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Cape Town - Sport24's Wade Pretorius previews Group C at the 2014 Soccer World Cup and predicts success for the Ivory Coast.
Sometimes I just don’t get the FIFA rankings. How are Colombia the 5th best team in the world? On these rankings Greece are better than the Netherlands, England and France. Bizarre. I’m backing Africa’s best bet, Ivory Coast, to progress from this very strong group. They will be motivated to get past the group phase for the first time in their history and this time they have the squad to do so. Come on you Elephants!
FIFA rankings:
Colombia: 5th
Greece: 10th
Ivory Coast: 21st
Japan: 47th
Players to watch:
Adrian Ramos, Jackson Martinez (both Colombia), Giorgos Samaras (Greece), Shinji Kagawa (Japan), Yaya Toure and Didier Drogba (both Ivory Coast).
Two to go through:
Ivory Coast, Colombia
Team to create a stir:
Greece. They are ranked 10th in the World don’t you know!? Greece deserve respect, they won the European Championships out of nowhere in 2004 and are looking to sneak into the Round of 16 for the first time in their history.
Match not to be missed:
Japan v Ivory Coast – Every match in this group will be closely fought. Japan hold the key to success to progression, beat them and you have a much better chance of progressing to the knock out rounds of the tournament. Japan should not be underestimated; they have a well organised side including Shinji Kagawa and may just pounce on any mistakes. The Elephants will need to bring their A-game to win this one.
Don’t forget to join our Superbru pool for the 2014 SWC and test yourself against the Sport24 team.
Do you agree that this is the Ivory Coast’s year? Have your say in the comments section on you think will be progressing from Group C.
Click here for our Group A and Group B previews.
Follow Sport24's Wade Pretorius on twitter: @wadepretorius
