Fantasy World Cup Preview Group B
GROUP B: AUSTRALIA, NETHERLANDS, CHILE, SPAIN
Our World Cup previews continue at a pace and we would like to extend a very warm welcome and thank you to Josh721 as he gives us his take on Group B, the teams involved, which players he recommends that you should pick and who is likely to progress from the group.
Some of you will have registered already but if not the site that we are using for this years game is Mcdonalds Fantasy World Cup, you can register here. You can register now and you can begin to pick your squad from June 8th ahead of the big kick-off on June 12th. We will publish the FF247 league codes as soon as the league option is open on there. In the meantime we encourage you to plan ahead and as such here’s Group B for you all…
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Australia
Overview
Let’s start with the minnow of the group, Australia. Ranked number 59 at the time of writing, this is their 3rd straight World Cup after failing to qualify from 1974-2006. They are also in one of the toughest groups in the tournament and, combined with a new coach, will find it hard to get any points in their group. Well, at least you’re in the World Cup, so enjoy it as much as you can.
Fantasy Player Perspective
There aren’t too many choices from this team as there are other better teams to select from. Red Bulls forward Tim Cahill could be worth a look as one of the Socceroos’ star players. I would stay away from their defenders as the chances that they keep any of Chile, the Netherlands, or Spain from scoring isn’t exactly zero, but it is pretty close.
Fixtures
Their first game is against Chile, followed by the Netherlands. They probably won’t win either of those, although they could play the role of spoiler and get a draw. If you’re going to get any of their players, they should be dispensed of prior to their last game against Spain.
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Netherlands
Overview
Moving up the FIFA rankings (which we know are perfectly, 100% accurate), we find the Netherlands, or Holland, coming in at number 15. After finishing as runners-up in the 2010 final, they followed that up with an unspectacular showing at the European Championships in 2012. They went through their qualifying group undefeated with 9 wins and a draw and are considered one of the favorites to advance out of the group stage. However, they haven’t won any of their last 4 games, with their most recent win coming against Romania in March of 2013.
Fantasy Player Perspective
The Netherlands have many attacking options to choose from. Everyone’s favourite Dutch striker, Robin van Persie, will look to get back to scoring ways after missing out on a big part of the season through injury. He will have a very talented group supporting him that includes Arjen Robben, Jeremain Lens, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, and Rafael van der Vaart. In defense they have Bruno Martins Indi, who scored 2 goals in qualifying.
Fixtures
The Oranje kick off their campaign with a rematch against 2010 World Cup winners Spain, so expect that to be a tight one. Maybe this match will have less yellow cards in it… After that, they get to play Australia, who actually tied the Netherlands last time they played each other in 2009. I have a feeling the score line will be a little bit different this time around. Then they close out the group with a tough match against Chile. This game could potentially decide who will advance out of the group along with Spain, so this could be a thriller.
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Chile
Overview
Next we have Chile, who should also consider themselves in with a chance to get out of this group. Ranked 13 in the world, they are certainly no pushovers. They finished 3rd in CONMEBOL qualifying, earning them a spot in this tournament. Chile have lost their last 2 friendlies, but given that they were against 2 of the strongest teams in the world, Brazil and Germany, that’s nothing to be too concerned about.
Fantasy Player Perspective
It might be wise to steer clear from Chile’s defenders as they conceded 25 goals in 16 games in qualifying. However, some of their attacking players are worth a look. Notably, Arturo Vidal and Alexis Sanchez. Also keep an eye on Eduardo Vargas, who scored 5 goals in qualifying to match Vidal’s total. They will be sure to cause problems for other teams’ defenses.
Fixtures
Chile start their campaign against lowly Australia, so I would expect them to get a win in that game. Their next game sees them play Spain, which won’t be as one-sided as some might think. They played to a 2-2 draw the last time they played in September of last year. Chile’s final game comes against the Netherlands, which as I noted earlier, will most likely be the deciding game in terms of who will advance.
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Spain
Overview
Finally we get to Spain, and yes they are still ranked number 1 in the world. Winners of Euro 2008, World Cup 2010, and Euro 2012, there really isn’t much to say about Spain that you don’t know already. La Furia Roja went undefeated in qualifying, conceding only 3 goals while scoring 14. So yeah, they’re pretty good. They had a small hiccup in the 2013 Confederations Cup where they lost to Brazil 3-0 in the final. That loss should be enough to motivate them to win the group since whichever team finishes second in this group will meet the winner of Group A, which will most likely be Brazil.
Fantasy Player Perspective
If I were to have any players from Spain (why wouldn’t you?), I might actually choose to invest in their defenders rather than their attacking players. Spain don’t actually score that many goals and seem to prefer to pass the opposition to death with their possession. So Sergio Ramos or Gerard Pique are good bets to keep a clean sheet, because how can the other team score if they never have the ball? Having said that, their star forward (Fernando Torres) Diego Costa will look to have a big impact in the World Cup. He is set to make his official debut at a tournament playing for Spain instead of his birth country and tournament hosts, Brazil.
Fixtures
Vicente del Bosque’s team will have to start quickly in the group stage because their first game is against 2010 World Cup finalists Netherlands. Then they have a tough game against Chile, followed by Australia. Spain and Australia have actually never played each other before at the senior level. However, expect Spain to get the win and advance to the knockout stage.
Group Summary
The winner of Group B will play the runner-up of Group A, and conversely the runner-up of Group B will play the winner of Group A. Much depends on how seriously Spain and the Netherlands take their last games then assuming both have already done enough to qualify. The potential opponents for whoever progresses then are Brazil, Croatia, Mexico or Cameroon. That feels like a mouth watering Round of 16 game on the cards already should it transpire that Brazil face either of the favourites from this group. Whisper it quietly then but the third games in this group could be spent trying to engineer whatever result means the teams involved avoid Brazil next!
Josh
A nice write up and thank you very much for it. This is a very tricky group as we can all imagine, I actually fancy Chile to follow Spain through.
Vidal for me (if listed as a mid, should be) is my pick.
Read on a well respected euro website that van Gaal will have RVP playing all, or vast majority of their two remaining friendlies to ensure he is at peak fitness for the WC.
GP – did i read right earlier – Are you actually going to the world cup?
If so, Wow! And what games are you going to see?
Chins
Must be some confusion because sadly I’m not going (unless I win one of the competitions I’ve gone in for!)
I’m going to Fulham next week to follow Scotland in a friendly that is as close as I’ll get.
Oh, that must be what i was thinking of. – Fingers crossed for you in the comps though!
I went to the emirites to watch Scotland v Brazil a few years back. Obviously we gave them a footballing lesson, but that weasal neymar cheated us out of getting anything.
Enjoy all that posh london has to offer!
Chins
Thanks mate, best of luck to you too this summer.
Yeah I can picture it being a bit expensive.
Vidal is questionable for the world cup. If he plays it will not be at 100%, there is a lot of worry in Chile over his status. If he is not ready or plays at a level that almost hampers Chile instead of helps, I wouldn’t expect them to get by. He is the heart of that team and their best player he is also their penalty taker for fantasy purposes. If he doesn’t start one of the two friendlies and look decent, I would stay away from him and Chile in general. I hate it for them because at times they looked like the best South American team, but if Vidal is not there I would not trust them at all to do well.
This is 100% true, Mito :thumbup: ..Juventus have agreed to sent him home so he can relax and continue to receive treatments from his national team therapists…Though, no one knows whether he will fully recover and if he’s gonna be 100% fit !
W/out him – Chile’s chances are 50% less, if you ask me – I deffo agree on that…
Brilliant stuff Josh, thanks for the Group B write up mate. Looks like a tricky group to call – could the Dutchies be looking at an early exit ?!!
Thanks for all your hard work Josh, it’s much appreciated.
Morning all, nice article there Josh, cheers. Just as a point of interest, HL and yourself have not mentioned any keepers, is this because the two of you don’t fancy any keepers from groups A + B ?
Ell – bailed out early last night but have answered your trivia q on the Group A thread…
I think you’ll find that’s correct. Going to retire from quizzies now. Go out on a high and all that…
Nice one that Chins, well in, don’t retire from quizzies, there will be some you can answer, oh correct by the way. :thumbup:
Elle
That may be the case. Although the safest is obviously Julio Cesar of Brazil I’d imagine.
I think the attacking talent in Group B kind of blunts the enthusiasm for a keeper from there maybe.
Elle – although Brazil may have the easiest group ( on paper) and a chance for a clean sheet in all 3 group games, I did not want t rush ahead and mention any keeper’s names before we see all the groups and more importantly the players prices !!
Julio Cesar should a very popular and logical pick for one of the 2 GK spots in our teams, but let’s wait and see the prices on ol’ McDonald’s site accompanied with the pts rules for the defenders and then we can maybe have a clear pic of whether it is wiser to have a pricey GK or a cheaper one with a solid back 4 !
:satansmoking:
Well done Josh great article, thanks for your time, effort and research in putting this together.
If the writers for groups D, E, F and H are out there you’d best starting getting a smooth on…. 😉
H is for Hilarious.
That’s just what it will B……
Talking of which…
Statto Josh.
Brilliant stuff.
Potty
Nobody expects in Holland expects to reach the next round. If we do by some miracle reach the next round we will face Brazil and they will kill us.
Also, maybe important to mention is that Louis van Gaal is tuning the system, he has to change the system now Strootman is out. It always used to be 4-3-3, last worldcup Bert already messed up the system because de Jong and van Bommel needed to guard a weak defense. At the moment the defense is even more vulnerable, we’re just playing with talent and Robben/RvP/Sneijder (you forgot to mention Sneijder, he is in form again and should play, though he’s out of favor with van Gaal, he went from being his fav player to being his least fav player, so we have to see what happens, he should play. The system will probably be 3-4-3 (as van Gaal calls it) but in reality it’s more like 5-3-2 with 2 backs playing really far upfront. System is adapted to the quality of the players, and even though we have a few talented ones (that won Euro’s U17, U21 and so on) they are still not ready for the big stage. So I think they will play like this:
Goalie
Janmaat – de Vrij – Vlaar – Martens Indi (or Kongolo) – van Aanholt (or Kongolo)
de Jong – du Guzman (or Clasie)
Sneijder
Robben – RvP
Ps. I think we’re actually facing England in the finals for Euro U17 this week. We beat Scotland 5-0 in the semi-finals. Hmmm, we won so many U17, U19, U21 tournaments. I wish they made better career choices. Hard when money is involved.
Great stuff Josh and thanks for taking the time to research and write it.
It should be a cracking group but from a fantasy perspective I don’t see it offering up much.
Agreed.
Tbh, I’m still trying to get my head around the rules!!
Haven’t looked at them yet, I guess I better read up when I get a chance. The more confusing the better that could be a chance for us to get a leg up if we get our heads around them.
I don’t completely understand what they mean by ‘save rate’ and ‘attempts rate’ in the bonus section. Is ‘save rate’ the percentage of shots on target saved, and ‘attempts rate’ the percentage of shots on target?
You’re not supposed to understand Bryan 😉
Oh and Niall Horan says hello!!!!!
I will just ignore that, maybe after the first round I will reassess and see if that really matters once I see who that favours.
Kop. Hahaha. Blimey you saw that quickly mate!
Mito, I agree with that in principle, it’s just that we can’t make any transfers until after the group phase has finished. That’s pretty much half the tournament, so would be nice to, as you said, get a heads up if we get our legs round them.
I see everything Bryan 😉
That does it. I’m closing the curtains!