South Africa – Mexico and Uruguay – France line up

World Cup: the day has come. In few hours millions of people will watch on tv the first two matches of the World Cup 2010. South Africa, the host country, will play vs. Mexico. Later we will finally see if France vs. Uruguay will tell us if the European Country is a candidate for the victory.

South Africa vs. Mexico: the first match is more interesting than expected. On the one hand Mexico seems to be a really well prepared team. They had a good pre-World Cup and they won versus Italy. On the other hand won’t be easy to beat South Africa in their country. Do you remember the Rugby World Cup in 1995? South Africa defeated New Zealand. Hence we can expect that the spectators today in Johannesburg will be the 12th man on the field.

The LINE-UP

SOUTH AFRICA (4-2-3-1): Khune, Thwala, Mokoena, Khumalo, Gaxa, Dikgacoi, Letsholonya, Tshabalala, Modise, Pienaar, Mphela.

MEXICO (4-4-2): Pérez, Juàrez, Màrquez, Magallòn, Salcido, Dos Santos, Castro, Torrado, Guardado, Blanco, Hernàndez.

France vs. Uruguay: the great enigma of this year is “Can France win the world cup?”. After the pre-World Cup match vs. China several experts said no. The France of Domenech is not in good shape, but it has a lot of stars as Malouda and Ribèry that can change the result of a match. The opponent, Uruguay, is a good team, with a good perspective young players (and a great goalkeeper, Muslera), but probably not as good as needed to win pass the stage group.

The LINE-UP

FRANCE (4-2-3-1): Loris, Sagna, Gallas, Abidal, Evra, Toulalan, Diarra, Ribèry, Gourcuff, Malouda, Anelka.

URUGUAY (4-4-2): Muslera, Pereira, Godìn, Lugano, Victorino, Gonzàlez, Pereira, Arevàlo, Pérez, Forlàn, Suarez.