12th 2014, and its something all soccer fans have been waiting for since the last world cup ended back in 2010 and Spain were crowned world champs in South Africa. Some will say that it wasn’t the best way to start the world cup; others say Brazil won because of skills and fighting hard. The first goal was an own goal by Marcelo, Neymar scored two goals, one beautiful one out of the box and another one in a penalty call that wasn’t suppose to be given to Brazil. Oscar helped getting the lead a bit bigger by scoring the 3rd goal of the opening match, but enough with Brazil.
Since the World Cup has been inching a little bit closer, some talks were about the Mexico National team. They seem to be the underdog of their group who are Brazil, Croatia and Cameroon. Former champion and brazil player, Pele has them going to the semi-final, others have them getting knocked out of the group stage and others think they will be kicked out in the knockout stage round of 16 by either Spain or Netherlands. A lot of the players, along with Manchester United’s Chicharito, believe that Mexico can make history in this world cup and with the squad that Coach Miguel “El Piojo” Herrera, I have to agree with Chicharito. Mexico has a strong squad and out of the 23, 8 players currently play in Europe and 3 others have played in top clubs. So these players know what it is to play strong, tight in defense, and against the big boys.
Their history: Mexico had a tough road to the world cup. They only picked up two wins out of their ten matches in the final six-team group phase. They entered the world cup with a USA win over Panama. If it weren’t for the American team, Mexico wouldn’t have been here today. They faced New Zealand in the playoff match to beat team 9-3 in aggregate and qualify for their 15th time in all.
They played four warm up matches before the world cup in which we saw a strong Mexican team against Israel, Ecuador, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Portugal. They won 3-0 against Israel, 3-1 against Ecuador, their first loss under coach Herrera against Bosnia in a 1-0 defeat and lost against Portugal as well. Mexico looks strong, but will have to play tough against Cameroon, Croatia and Brazil to get those points and advance to the next round.
Cameroon on the other hand hasn’t been talked about a lot on the road to the World Cup. They faced Libya, Congo DR and Togo in their group stage. They also struggled to gain points but at the end gained 13 points to advance to the playoff round. They had a tough task against Tunisia with aplomb. They were scoreless on the road but won at home with an aggregate of 4-1. We will see Cameroon be led by Chelsea’s Samuel Eto’o and FC Barcelona’s Alex Song. They will also have the help of Galatasaray’s Aurelien Chedjou, Sevilla’s Stephane Mbia and Schalke’s Joël Matip. Cameroon faced Macedonia, Paraguay, Germany and Moldova to see them win two games, loss one and tie against Germany.
The Match between Mexico and Cameroon will be an interesting match to watch. Two teams who are underdogs, two teams that look strong, but one more than the other, two teams who dream of advancing pass the group stage and the round of 16, two teams who want to make history.
Predictions: Mexico’s starting lineup will be strong. Herrera announced that he would start Ajaccio’s Guillermo Ochoa as goalkeeper over Cruz Azul’s J.J. Corona. In the back he will have Maza Rodriguez, Rafa Marquez, Paul Aguilar, Hector Moreno and Miguel Layun. In the mid, he will start Andres Guardado, J.J. Vazquez, and Hector Herrera with Oribe Peralta and Giovani Dos Santos as forwards. He will start with a 5-3-2 lineup with Rafa Marquez helpoing in the middle.
Cameroon has strong players but only eleven will be able to debut for their national team. My predication on their starting lineup will be Loïc Feudjou as goalkeeper, Assou-Ekotto, Nicolas N,Koulou, Dany Nounkeu and Auerlien Chedjou in the back. In the mid Coach Finker will have Alex Song, Stephane Mbia, and Joel Matip with Samuel Eto’o Vincent Aboubakar, and Pierre Webo in the front. Score: Mexico will get a tough fight from Cameroon but will concede two goals and Cameroon will score 1.
The game will kick off tomorrow, June 13th, at 9AM PT in Rio de Jainero.
