World Cup Previews: Group D
The perks of expanding the World Cup to 48 teams are clear to see. We have an incredibly diverse range of teams form across the globe represented this year, a few of which are making their debuts at the tournament and many more that are making long-awaited returns. The downside? You end up with groups like this. Luckily for us real sickos, the less-than-glamorous fixture list is a blessing rather than a curse. See you at 3am for Australia vs Paraguay you bunch of weirdos. It’s time for our Group D preview!
Australia
Qualifying
Before 2006 Australia had qualified for the World Cup just once, since then they have made it to the last six tournaments and are firmly in the bracket of regular World Cup furniture. You can’t have one without inviting them these days. As the nation has begun to embrace and grow the sport they once loathed, the Socceroos have put the doldrums of the 90s behind them to become a major threat on the Asian qualification scene. Football has come such a long way over there, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them hosting the thing in the near future. That is, of course, if they can find themselves a big brown paper bag of hush money to throw at whoever’s in charge.
Qualification came with a few bumps along the way this time, but was again comfortable once the final few games had been played. The first group stage went by without a hitch, Australia winning all 6 of their games without conceding a goal, all while sticking 22 past their opposition. Stick that on your barbie.
Then came the Asian Cup, where they fell to a respectable, if disappointing, quarter final exit to South Korea after extra time.
The final stage of qualifying saw them in a significantly harder group with Japan and Saudis Arabia both to contend with. They held firm and only lost once, but struggled to score when it counted and drew 4 of their 10 games. Still, it was enough to secure second place behind an all-conquering Japan team and seal their place in the tournament. They pulled it out of the bag when it mattered too, inflicting Japan’s only loss on them before beating third placed Saudia Arabia in their final two games. Had they dropped points to Japan and suffered defeat in Jeddah, Saudia Arabia would’ve overtaken them for the automatic space. It was clutch, but if they had just put away teams like Bahrain they wouldn’t have had to have pulled it out of the bag in the first place. That’s just how they do it down under.
They have a mixed record when it comes to making the knockout phase of these things, but this might just be their weakest group yet. With the potential for big crowds of Australians residing in the states coming out to support them, there’s every chance they could squeeze through to the knockouts again here.
One To Watch
Big boys are back in vogue and, at 6’6”, Aussie meathead Harry Souttar is one of the tournament’s biggest. Domestically it’s been a nightmare of a year for the centre-half. Sidelined with an injury that lasted all the way until April, he sat and watched helplessly as his Leicester City team were relegated from the Championship in embarrassing fashion. He’s managed to get himself back fit and ready for the World Cup, and what better way to blow off a year’s worth of steam?
Souttar isn’t just a good defender. Depending on who you ask, he isn’t even that. He is a monstrous threat from set-pieces, particularly internationally. From centre-half, Souttar has eleven goals in 37 caps for Australia. Remarkable. He’s proven himself to be a dangerous operator in the box throughout qualifying, now it’s time to do it on the big stage. Paraguay, Türkiye, and the US will have a plan for most things, but will they have a plan for 198cm of Scottish-Australian muscle flying at them at top speed? Every corner looks a threat with a man like Harry Souttar lurking in the background.
Paraguay
Qualifying
Paraguay did extremely well to qualify automatically from the notoriously tricky South American system, beating out Bolivia, Venezuela, Peru, and Chile to claim their place at this years finals.
They finished level on points with Brazil, and even beat both Brazil and Argentina throughout qualifying, so they’re clearly capable of a big shock result or two. It’s just wether they can repeat these feats when the pressure is truly on. They had the joint second best defence throughout South American qualifying, but also the joint second worst attack. They don’t let many in, but they don’t put many past you either. 14 of their 18 qualifying matches finished either 0-0 or 1-0, so don’t expect fireworks!
If any of their opponents can manage to break them down early, it’ll be interesting to watch them have to come out of their shell and pressure an opponent for a change. The World Cup is all about being adaptive, and huge question marks remain over wether this Paraguay side is balanced enough to have a solid run at the knockouts. They may have even preferred a slightly stronger group than this one with more teams for them to sit low and break against, although I’m sure the USA won’t sit back against Paraguay on home turf, and Australia and Türkiye aren’t particularly shy about coming forward either. It’ll be a tough ride for Paraguay, but nothing is impossible with a foundation as solid as theirs.
One To Watch
With Paraguay’s penchant for defending, someone in their forward line is going to have to pick up the slack and put the ball in the opposition’s net for a change if they’re going to do anything of note in this tournament. The man for the job might just be Strasbourg/Chelsea/BlueCo’s very own Julio Enciso.
Enciso has followed the well trodden path of playing football as a teenager in South America, being picked up by Brighton for next to nothing, then moving to Chelsea for big money. While he’s not technically at Chelsea yet, he’s spent this season at their subsidiary club Strasbourg and it won’t be long before Todd Boehly gives the order to move him across the Channel to West London.
He’s enjoyed a solid if unremarkable first season in Clearlake Capital LTD colours, scoring 12 and assisting 9 across 42 games as Strasbourg fell to an 8th place finish. They were also semi finalists in both the Coupe de France and the Conference League, but fell just short in both instances and failed to deliver what would’ve been a landmark trophy for the French club.
Enciso plays either out wide on the right or sitting behind the striker in the 10 position, and is one of Paraguay’s key creative talents. He’s not known for his contributions defensively, but his chance creation and dribbling ability more than make up for his shortcomings at the back. Give him some space on the edge of the area, and he’ll punish you. This could be a huge tournament for Enciso, and a chance to audition for a space in the already overcrowded Chelsea first team squad. Paraguay need an outlet and, in a relatively weak group, Enciso could be given the freedom to shine and express himself that he has proven he can thrive in.
Türkiye
Qualifying
Türkiye are another of the sides who had to battle their way through the European play-off system, but they got through the process with relative ease. After being every pundit’s “dark horse” for the last Euros and putting on a disappointing showing, questions were being asked as to whether this Türkiye side were actually any good. They were thrust into a tricky qualifying group with European champions Spain, Kvicha Kvaratshkelia’s Georgia, and Bulgaria, but proved themselves to be a cut above most, just not quite good enough to surpass the Spanish.
Türkiye won all 4 games against the other opposition amongst a 2-2 draw and a slightly humiliating 6-0 loss to Spain that saw them finish comfortably 2nd, 10 points clear of Georgia, and enter the play-offs. They won both games 1-0 thanks to a goal in the 53rd minute, the first came against Romania with the goal scored by Brighton’s Ferdi Kadioglu, and the second was a victory in Kosovo courtesy of Karem Aktürkoglu of Fenerbahce.
It’s their first World Cup appearance since their miraculous run to the semi finals in 2002, and only the third in their history. With the quality they’ve had over the years it’s amazing they’ve not made it here more often, now the new generation of talent is coming through they’ll be hoping to cement themselves as a regular fixture at World Cups to come.
One To Watch
Like I just mentioned, Türkiye are blessed with a plethora of young talent from front to back. It’s something of a golden generation by their standards, and while Arda Güler at Real Madrid is grabbing a lot of the attention, I think the pick of the bunch is Juventus’ Kenan Yildiz.
Juve have had to watch their rivals have all the fun since COVID, finishing 3rd at best since 2020 and 7th at their worst. It’s not been a great time to be a fan of the Old Lady, but the one bright spark has been the emergence of forward Kenan Yildiz. Yildiz was brought into the youth system at Juve from Bayern Munich, and fairly immediately made his way into the struggling first team squad. Since then he’s never looked back, proving he belongs at that level from the very start. This year has been his best in black and white, notching 14 goals and 10 assists across 51 games as they limped to a 6th placed finish. He is supposedly carrying a minor muscle injury into the tournament, but Türkiye will do everything in their power to get him fit and firing in time to take this group stage by storm. He is one of the world’s best dribblers, a strong finisher and an incredible creative force. Truly, he is a player that would slot into any team at this tournament with ease, and is a gem for Türkiye to have at their disposal.
Dynamic, explosive, and almost effortless in his execution of great skill, Yildiz is the kind of player that will be coveted across Europe’s elite. It won’t take a good World Cup for them to know his quality, but a strong showing here could just tip the hand of a Real or Bayern. Arsenal are supposed to be looking for a left-sided forward, too…
USA
Qualifying
Those brave boys of the USMNT didn’t have to battle their way through qualifying this year as the third, and obviously most important, of the host nations.
They lost the previously mentioned Gold Cup final to Mexico last July, and have played a string of friendlies in the meantime to prepare for a tournament on home soil. To their credit, they’ve challenged themselves against some real tough opposition, mostly targeting nations that are about level with or at an aspirational standard for the USA. Defeats to South Korea, Belgium, and Portugal have marred what has otherwise been a fairly successful run-in, with landmark victories over Japan, Australia, Paraguay, and Senegal as well as a huge 5-1 thrashing of Uruguay. They even managed to surmount the impenetrable Ecuadorean defence with a 1-1 draw in Texas last October.
It’s always tricky to read into these runs as friendlies will never be played at the same intensity as a high-stakes qualifier, particularly not by the opposition. Still, Poch clearly has his squad well-drilled and attuned to his style, now we just have to see how far they can go in the most important World Cup in their history.
One To Watch
USA have a surprisingly solid squad from top to bottom, with recognisable names from across Europe’s big leagues across every position interspersed with the very best MLS has to offer. I had every intention of waxing lyrical about Derby County’s big centre-forward Patrick Agyemang here, but his devastating achilles injury has ruled him out of the World Cup, and far beyond, so I’ll have to take it seriously.
The obvious answer is Christian Pulisic, but maybe the obvious answer is obvious for a reason. Captain America has a monumental summer ahead of him. He’s been the face of American Soccer for the better part of a decade now and, while his performances for the US have always been solid, showings in big tournaments from the squad as a whole have always been lacking, failing to even qualify for Russia 2018 and limping out at the Round of 16 last time in Qatar. In his prime at the age of 28, and playing the best football of his career in Milan, this summer is the summer for Pulisic to cement himself at the USA’s best ever player by leading from the front and taking them deep into the knockouts.
U S A, U S A!
Prediction
1. Türkiye
2. USA
3. Paraguay
4. Australia
This could be the tightest group yet, and I’ve had versions of this table with every team in every position at some point as I was deliberating. At the end of the day. I think the sheer quality available to Türkiye, particularly across the forward line, will be enough to carry them to top spot and through to the knockouts.
With home advantage and the spirit of Uncle Sam behind them, the US team will be close behind, probably only by goal difference.
Paraguay will prove tricky to break down, and cause issues for everyone in the group. I think the sheer force of the USA and Türkiye will be enough to wear them down, whereas Australia’s slightly weaker attack will be well beaten, leaving them bottom.
That being said, all of these sides have had impressive run-in’s to the tournament, and nobody has the level-above talent available to them to brute force their way through the group. It’ll be an interesting one to watch for sure, even if the games don’t exactly grab the headlines. Can the USA impress in their home World Cup and set the ball rolling for a run deep into the knockouts? Or will one of the other fringe sides get the wind under their sails and start historic runs of their own? Paraguay vs Türkiye, it doesn’t get much more World Cup than that!