A surprise team always emerges from a tournament, not sure who could do it next year though, maybe Serbia.

My surprise team guess is going to be Slovenia.

I think Paraguay, Cameroon and Mexico have a good shout too.

I don't know if Mexico could be considered much surprise, I mean, they're expected to do well. I expect Ghana to confirm what they insinuated last WC, and I think Denmark will be a team to watch

Good point about Mexcio Zexen, people here in th UK are all saying England are in an easy group, but I think that's asking for trouble.

It's hard to say, I mean, the group is one of the easiest you could have asked for, Algeria is definitely the weakest of the 3rd pot, and Slovenia is one of the weakest European nations in the WC. It's easy on paper, just like our group (Argentina's) can be considered easy too. Now, of course England will have to demonstrate it, but for sure it's easier to have to face Usa, Algeria and Slovenia than France, Mexico and Uruguay

I'd say so... Pot A is more devious then you'd expect. Mexico can play rather nice, Uruguay performed well and even though both France and Argentina have made the WC just barely they are soccer-greats.

I yesterday heard someone lamenting the whole "geographic ppreferances" by the way where so many of continent A get's picked and so many of continent B... that the WC could just be the european cup + Brazil and Argentina...

i don't agree

i can't see a big difference between france/england mexico/usa uruguay/slovenia and

algeria/south africa

I must ask how much football you've watched if you can't see the difference between Uruguay and Slovenia. Hint: La Liga's last top goalscorer plays for Uruguay, not for Slovenia. So does the top scorer of the Dutch League. So does Lugano, Cáceres, Cristian Rodriguez, and a lot of top rated players. Slovenia may have some good players, but Uruguay has them in spades. South Africa and Algeria, there's a difference too, SA has some known players AND they play at home

France/England, maybe.  Of course, France should have been seeded instead of England (if they had used current rankings).  On their day I think France are a side with more potential than England.

Mexico/USA, yes, are at a similar level.  Mexico has more outstanding individual talent, to be fair.

Uruguay is a far better side than Slovenia.  Slovenia is probably the weakest European team to make it (maybe Greece is weaker).  Uruguay is a strong team with some outstanding individuals.

South Africa are playing at home.  Algeria is the worst African team to qualify.  Any team playing at home gets a big boost in what is expected of them, and I am far happier for the USA to be playing Algeria than South Africa, I can tell you that.