World Cup Preview

Last updated : 29 May 2002 By Stuart Gillespie

First of all, who's going to win the tournament? I reckon France will retain it, despite almost being held to a draw by South Korea, a result that would have made Scotland's 4-1 humping off of them not look too bad. Brazil will go far again, as long as they have recovered from defeat by the mighty Ecuador in the Copa America. Argentina, Italy, Portugal and Germany will all reach the quarter finals as well in my humble opinion, so you can all laugh at me when Japan or China reach the quarters.

Despite Scotland not being there, there are several teams I'm supporting. Despite the fact Roy Keane has had a small fracas with Mick McCarthy, I'll be supporting Ireland all the way. Pretty close to Scotland, great fans like Scotland has and they hate the English as much as we do, plus they aren't as smug and pompous as them down south. My only problem with them is the fact a lot of their fans also support Celtic, but apart from that I'm hoping they can at least qualify from the group stages.

I'll also be supporting Nigeria, Argentina and Sweden for one game each, the ones they play in the group stages against England. I'm not biased, I support whoever plays England, and now I'll explain why I actually want them to qualify from their group in second place. Should they do this (and it is quite possible as I hate saying it, but they do have good players) and should France qualify from their group as winners, which is possible as its Uruguay, Denmark and Senegal, then its France v England in the second round. How class would that be! The English, who think they can go all the way as normal, would be shut up as Henry, Zidane and co run amok through their defence. Scotland, Ireland and Wales will unite to cheer on France and to have a great laugh at our neighbours, who apparently won the world cup in 1966 although they hardly mention it.

My dark horses for the tournament are Uruguay, who have superb players like Recoba, and some of the Asian teams. I have already mentioned South Korea and, along with Japan, I think they can qualify from their groups. Japan are in arguably the weakest group of the tournament, with Belgium, Tunisia and Russia, whilst South Korea have to overcome Portugal, the USA and Poland. At least one of them should qualify, and I even think China will do well.

To end the preview with, I'll mention the number of England world cup songs. It's the biggest number I can remember and is probably more evidence of the fact the arrogant blokes think they can win the world cup. One of the songs is buy a group of page 3 girls so I'll finish on a question for you. Which has the bigger tits: the page 3 girls' song's video or the England squad? Answers on the forum please J