Algeria
The Algerian national football team, also known as “Les Fennecs” (The Desert Foxes) secured there spot in this years World Cup by defeating fellow African rivals Egypt in a play-off final where they beat them in an tense and aggressive 1-0 win – Antar Yahia’s goal in the first half being enough to seal the win.
They were drawn to play Slovenia, United States and England in Group C. This will be the countries third appearance in the World Cup, the other two were in 1982 and 1986. Algeria’s only major came in the form of a African Nations Cup when they were hosts in 1990. Traditional home colours for Algeria are white and away colours green.
Key players for Algeria are centre back Madjid Bougherra who currently plays with Rangers, Nadir Belhadj – a pacey winger who is currently playing his trade in the Premiership with Portsmouth. And Antar Yahia who scored the winning goal that took Algeria to South Africa.
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Argentina
Argentina are one of the worlds most successful teams, winning 19 international titles – a record shared with Uruguay. They have won 2 World Cup’s, 14 Copa América’s, 2 Olympic Titles and 1 Confederation Cup. In the FIFA World Rankings they are currently 8th despite their lack of form in recent years. Along with France, Argentina are one of the only teams to have won all 3 significant competitions owned by FIFA – the Confederation’s Cup, the Olympic tournament and of course, the World Cup. The club colours of Argentina have always been traditionally light blue and white horizontal stripes.
Leading Argentina into the World Cup is the countries most famous footballer ever, Diego Maradona. He is seen as one of the greatest players ever to walk the earth and it is considered that he single handedly won Argentina that famous World Cup victory in 1986 with his fantastic performances.
Argentina’s key man for this years World Cup is most definitely Lionel Messi, whom is widely thought by many to be the best footballer in the world today. However even though Messi has delivered consistently outstanding performances for Barcelona he has yet to find this sort of form for country. Another important player for them will be newly appointed captain Javier Mascherano.
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Australia
The Australian’s, also known by many as the “Socceroos”, have been Oceania Football Confederation champions 4 times and are currently 21st in the FIFA World Rankings (the highest they’ve ever been is 14th).
This years World Cup will be the Socceroos 3rd time at the event after they convincingly came top of their group in the qualification stages and in impressive style too – not losing one match and only conceding the one goal.
Everton player Tim Cahill will undoubtedly be pivotal for Australia’s World Cup hopes this year as the midfielder has managed a superb goal record for his country – his main attributes being his positional sense and great heading ability. As well as attack they have a good defensive as well, notably players such as Lucas Neill and Mark Schwarzer who helped contribute to successive 7 clean sheets in a row in the qualifiers.
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Brazil
The Brazilians have without a doubt had the most success since the formation of the World Cup, after winning 5 of them in total. The most recent one being in 2002 where Ronaldo scored a brace to beat the Germans 2-0. They are currently ranked 2nd in the FIFA World Rankings behind Spain.
Brazil are also the only team to have played in every single World Cup tournament there has been. The current kit for Brazil has been that golden yellow shirt with green trim, blue shorts and white socks.
For this years World Cup, Brazil have a huge amount of talent to pick from – for all the attacking talent in the world one of the key players weirdly enough is the man in between the sticks and that is Julio Cesar. Due to the Brazilians not so great defence in front of him it is essential that he is on top form. The other two influential players are attacking midfielder Kaka and Luis Fabiano, both proving that in the Confederation’s Cup they can be a lethal partnership.
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Cameroon
The national football team of Cameroon, also known as “the Indomitable Lions” is Africa’s most successful team. They have been to the World Cup more times than there fellow African counterparts – 6 times in total, and the furthest they got to was the quarter-finals in 1990 after losing to England 3-2.
Other honours include winning the African Cup of Nations 4 times and winning a gold medal at the Summer Olympics in 2000. The kit colours for Cameroon are green, red and yellow; the same colours as the countries flag.
Inter Milan striker Samuel Eto’o is the most high profile player for Cameroon and will probably be the main man up front being the countries top goalscorer of all time with 43 goals in total. He has been African Football Player of the Year 3 times – a record he shares with George Weah and Abedi Pele.
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Chile
Chile have made 7 appearances in the World Cup so far and the furthest they have got was finishing
3rd place in 1962, after beating Yugoslavia 1-0 in the 3rd place play-off – they went out to eventual winners of the cup Brazil when they lost 4-2 in the semi-finals. They are currently ranked 15th in the FIFA Rankings. Chile’s kit consists of a red shirt, navy blue shorts and white socks; with the away kit being all an all white strip.
They return to the World Cup after a 12 year absence from the competition; their last involvement in the competition was France 1998 where they once again, went out to Brazil in the last 16. Interestingly, the Chileans managed to qualifier from there group to the last 16 without even winning a game; drawing all 3 of the games against Austria, Italy and Cameroon.
Chile are a team that very much like to stay organised and compact at the back whilst letting their attacking players go forward when ever there is a chance. These attacking players are Alexis Sanchez, Humberto Suazo and Matias Fernandez who liked to combine as a 3 pronged attack. These three players were extremely effective when they once played together for Chilean club Colo Colo – and look to do the same for country in the World Cup.
Chile World Cup Kits available from these online stores. Kitbag, Subside Sports and UK Soccer Shop.
Denmark
Denmark will be returning to this years World Cup after a 6 year absence from a major international tournament after coming 1st in their qualification group – beating the likes of Sweden and Portugal on the way. Their home kit is currently red shirts, white shorts and red socks; whilst their away kit is white shirts, red shorts and white socks.
Apart from the last 6 years, the Danish have been consistently competing in these tournaments since the mid 80’s and even won the European Championship in 1992 seeing off Netherlands and Germany on the way. They also won the Confederations Cup in 1995 after beating Argentina 2-0.
Even though it seems Denmark don’t have a massive big name player in the ranks they still have a lot of quality in their team – footballers playing for big clubs all over Europe. For instance they have a quality centre back in Daniel Agger and skillful striker Nicklas Bendtner, both who play in the Premier League.
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England
England return to this years World Cup more hungry than ever after their shocking absence from the 2008 European Championships. They are one of only seven international teams to have won a World Cup. They did this when they hosted the World Cup in 1966, by beating West Germany 4-2 after a hatrick from Geoff Hurst. This year they are wearing a new retro-inspired all white kit instead of the traditional kit with navy blue shorts.
Ever since their historic World Cup victory, the closest they have come to winning it again has been when they reached the semi-finals under Bobby Robson in 1990 – losing to West Germany on penalties (Pearce and Waddle missing their penalties). England also reached the semi-finals when they hosted the European Championship in 1996, but also missed out on penalties against Germany. They are still ever present though in the FIFA World Rankings, rarely ever falling out of the top 10 spots.
One of the key players for England this year will undoubtedly be Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney, who will probably be looking to get rid of some demons after his red card against Portugal in the last major championship they were in. Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard will also be looking to finally click as a unit after both players started to score goals regularly during the qualifying.
England World Cup Kits available from these online stores. Kitbag, Subside Sports and UK Soccer Shop.
France
France are one of the seven football teams to have won the World Cup, and they were also only one of a select few European sides that took part in the inaugural World Cup that took place 1930. They won the first and only World Cup when they hosted it in 1998, after they beat Brazil in the final 3-0 courtesy of a Zinedine Zidane brace and a late goal from Emmanuel Petit.
Some other honours that France have achieved is 2 European Championships – the first one which was won in 1984 and the other being quite recent in 2000, when Trezeguet scored golden goal against the Italians. A year later after the European triumph they went onto win the Confederations Cup, which meant they became one of the two teams to have won the three most significant trophies ran by FIFA.
Since Zinedine Zidane, Fabien Barthez, Claude Makelele and Lilian Thuram all called time on their international careers in 2006, a new selection of senior figures has stepped forward. Thierry Henry is the only player left from the 1998 winning squad and has gained the captaincy whilst Arsenal captain,William Gallas, is the main defender at the back. New players such as Franck Ribery and Karem Benzema will look to show the world what they can do on the biggest stage of them all.
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Germany
Germany are the third most successful team in all international competitions, winning 6 trophies in total – 3 European Championships and 3 World Cups. They have also participated in numerous finals and 3rd play-off finals. The most recent international trophy they have won is the European Cup in 1996 after they beat Czech Republic 2-1 after Oliver Bierhoff scored a golden goal in extra-time.
Germany have high expectations this year, with the team always being there or thereabouts when the tournament is reaching the closing stages. Joachim Low will be targeting to bring their fourth World Cup back to Germany – 20 years since their last one. It won’t be easy, however as they were drawn with quite a tough group consisting of themselves, Australia, Ghana and Serbia & Montenegro.
Germany’s key man for this years World Cup is most likely to be inspirational captain, Michael Ballack. He has played 97 games for his country and looks likely to surpass the 100 mark when the World Cup finishes. This will in all likeliness be Ballacks last chance to win a major honour for his country after missing out on the World Cup in 2002 and the European Cup in 2008. Klose will also be important to the Germans – with a record of 48 goals in 93 games, he is one of Germany’s top goalscorers.
Germany World Cup Kits available from these online stores. Kitbag, Subside Sports and UK Soccer Shop.
Ghana
Ghana, also known as the “Black Stars”, will be taking part in their 2nd ever FIFA World Cup this year after having a relatively successful one on in 2006 – where they managed to qualify through to the knock-out stages in a tough group. However they eventually got knocked out by World Cup giants, Brazil. This year they are competing in a tricky group too, with the likes of Germany, Australia and Serbia Montenegro.
Even though the 2006 World Cup was its first to take part in the Black Stars have won the African Cup of Nations 4 times; the most recent being in 1982 when they beat hosts Libya on penalties. They are the second most successful team in the African Cup of Nations, just behind Egypt with a total of 6 times. Both of these teams will actually meet in this years African Cup of Nations final.
Ghana’s main man for this years World Cup is Chelsea midfielder, Michael Essien. He is without doubt one of the top midfielders in the Premiership and will try to strike up a strong partnership with captain Stephen Appiah in the middle of the park – with Inter Milan midfielder, Sulley Muntari playing just in front of the other two.
Ghana World Cup Kits available from these online stores. Kitbag, Subside Sports and UK Soccer Shop.
Greece
Greece haven’t really been involved in the International tournament circuit, with this years World Cup being only the 2nd time they have been entered. Also, Greece have only competed 3 times in the European Cup. However, it was in 2004 where Greece shocked the world when the beat Portugal in the final 1-0 with a Angelos Charisteas header – thus winning the European Cup.
Argentina, South Korea and Nigeria are their opponents in Group B, and will be aiming to at least get to the knock out stages. Greece’s qualifying campaign for the World Cup was a very tight battle between themselves, Switzerland, Latvia and Israel. They managed to get second place though earning them a play-off match against Group 6 runners-up, Ukraine. They won the game 1-0 on aggregate over the two legs.
Theofanis Gekas will be a key man for the Greeks this year as they relied heavily on his his attacking prowess, netting 10 goals during the qualifying stages (the top goalscorer out of the European teams). They also have experienced players all over the pitch which includes veteran centre back Sotirios Kyrgiakos, who played the most minutes out of everyone in the national team during the qualifying stages.
Greece World Cup Kits available from these online stores. Kitbag, Subside Sports and UK Soccer Shop.