Lakenheath Old Boys

We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!

Friday, May 23, 2014

World Cup Preview - Group B - Chile

Nickname: “La Roja (The Red One)”

Absurd FIFA ranking: 13th

Coach: Argentine supremo Jorge Sampaoli

Game Schedule:
June 13 – Chile vs. Australia (Culaba, 6:00 p.m. EST, ESPN2)
June 18 – Chile vs. Spain (Port Elizabeth, 3:00 p.m., ESPN)
June 25 – Chile vs. Netherlands (Sao Paulo, 12:00 p.m., ESPN)

Prospects: After the second successive strong CONMEBOL qualification campaign in a row, Chile has emerged as a dark horse in the Group of Death Light. Chile will keep the two heavyweight favorites Spain and The Netherlands looking over their shoulders; any slip-ups and La Roja could easily send one of them home early. Their success is largely based on a prolific attack, spearheaded by Barcelona's Alexis Sanchez. Add to that a strong defensive spine with plenty of World Cup tournament experience and Chile could turn some heads.

Key Player: Juve's Artur Vidal is the complete, box-to-box midfielder. He keeps the Chilean engine humming.

Youngster to watch: I'd like to have a look at FC Twente's 23 year old speedy right back/winger Felipe Gutierrez.

Who Will Get the Goals: The combination of Barcelona winger Alexis Sanchez and Valencia striker  Eduardo Vargas should do the business for La Roja.

Who Will Get the Cards: Cardiff City clogger Gary Medel.

Prediction: Chile could easily knock out one of the tournament favorites and I hesitate to make this prediction, but I see Chile just falling short at the last group match against The Netherlands.

1 Comments:

Blogger manunitedrules said...

I agree with you 100%. If Chile were in any other group they would advance, but it will be tough, being in the same group as the two World Cup finalists. Their only hope is to defeat the Dutch in the last match. There are some talented players in the squad and I agree with you about Medel.

12:06 AM  

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