Confederations Cup - 15/29th June - Live c5

[kompressaur]

[Beanie]

All odds from Bet365 and correct at time of posting: 33/1

:yikes

I fancy getting right into this competition this week(instead of finding myself a job ), so I'll have a long look and post some previews up Monday/Tuesday.

[Kiko]

I fancy it aswell. Germany and Argentina are my fancies. All going to come down to which squads have been picked so will need to get them up. I know Brazil have left out Ronaldo, which could in truth work out better for them.

[runtcrab]

Like the look of the Argies - didnt they beat Brazil 3-1 last week in the World Cup Qualifiers?

[Kiko]

Originally Posted by runtcrab

Like the look of the Argies - didnt they beat Brazil 3-1 last week in the World Cup Qualifiers?

Played them off the park - the difference between the teams is, yeah they both have exceptional players - but Argentinas players are all in great form at the minute in Riquelme, Crespo etc. Whereas Brazils players like Kaka, Cafu have been quite poor towards the end of the season.

[Beanie]

Squads:

Argentina

Goalkeepers: Leonardo Franco (Atletico Madrid/ESP), Wilfredo Caballero (Elche/ESP), German Lux (River Plate)

Defenders: Walter Samuel (Real Madrid/ESP), Javier Zanetti (Inter Milan/ITA), Gabriel Heinze (Manchester United/ENG), Gonzalo Rodriguez (Villarreal/ESP), Gabriel Milito (Real Zaragoza/ESP), Diego Placente (Bayern Leverkusen/GER), Fabricio Coloccini (Deportivo Coruna/ESP), Martin Demichelis (Bayern Munich/GER)

Midfielders: Juan Pablo Sorin (Villarreal/ESP), Esteban Cambiasso (Inter Milan/ITA), Juan Roman Riquelme (Villarreal/ESP), Pablo Aimar (Valencia/ESP), Lucas Bernardi (Monaco/FRA)

Forwards: Carlos Tevez (Corinthians/BRA), Javier Saviola (Monaco/FRA), Cesar Delgado (Cruz Azul/MEX), Mario Santana (Palermo/ITA), Maximiliano Rodriguez (Espanyol/ESP), Luciano Figueroa (Villarreal/ESP), Luciano Galletti (Real Zaragoza/ESP)

Coach: Jose Nestor Pekerman

Australia

Goalkeepers: Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough/ENG), Zeljko Kalac (Perugia/ITA), Michael Petkovic (Trabzonspor/TUR)

Defenders: Kevin Muscat (Melbourne Victory), Lucas Neill (Blackburn Rovers/ENG), Tony Popovic (Crystal Palace/ENG), Ljubo Milicevic (FC Thun/SUI), Craig Moore (uncontracted), Tony Vidmar (Cardiff City/WAL), Simon Colosimo (Perth Glory), Jon McKain (National Bucuresti/ROM)
Midfielders: Tim Cahill (Everton/ENG), Scott Chipperfield (Basel/SUI), Ahmad Elrich (Busan I'Cons/KOR), Brett Emerton (Blackburn Rovers/ENG), Jason Culina (Twente Enschede/NED), Josip Skoko (Genclerbirligi/TUR), Luke Wilkshire (Bristol City/ENG)

Forwards: Mark Viduka (Middlesbrough/ENG), Mile Sterjovski (Basel/SUI), John Aloisi (Osasuna/ESP), Archie Thompson (Melbourne Victory), David Zdrilic (Sydney FC)

Coach: Frank Farina

Brazil

Goalkeepers: Dida (AC Milan/ITA), Marcos (Palmeiras), Gomes (PSV Eindhoven/NED)

Defenders: Cicinho (Sao Paulo), Belletti (Barcelona/ESP), Leo (Santos), Gilberto (Hertha Berlin/GER), Roque Junior (Bayer Leverkusen/GER), Juan (Bayer Leverkusen/GER), Lucio (Bayern Munich/GER), Luisao (Benfica/POR)

Midfielders: Emerson (Juventus/ITA), Juninho Pernambucano (Lyon/FRA), Ze Roberto (Bayern Munich/GER), Gilberto Silva (Arsenal/ENG), Alex (Fenerbahce/TUR), Renato (Seville/ESP), Kaka (AC Milan/ITA), Ronaldinho (Barcelona/ESP)

Forwards: Ronaldo (Real Madrid/ESP), Adriano (Inter Milan/ITA), Ricardo Oliveira (Real Betis/ESP), Robinho (Santos)

Coach: Carlos Alberto Parreira

Germany

Goalkeepers: Oliver Kahn (Bayern Munich), Timo Hildebrand (VfB Stuttgart), Jens Lehmann (Arsenal/ENG)

Defenders: Arne Friedrich (Hertha Berlin), Andreas Hinkel (VfB Stuttgart), Robert Huth (Chelsea/ENG), Per Mertesacker (Hannover), Patrick Owomoyela (Arminia Bielefeld), Christian Schulz (Werder Bremen)

Midfielders: Michael Ballack (Bayern Munich), Tim Borowski (Werder Bremen), Sebastian Deisler (Bayern Munich), Fabian Ernst (Werder Bremen), Torsten Frings (Bayern Munich), Thomas Hitzlsperger (Aston Villa/ENG), Bernd Schneider (Bayer Leverkusen), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Bayern Munich), Marco Engelhardt (Kaiserslautern)

Forwards: Gerald Asamoah (Schalke 04), Mike Hanke (Schalke 04), Kevin Kuranyi (VfB Stuttgart), Lukas Podolski (FC Cologne), Thomas Brdaric (VfL Wolfsburg)

Coach: Jurgen Klinsmann

Greece

Goalkeepers: Antonis Nikopolidis (Olympiakos), Costas Halkias (Portsmouth/ENG)

Defenders: Michalis Kapsis (Bordeaux/FRA), Yiannis Goumas (Panathinaikos), Giorgos Seitaridis (Porto/POR), Panayiotis Fissas (Benfica/POR), Sotiris Kyrgiakos (Rangers/SCO), Stathis Tavlaridis (Lille/FRA), Lukas Vyntra (Panathinaikos)

Midfielders: Pantelis Kafes (Olympiakos), Stelios Giannakopoulos (Bolton/ENG), Thodoros Zagorakis (Bologna/ITA), Vasilis Tsiartas (Cologne/GER), Vasilis Lakis (Crystal Palace/ENG), Costas Katsouranis (AEK), Giorgos Karagounis (Inter Milan/ITA), Angelos Basinas (Panathinaikos), Ioannis Amanatidis (Kaiserslautern/GER)

Forwards: Zisis Vrizas (Celta/ESP), Angelos Charisteas (Ajax/NED), Dimitris Papadopoulos, Fanis Gekas (both Panathinaikos)

Coach: Otto Rehhagel

Japan

Goalkeepers: Yoichi Doi (FC Tokyo), Seigo Narazaki (Nagoya Grampus Eight), Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi (Jubilo Iwata)

Defenders: Atsuhiro Miura (Vissel Kobe), Makoto Tanaka (Iwata), Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (Gamba Osaka), Alessandro Santos (Urawa Red Diamonds), Yuji Nakazawa (Yokohama Marinos), Keisuke Tsuboi (Urawa), Akira Kaji (Tokyo)

Midfielders: Takashi Fukunishi (Iwata), Mitsuo Ogasawara (Kashima Antlers), Masashi Motoyama (Kashima), Junichi Inamoto (West Brom/ENG), Shinji Ono (Feyenoord/NED), Yasuhito Endo (Osaka)

Forwards: Takayuki Suzuki (Kashima), Naohiro Takahara (Hamburg/GER), Keiji Tamada (Kashiwa Reysol), Masashi Oguro (Osaka)

Coach: Zico

Mexico

Goalkeepers: Oswaldo Sanchez (Guadalajara), Jose de Jesus Corona (UAG), Moises Munoz (Morelia)

Defenders: Jose Salvador Carmona (Cruz Azul), Mario Mendez (Toluca), Aaron Galindo (Cruz Azul), Ricardo Osorio (Cruz Azul), Hugo Sanchez Guerrero (Tigres), Carlos Salcido (Guadalajara), Rafael Marquez (Barcelona/ESP), Gonzalo Pineda (UNAM)

Midfielders: Jaime Lozano (UNAM), Antonio Naelson 'Sinha' (Toluca), Gerardo Torrado (Santander/ESP), Juan Pablo Rodriguez (UAG), Luis Ernesto Perez (Monterrey), Ramon Morales (Guadalajara), Pavel Pardo (America)

Forwards: Omar Bravo (Guadalajara), Jose Francisco 'Kikin' Fonseca (Cruz Azul), Jared Borgetti (Pachuca), Alberto Medina (Guadalajara), Rafael Marquez Lugo (Morelia)

Coach: Ricardo Antonio La Volpe

Tunisia

Goalkeepers: Ali Bouminjel (C. Afrain), Hamdi Kasraoui (Esperence S.T), Khaled Fadhel (Diyarbakispor/TUR)

Defenders: Alaeddine Yahia (Saint Etienne/FRA), Wissem Abdi (C.S Sfaxien), Hatem Trabelsi (Ajax/NED), Radhi Jaidi (Bolton Wanderers/ENG), Anis Ayari (Samsunspor/TUR), Jose Clayton (Esperance S.T), Amir Haj Massaoud (C.S Sfaxien)

Midfielders: Mehdi Nafti (Birmingham City/ENG), Adel Chadli (Istres/FRA), Slim Ben Achour (Paris Saint Germain/FRA), Kaies Ghodhbane (Samsunspor/TUR)), Jawhar Mnari (L'Esperance Tunis), Hamed Namouchi (Rangers/SCO), Karim Essediri (FC Tromso/NOR)

Forwards: Ziad Jaziri (Gatzonspor/TUR), Imed Mhadhebi (E.S du Sahel), Haykel Guemamdia (C.S Sfaxien), Silva dos Santos (FC Sochaux/FRA), Chouki Ben Saada (Bastia/FRA), Issam Jomaa (L'Esperance Tunis)

Coach: Roger Lemerre

[Beanie]

Need to do some background work on a few of those squads to find out just how strong they are, but Mexico could be fancied to progress having avoided being drawn against Argentina or Germany.

[Kiko]

How up to date are them squads? As Ronaldo got left out of the World Cup Qualifiers as he refused to play in the Confed cup but his name is listed?

[Beanie]

From an article posted up on the 10th of June, but as you say, there are inaccuracies in them.

Better to use the official site I think...I'll edit my earlier post.

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/c/

[Beanie]

Hmmm...can't seem to edit it, nor even edit the one where I said I'd edit the first one. :think

Here we go then...

Brazil

1 DIDA (GK)
2 BELLETTI
3 LUCIO
4 ROQUE JUNIOR
5 EMERSON
6 GILBERTO
7 ROBINHO
8 KAKA
9 ADRIANO
10 RONALDINHO
11 ZE ROBERTO
12 MARCOS (GK)
13 CICINHO
14 JUAN
15 LUISAO
16 LEO
17 GILBERTO SILVA
18 JUNINHO PERNAMBUCANO
19 RENATO
20 JULIO BAPTISTA
21 RICARDO OLIVEIRA
22 EDU
23 GOMES (GK)

Greece

1 NIKOPOLIDIS Antonios (GK)
2 SEITARIDIS Giourkas
3 VYNTRA Loukas
4 TAVLARIDIS Efstathios
5 KYRGIAKOS Sotirios
6 BASINAS Angelos
7 ZAGORAKIS Theo
8 GIANNAKOPOULOS Stylianos
9 CHARISTEAS Angelos
10 TSIARTAS Vassilios
11 PAPADOPOULOS Dimitrios
12 CHALKIAS Konstantinos (GK)
13 SIFAKIS Michail (GK)
14 FYSSAS Panagiotis
15 VRYZAS Zisis
16 KAFES Pantelis
17 AMANATIDIS Ioannis
18 GOUMAS Ioannis
19 KAPSIS Mihalis
20 KARAGOUNIS Georgios
21 KATSOURANIS Konstantinos
22 GEKAS Theofanis
23 LAKIS Vassilios

Mexico

1 SANCHEZ Oswaldo (GK)
2 GALINDO Aaron
3 SALCIDO Carlos
4 MARQUEZ Rafael
5 OSORIO Ricardo
6 TORRADO Gerardo
7 ZINHA
8 PARDO Pavel
9 BORGETTI Jared
10 BRAVO Omar
11 MORALES Ramon
12 MUNOZ Moises (GK)
13 MARQUEZ LUGO Rafael
14 PINEDA Gonzalo
15 SANCHEZ Hugo
16 MENDEZ Mario
17 FONSECA Jose
18 CARMONA Salvador
19 MEDINA Alberto
20 RODRIGUEZ Juan Pablo
21 LOZANO Jaime
22 PEREZ Luis
23 CORONA Jose (GK)

Japan

1 NARAZAKI Seigo (GK)
2 TANAKA Makoto
3 CHANO Takayuki
4 ENDO Yasuhito
5 MIYAMOTO Tsuneyasu
6 NAKATA Koji
7 NAKATA Hidetoshi
8 OGASAWARA Mitsuo
9 TAMADA Keiji
10 NAKAMURA Shunsuke
11 SUZUKI Takayuki
12 DOI Yoichi (GK)
13 YANAGISAWA Atsushi
14 SANTOS Alessandro
15 FUKUNISHI Takashi
16 OGURO Masashi
17 MIURA Atsuhiro
18 INAMOTO Junichi
19 MOTOYAMA Masashi
20 TSUBOI Keisuke
21 KAJI Akira
22 MONIWA Teruyuki
22 NAKAZAWA Yuji
23 KAWAGUCHI Yoshikatsu (GK)

-----------

Argentina

1 FRANCO Leonardo (GK)
2 SAMUEL Walter
3 SORIN Juan
4 ZANETTI Javier
5 CAMBIASSO Esteban
6 HEINZE Gabriel
7 TEVEZ Carlos
8 RIQUELME Juan
9 SAVIOLA Javier
10 AIMAR Pablo
11 DELGADO Cesar
12 LUX German (GK)
13 RODRIGUEZ Gonzalo
14 MILITO Gabriel
15 PLACENTE Diego
16 COLOCCINI Fabricio
17 BERNARDI Lucas
18 SANTANA Mario
19 RODRIGUEZ Maximiliano
20 DEMICHELIS Martin
21 FIGUEROA Luciano
22 GALLETTI Luciano
23 CABALLERO Wilfredo (GK)

Tunisia

1 BOUMNIJEL Ali (GK)
2 SAIDI Karim
3 ESSEDIRI Karim
4 ABDI Wissem
5 JAZIRI Ziad
6 TRABELSI Hatem
7 MHADHEBI Imed
8 NAFTI Mehdi
9 GUEMAMDIA Haykel
10 GHODHBANE Kaies
11 SANTOS
12 MNARI Jawhar
13 NAMOUCHI Hamed
14 CHADLI Adel
15 JAIDI Radhi
16 FADHEL Khaled (GK)
17 BEN SAADA Chouki
18 BENACHOUR Slim
19 AYARI Anis
20 CLAYTON
21 JOMAA Issam
22 KASRAOUI Hamdi (GK)
23 HAJ MASSAOUD Amir

Australia

1 SCHWARZER Mark (GK)
2 MUSCAT Kevin
3 MOORE Craig
4 NEILL Lucas
5 VIDMAR Tony
6 POPOVIC Tony
7 EMERTON Brett
8 SKOKO Josip
9 VIDUKA Mark
10 CAHILL Tim
11 CHIPPERFIELD Scott
12 PETKOVIC Michael (GK)
13 WILKSHIRE Luke
14 COLOSIMO Simon
15 ALOISI John
16 ZDRILIC David
17 MC KAIN Jon
18 KALAC Zeljko (GK)
19 CULINA Jason
20 MILICEVIC Ljubo
21 ELRICH Ahmad
22 THOMPSON Archie
23 STERJOVSKI Mile

Germany

1 KAHN Oliver (GK)
2 HINKEL Andreas
3 FRIEDRICH Arne
4 HUTH Robert
5 OWOMOYELA Patrick
6 ENGELHARDT Marco
7 SCHWEINSTEIGER Bastian
8 FRINGS Torsten
9 HANKE Mike
10 DEISLER Sebastian
11 BRDARIC Thomas
12 LEHMANN Jens (GK)
13 BALLACK Michael
14 ASAMOAH Gerald
15 ERNST Fabian
16 HITZLSPERGER Thomas
17 MERTESACKER Per
18 BOROWSKI Tim
19 SCHNEIDER Bernd
20 PODOLSKI Lukas
21 SCHULZ Christian
22 KURANYI Kevin
23 HILDEBRAND Timo (GK)

[Kiko]

[Kiko]

The Argentina and Brazil teams are there most strongest bar Ronaldo. Dont think im missing anyone else that would normally play?

As for the groups - you've got to take Argentina and Germany to qualify from there group. Tunisia i am not knowledgeable about, while Austrailia have some quality players but were pretty awful against New Zealand the other day.

In the other group Brazil are an obvious choice while its a two way battle between Mexico and Greece for the other spot. I rate Mexico the better team, but as we seen from Greece - once they get in front they are a very hard team to break down.

[Kiko]

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/050606/7/3t20.html

Saying its an understrength Argentina team? Seems pretty strong to me. Bar Crespo and Veron im not sure its that bad a squad.

Also - big loss for Greece, Zagorakis is suspended for the first two games. He is their captain and massive player to them as shown in the Euro Championships.

[Kiko]

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/050609/7/3u8t.html

Interesting note on Mexico there - try and get it confirmed before the tournament starts as then i would probably back Greece if they miss these players.

[Keith]

I wouldn't want to be too dogmatic about taking a view in this tournament. These teams play each other so infrequently in competitive matches and even now I am not sure how commited some of them will be.

Just a few thoughts but I am talking out loud rather than even attempting to put forward an opinion.

Argentina

I note that they have left some of their stars at home but their largely based European squad looks strong to me. The coach has been critised for trying too many players and changing tactics too often. Will he use this tournament to experiment further?

Germany

They have home advantage and will also be keen to impress in competitive matches as they have only been able to play friendlies since Euro 2004.

But will they be any better than the team that failed so miserably in Portugal?

Australia

The squad is familiar to us all but basically they are crap. Its a pity that they will be already packing their bags by the time that they play Tunisia. I would fancy the Africans quite strongly to stuff them. Knowing the bookies The Roos would have been priced up as favourites had they been playing each other in the first round of matches. But we will already know the form by the time they play in the final group game.

Tunisia

They are the African Champions. (Cameroon topped their group and made the final in the last competition). It is not out of the question that they could make progress. They are in good form albeit against other African sides only but that is all that they have played. They continue to recruit foreign born players and it takes a decent side to win the African Cup these days

They could well steal a draw against either Argentina or Germany and they can certainly beat Australia. The opening game of the tournament is against the South Americans. How often do we get a surprise result or a bore draw in opening games?

A bit optimistic (but remember Greece) but I've had 1pt at 16/1 for them to top the group and also of interest is the 3/1 on offer for them to qualify for the next round.