2018 FIFA World Cup Preview: Group F
All eyes are on Germany to win this group, but who comes second in this fierce “group of death?”
All right. Three more days. Fire up that grill and throw on some bratwurst, toast some empanadas, pour yourself a glass of glögg (21 and over only) and don’t forget the kimchi as Germany, Mexico, Sweden and South Korea are set to battle it out in Group F. Also, don’t forget to check back every day until the start of the tournament for a new preview on each of the remaining groups!
Germany
The 2014 defending champions will be making their nineteenth (!!!) appearance at a World Cup finals and will be looking to become the first team since Brazil back in ’62 to win back to back World Cups. Of course, Germany competed as West Germany until the World Cup of 1994 and it’s fair to say that they’ve done quite well as a nation since then, making it to at least the quarterfinals of every World Cup since unification. However, looking at the overall history of West Germany and Germany, you’ll see a side that has not only qualified nineteen times, but emerged victorious four times and has placed in the top three at each and every World Cup this century. Not bad at all.
Germany shoved qualification aside, winning all 10 matches and picking up a maximum of 30 points. Their top scorers in qualifying were Thomas Müller and Sandro Wagner (both on five), with the latter not even selected in Löw’s final 23 man squad. Wagner was not the only notable exclusion, as Joachim Löw has been under heavy criticism for his decision to leave out Manchester City starlet and EPL Young Player of the Year Leroy Sané out of the team. In fact, multiple areas of controversy have popped up in the German camp at Eppen over the last few weeks. Manuel Neuer starting over Barcelona’s Marc André ter Stegen has been a contentious issue, the aforementioned Sané exclusion has drawn negative press but the worst of all might be a photo that stars Ilkay Gundogan and Mesut Özil took with Turkish President Recep Tayïp Erdogan a few weeks back. Erdogan doesn’t exactly earn an “A+” from human rights groups and his accused back-funding of groups with links to the Islamic State doesn’t exactly look good, either.
The photo, in the eyes of many Germans, represented these players’ approval of Erdogan and his regime, a regime that most of Germany (and the world) is vehemently against. In friendlies against both Austria and Saudi Arabia, Gundogan and Özil were booed heavily by both sets of fans which lead to some pretty dreadful performances from both (Özil was absent from the Saudi Arabia game due to injury). Germany are heading into this tournament with issues, but if you think back to May 2014, stars Julian Draxler and Benedikt Höwedes got into a severe car crash during a promotional event for Mercedes-Benz.
I’m not saying things are bad (Germany have arguably the best team at the tournament) but it could definitely be looking better for Die Mannschaft and the number one ranked team going into the tournament. However, if there were ever another team to perform a two-peat at the World Cup, it’s Germany. They have quality, experience and class. Let’s see how far they go.
Mexico
We all remember the ¡No era penal! slogan from last the last World Cup which took the world by storm and ended up knocking El Tri out in 2014. This 15th ranked Mexico team will be looking to right that wrong at their sixteenth World Cup finals appearance. Their best result was reaching the quarterfinals at the 1970 and 1986 versions of the tournament, both tournaments they hosted. Interestingly enough, Mexico have reached the Round of 16 at the last six World Cups and will be looking to make it seven this time around.
Mexico received a bye to the fourth round of qualification where they won their group and proceeded to the feared “hexagon.” In CONCACAF, the top two teams from all three groups proceed to a six team hexagonal round where the top three teams automatically qualify with the fourth placed team heading to the intercontinental playoff. They topped this hexagonal with PSV’s Hirving Lozano leading the team in scoring. Mexico and head coach Juan Carlos Osorio will surely be relying on the talent of his talismanic winger to provide not only goals, but chances for forwards such as Chicharito and Carlos Vela.
Former Barcelona centre-half Rafa Marquez will be appearing at his fifth (!!!) World Cup and will be eager to give his nation one last wild ride until he calls time on his career at the end of this tournament. Or will we see him in 2022? Either way, this team is chock-full with behind the scenes talent in the forms of Marco Fabian, Andres Guardardo and the dos Santos brothers. This team has desire, will it be enough to make it out of the group?
Sweden
Sweden haven’t qualified for the World Cup since 2006 but will be preparing for their twelfth appearance this time around. Their best finish was an impressive runners-up in 1958 and have finished third as recently as 1994! Ranked at 24 in the FIFA world rankings, Sweden are managed by Janne Andersson and qualified by finishing second in a group consisting of France and the Netherlands. In the resulting playoff they beat Italy 1–0 over the course of two legs to qualify for the tournament proper.
RB Leipzig’s Emil Forsberg is by far Sweden’s most talented player and serves as their primary creative output. Sweden also have two talented forwards in former Golden Boy Marcus Berg as well as Ola Toivonen to provide goals. In defense Manchester United’s Victor Lindelöf as well as Celtic’s Mikael Lustig provide quality defensive options while Werder Bremen’s Ludwig Augustinsson is more than capable of a decent delivery into the box. Sweden are an all around decent side with not too much going for them, yet not too much against as well. They are certainly capable of notching a result against a Germany or Mexico and their opener against South Korea just might be their most important game of all.
South Korea
South Korea are coming into the 2018 World Cup as the lowest ranked team in this group (57 according to the latest FIFA World Rankings) and the third lowest team at the entire tournament (Saudi Arabia #67, Russia #70). One might just write off this Korean team but I wouldn’t do so just yet. South Korea are making their tenth tournament appearance with their best result coming at their very own 2002 World Cup which they co-hosted with Japan, finishing fourth. No members from that team are present today, but they do have one of their best ever players in the form of Son Heung-Min. Son, typically deployed as a winger at club level plays as a striker in Shin Tae-Young’s 4–4–2, usually with strike partner Kim Shin-Wook though Red Bull Salzburg striker Hwang Hee-Chan has been used as Son’s strike partner in recent matches. Swansea City’s Ki Sung-Yueng serves as the captain for the Taegeuk Warriors and his midfield partnership with Augsburg’s Koo Ja-Cheol will be vital if South Korea are to advance from their group.
South Korea’s road to qualification wasn’t exactly as easy one. Despite their low ranking entering qualification (69), they still received a bye into the second round, where they topped their group and earned resultant qualification into the third round of qualifying. In the third round, South Korea finished second in a six team group containing Iran (first) Syria (third), China (fifth) and 2022 World Cup hosts (???) Qatar, who finished last. Son was Korea’s highest goalscorer in qualifying with seven goals and expect him to bag them in come the tournament proper. My only concern with this team is that only five of the 23 players play outside of Asia. This is a lack of experience at the highest level which could cost this team against more experienced sides such as Germany and Mexico. However, midfielder Lee Seung-Woo is one that has caught my eye and I believe serves as one to watch at the World Cup. A product of “La Masia”, Barcelona’s famed youth academy, the 22 year old Hellas Verona midfielder might just announce his name on the international stage in the coming weeks.
Predictions
Germany are undoubtedly the best team in this group and are my pick to finish first. Thomas Müller needs seven goals to break the all time World Cup goalscoring record and with Neuer in goal as well as Hummels/Boateng in front of him, it’s truly a question of whether a two peat is on the cards for Joachim Löw and Germany. Though I really rate the likes of Emil Forsberg and Son Heung-Min, I think Mexico’s quality should be enough to see them through at second. The likes of Hirving Lozano and Javier Hernandez are hungry and coupled with the talents of Andres Guardado in midfield, El Tri are my lock for second place. I think South Korea have an upset in them and I think they’ll take third over last placed Sweden. However, this group has been dubbed as the group of death for a reason, and the end result could be very different from my predictions.
