The Russian team finished 6th in the 2010 Winter Olympics. A few of their top players are stars in the National Hockey League. Alexander Ovechin, Pavel Datsyuk and Evgeni Malkin are all part of the team. They are currently the top ranked team in all of IIHF, and have been competing internationally since 1993. In 2009, the Russians won the gold medal in the WHC, and in 2010 they received the silver medal.

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Slovokia finished fourth in the 2010 Winter Olympics, held in Canada. The Slovokian team have not been in the top three in the WHC since 2002 and 2003 when they won the Gold and Bronze in back to back years. Pavel Demitra, Marian Hossa and Zdeno Chara headline the team. The head coach of the Slovokian team is former Canadian star Glen Hanlon.

Germany is one of the longest standing traditional teams in the WHC. The Germans are ranked 9th in the world. They finished 11th in the 2010 Olympics and fourth in last years World Championships. A few of their top players include Marco Sturm, Dennis Seidenberg and Sven Felski. The head coach of the German team is Uwe Krupp, with assistants Ernst Hofner and Harold Kreis.

Slovenia would love to get going and prove their doubters wrong. A few have dubbed them as the world of the 16 teams in the World Championships. Slovenia is ranked 19th by the IIHF, and have never been ranked better than 13th in their history. A few of their current top players include Jan Mursak, Anze Kopitar and Marcel Rodman. Slovenia finished in 18th place last season.

We are going to bet on the Russian team to win this group. Sure, they will not garner us a bunch of money, but they are certainly the safe pick. The speed of the Russian team will be too much for the rest of the group. Russia plays Germany, Slovenia and Slovakia in that order. The games for group A will be played on Friday April 29th, Sunday May 1st and Tuesday May 3rd.

Glenn Stromberg’s World Cup Preview – GROUP A

1. France 1.90
2. Uruguay 5.00
3. South Africa 6.75
4. Mexico 4.30

• Going through: France/Uruguay

• My best bet: Uruguay going through – odds 2.10

France are a funny team as their style of play lacks creativity, especially going forward. Domenech’s reign as coach will come to an end after the 2010 World Cup and this can only be negative in my opinion. They have great players and if they start well, they have the potential to go all the way.

Uruguay’s coach Oscar Washington Tabarez is under pressure despite their results in recent years. They play in a 4-3-3 formation and tend to adapt to their opponents. They are often underestimated but are a tough side with some great players like Diego Forlan and Porto star Rodriguez.

Mexico, led by Aguerre, play in a very well settled 4-3-3 formation and have a group of highly experienced and skilled players that can pass the ball around with ease. They tend to struggle away from home turf and their key players are Blanco, Marquez and Franco.

South Africa has Parreira as their coach. He has a lot of experience and a very shrewd and smart tactician. Their players are technically gifted and well organized but they lack firepower in attack. Everton’s Pienaar is their star player but with local support will be hard to beat. However, they are just not strong enough.

McCarthy, who’s now 32 years old, has had fitness problems recently and has also been accused of being too heavy. But he leads the nation when it comes to goals as he’s played 78 games for his country and found the back of the net 32 times. He took a break from international football back in 2002 at the conclusion of the World Cup when he was only 24 years old. But he ended up rejoining the squad after just two years of sitting out. Most experts figure he’ll pack international football in for good now that he’s been left off the team.

Parreira praised his squad and said all of the players, including the ones who weren’t selected, should be proud of themselves for their dedication and efforts. He added that it was sad to make the cuts and told the players to walk tall as life carries on and they all deserved to play, but FIFA has its rules.

McCarthy stated that he was proud to have served his country and understood that nobody had a guaranteed position in the World Cup team. He realized Parreira must have agonized over the final decision. The team announcement was huge news in the host nation as it was broadcast live on television and several radio channels.

It was a joyous moment for Nomvete as he was left off the team in 2008 by former manager Joel Santana. But for the other five players who weren’t chosen it was a sad day. These were goalkeeper Rowen Fernandez, defenders Innocent Mdledle, and Bryce Moon, midfielder Franklin Cale, and Jandile.

South Africa enters the world Cup on a hot streak as they hammered Guatemala 5-0 on May 31 and are now unbeaten in 11 matches with Parreira at the helm. They will play a final warm up game, which will be on June 5 against Denmark. They open the World Cup on June 11 against Mexico.

South Africa will compete in Group A and will also face Uruguay and France. No host nation has ever been knocked out of the tournament in the first round and South Africa wants to make sure they don’t become the first. However, Expekt.com lists them as the least likely to win their group with odds of 21/4. They’re listed at 100/1 to win the Cup.

Goalkeepers: Itumeleng Khune (Kaizer Chiefs), Moeneeb Josephs (Orlando Pirates), Shu-Aib Walters (Maritzburg United)

Defenders: Matthew Booth (Mamelodi Sundowns), Siboniso Gaxa (Mamelodi Sundowns), Bongani Khumalo (Supersport United), Tsepo Masilela (Maccabi Haifa), Aaron Mokoena (Portsmouth), Anele Ngcongca (Racing Genk), Siyabonga Sangweni (Golden Arrows), Lucas Thwala (Orlando Pirates)

Midfielders: Lance Davids (Ajax Cape Town), Kagisho Dikgacoi (Fulham), Thanduyise Khuboni (Golden Arrows), Reneilwe Letsholonyane (Kaizer Chiefs), Teko Modise (Orlando Pirates), Surprise Moriri (Mamelodi Sundowns), Steven Pienaar (Everton), Siphiwe Tshabalala (Kaizer Chiefs), Macbeth Sibaya (Rubin Kazan)

Forwards: Katlego Mphela (Mamelodi Sundowns), Siyabonga Nomvete (Moroka Swallows), Bernard Parker (FC Twente)

Group A is the only group not to include a team seeded by FIFA, because South Africa, were in the pot with the top seven seeds from the FIFA rankings as a result of being the hosting nation. Whilst they do have the home advantage, South Africa are not strong contenders as they are a reasonably weak footballing nation. They have, however, put a lot of preparation into their side and the local support and ambience, the better acclimatisation to the altitude of their stadiums, and, going on past competitions, a tendency for decisions to go in favour of hosting countries at times, they may get some surprise results in this group.

France, the strongest ranked team according to FIFA and finalists in the 2006 World Cup, are the favourites to win the group. In the straight forecast market, France followed by Mexico is the favourite with Bodog.com, with odds of 4/1. France followed by Uruguay is 17/4, and France then South Africa 6/1. This is in spite of a weak qualifying campaign by France and a perceived lack of inspiring football being played by the French over the past couple of years.

In a reverse forecast, you can take France/Mexico at 11/.5, France/Uruguay at 5/2 and France/South Africa at 15/4.

Those who remember France spectacularly bombing out of the 2002 World Cup without scoring any goals, may be reluctant to back them given current form as well. If you choose a reverse forecast with Mexico/Uruguay you get 7/1, Mexico/South Africa is 10/1, and the outside choice, though in this group, anything is possible, is Uruguay/South Africa at 11/1.

Bodog.com are also offering betting on each position in the group, so you can take for example, France to finish second at 5/2. For second place, interestingly, those 5/2 odds are offered on Mexico and Uruguay as well.

To finish bottom, the favourites as expected are South Africa with odds of 13/8. Uruguay 12/5, Mexico 13/5, and France good value if they do spectacularly fail again, at 13/2.

To bet on one of the teams only to qualify, i.e. coming first or second in the group, Bodog offer 3/10 on France, 19/20 on Mexico, Uruguay 11/10 and 9/5 on South Africa.

With this group wide open without having a top seeded side and with its weakest team also being the hosts, there could be some interesting opportunities to make money on Group A. Favourites France going through is by no means a forgone conclusion, and South Africa could surprise in the same manner South Korea did in 2002. Uruguay and Mexico are both good, if not spectacular teams, and the result of this group could well challenge the bookies’ predictions.