Group A Capsules

We are now just 8 weeks away from kick off! I thought that with eight weeks left it would be a good time to start getting familiar with the teams that will be participating in this World Cup. So starting this week I will be focusing on one of the eight groups each week until kick-off.

This week we begin with Group A.

Let's take a look at how each team got here.

Top seed in this group is South Africa who qualified for the world cup by virtue of being the host. Good thing as they were ineffective in the CAF qualifying, failing to get out of the first group stage and will not be playing in the African Cup of Nations later this year. Before this year they had qualified for 2 world cups in 1998 and 2002 and were unable to get out of round one each time.

The Pot 2 (Asia, North America & Oceania) team in this Group is Mexico. Mexico has been in 13 world cups and has not failed to qualify since 1990 when they were banned from competition. Mexico had a hard time of qualifying as they came close to not getting out of the first group stage in CONCACAF qualifying finishing second to Honduras and beating out Jamaica by 3 on goal differential. In the final round they had less difficulty claiming the second spot but still finished only 3 points clear of Costa Rica who failed to qualify after a playoff with the 5th place CONMEBOL team Uruguay.

The Pot 3 (Africa & South America) team in this group is the aforementioned Uruguay. Uruguay has qualified for 11 World Cups and have lifted the trophy 2 times, one of which being the first ever World Cup in 1930. Uruguay finished 5th in CONMEBOL qualifying finishing one point ahead of Equador and Columbia. As the 5th placed team they participated in a playoff against Coasta Rica from the CONCACAF and won on aggregate 2-1.

The Pot 4 (Europe) team in this group is France. France has qualified for 13 World Cups and has one tournament victory in 1998 when they were the hosts. France is one of the teams whos qualification has been under scrutiny. After finishing second to Serbia in the group stage of the UEFA qualifying they were paired against Ireland in a two game matchup with the winner qualifying for the World Cup. After two regulations the score was tied at one all and they needed extra time to decide a winner. In the extra time, there was a goal scored by Thierry Henry after he setteled the ball with his hand. The referee failed to see the hand ball and allowed the goal which propelled France into the Cup.