World Cup Group F Preview
Group F feature two battles: the battle for first in the group between Japan and the Netherlands, and a battle for third and potential qualification between Sweden and a tricky Tunisia side.
Group F fixtures (all kick-off times are in BST)
Netherlands vs Japan 14th June 9pm
Sweden vs Tunisia 15th June 3am
Netherlands vs Sweden 20th June 6pm
Tunisia vs Japan 21st June 5am
Tunisia vs Netherlands 26th June 12am
Japan vs Sweden 26th June 12am
Netherlands
The perennial bridesmaid finishing 2nd three times, 3rd once and 4th once; despite this only being their 12th World Cup, they are also the only team that has played at least 4 World Cups that has never been knocked out in the group stages, but this Dutch era of players since 2018 isnt like the previous Dutch teams full off attacking prowess whether that was Robben, Van Persie, Van Nistelrooy, Van Basten, Gullit, Cruyff etc this era of the Netherlands is simply lacking elite level attackers and those players in their squad that are very good are coming off down seasons. Frenkie de Jong, when fit this season, has been good, but it's been disrupted; Virgil Van Dijk, Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo have been part of the most dismal Liverpool team since before Klopp; Tijani Reijnders started well at Man City but has struggled to get in the team during the second half of the season. Micky Van de Ven nearly got relegated with Spurs; Crysensio Summerville did get relegated with West Ham; you get my point.
The only Dutch players coming into this tournament in any kind of form are Brian Brobbey, who has been good for Sunderland this season, and Donyell Malen, who has exploded since joining Roma in January, scoring 14 goals in 18 games in Serie A. The rest are all good players who have either been at the wrong club or playing poorly.
Luckily for the Netherlands, this group should be manageable. Japan will cause them plenty of problems, but Sweden and Tunisia either don't have enough talent to beat them or have been in terrible form. So making the knockouts shouldn't be a problem, but I fail to see them doing anything once they get there given the lack of attacking talent: a forward line of Gakpo, 32-year-old Memphis Depay, 33-year-old Burnley reject Wout Weghorst, Malen, Brobbey and Summerville shouldn't strike fear into any side that is serious about going deeper than the quarter-finals. If they are to make the quarters or deeper, Frankie De Jong and Ryan Gravenberch are going to have to run the midfield in games and dominate the ball.
Japan
This should be the coming-out party of Japan as a genuine threat at every future major tournament. Japan romped through Asian qualifying as expected and have won their last 6 friendlies without conceding a goal in the last 5, including wins over Brazil and England in that time span. This Japan is a genuine threat to win the whole thing; they all play key roles for clubs in major European leagues, and when they play for Japan, they all elevate at least a level or two.
The key man is Ayase Ueda, who is a great bet to be overall top scorer this tournament; he has been nothing short of sensational for Feyenoord this season, scoring 25 goals in 31 games in the Eredivisie, and the Japanese tactic of a 5-2-3 is set up to get as many good chances to Ueda as possible he will be flanked by Ritsu Doan and Takefusa Kubo most likely who are both great players. Doan has been an upper-tier Bundesliga winger for 4 seasons now across stints for Freiburg and now Eintracht Frankfurt, and Takefusa Kubo, who, while he hasn't become a world-class player, which his stints in Barcelona's and Real Madrid's academy once promised, has been one of the better La Liga wingers for over 5 years now playing for Real Sociedad. The attack has plenty of depth as well with guys like Koki Ogawa, Daizen Maeda, Keisuke Goto and Keito Nakamura all sure to get plenty of minutes as well, and this is without Kaoru Mitoma and Takumi Minamino, who are both missing this tournament through injury.
The midfield is strong with Kaishu Sano, Daichi Kamada, Ao Tanaka and Wataru Endo all being very experienced, and whichever two are selected it doesn't really matter as all four are great. The defence probably had the biggest question marks in my mind. Takehiro Tomiyasu and Hiroki Ito are both great, so they should be no problem; it's who plays as the third centre-back and the wing-backs against the weaker teams. The manager, Hajime Moriyasu, tends to use the wingers at wing-back, basically having five attackers, but will this work against the stronger teams? I don't know. He might have to play some of the 'weaker' depth defenders like Ayumu Seko, Ko Itakura and Yukinari Sugawara, all of whom still play in the 7 best leagues in Europe for Le Havre, Ajax and Werder Bremen respectively so they are no mugs and then Zion Suzuki in goal is one of the most promising young goalkeepers in world football and it wont be long before a big clubs swoops in and takes him from Parma.
The floor for this team is the round of 16 unless they get a brutal draw in the round of 32, and the ceiling is winning the whole tournament. In my mind they are the 7th favourite for the whole tournament.
Tunisia
The most consistent team in Africa are back yet again, marking their 6th time at the World Cup since 1998, the most of any African nation, despite Tunisia never having really any elite talent; the consistency is a credit to the work the FA do behind the scenes to keep Tunisia competitive despite never really sending their players to big European leagues and clubs. They went undefeated in qualifying, comfortably topping what was one of the weaker groups in African qualifying. This Tunisia team is not as good as previous teams; they no longer have Wahbi Khazri, but they're still competitive, and like every single Tunisian team at a World Cup, it will be hard to beat; just ask France and Denmark from four years ago.
The squad doesn't really have a key standout player, but they're solid everywhere; the midfield probably stands out with Ellyes Skhiri, Rani Khedira and Hannibal Majbri all playing consistent top-flight football across England and Germany and in Skhiri and Khedira's case, for over a decade. Defensively, Montassar Talbi and Ali Abdi are both regulars in Ligue 1, and Dylan Bronn has been around the national team, including the team that gave England a massive scare in the 2018 group stages, so knows what he is doing at a major tournament. The question is who is going to score the goals now Khazri has retired. The top scorer in the squad is the left back Abdi with 7, so one of the attackers needs to step up. Elias Saad is probably the most likely candidate to score a couple of goals and take Tunisia into the knockouts for the first time ever. But I'm looking forward to seeing their two young attackers play in Khalil Ayari and Rayan Elloumi. Ayari is currently on loan at PSG from a Tunisian club, so there must be something; the best club in the world has scouted and wanted to have a look at him on loan for a season, and Rayan Elloumi has broken into the Vancouver Whitecaps team this season, scoring a couple of goals since the turn of the year, and at 18 there is clearly something there.
Tunisia are definitely favourites to come last in this group just based on talent, but there is not a world where they don't upset someone and take points off of one Sweden or the Netherlands, and the ceiling is making the knockouts and giving a big nation a major scare in the knockouts.
Sweden
Became the first team since 1934 to qualify for the World Cup without winning a game in the World Cup without other teams withdrawing, which is really impressive; they got 2 points in a group with Switzerland, Kosovo and Slovenia, but because of the spots given to Nations League group winners, they got into the playoffs where they beat Ukraine 3-1 and the edged past Poland 3-2 to qualify for this tournament and if it clicks Sweden are a dangerous team they boast a lot of attacking and midfield talent with Alexander Isak and Victor Gyokeres up front with a support cast consisting of Anthony Elanga, Yasin Ayari and Lucas Bergvall talent wise that attack and midfield pair is great the problem is its never really worked with Isak and Gyokeres on the pitch at the same time with Isak usually having to play on the wing but if Graham Potter can get Gyokeres Isak and Elanga on the pitch and playing well that is as good a front three that any nation can produce apart from probably France.
The problem for Sweden is defensively Victor Lindelof and Isak Hien are decent centre-half options, and Gabriel Gudmundsson and Daniel Svensson are both good left wing-back options, but none of these guys are elite, and the supporting cast is bang average. Hjalmar Ekdal is ok in a terrible Burnley side; Carl Starfelt and Gustaf Lagerbielke are also both ok options at centre-back. God knows who is playing at right wing-back, but whoever it is going to be a problem.
This group isnt ideal; they don't match up well against Japan, as they play the same formation and Japan just have more quality and depth across the pitch. The Netherlands have a good defence and great midfield, so could control the game and beat Sweden, and I expect Tunisia to give Sweden major issues, but talent-wise they should win that match. The floor for this team is 0 points, and the ceiling, if the attack clicks, could be a very deep run; quarter-finals, probably as far as I can see them going given the state of the defence and the manageable ability of Graham Potter
Predictions
In my predictions, Sweden fail to progress as one of the 8 best third-place teams
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