FIFA World Cup 2014 Brazil: Preview

A long hard journey is finally culminating as my Algeiran National Team is ready to begin their quest. In our final warm-up friendly we were able to defeat #7 Uruguay 1-0 on a goal by Abdelkader Ghezzal.

First let's take a look at the 23-man squad that will take the pitch in Brazil:

---Goleiros
Mickaël Fabre 29 (Clermont Foot 63)
Fawzi Chaouchi 29 (Molde)
Faouzi Belkheïr 19 (AS Saint-Etienne)

---Zaguieros
Rafik Helliche 27 (Atletico Madrid)
Anthar Yahia 32 (Atletico Madrid)
Madjid Bougherra 31 (AS Saint-Etienne)
Mohamed Benhamed 21 (Al-Ahly)

---Laterais
Fadel Sahroui 22 (Unirea Urziceni)
Nadir Belhadj 31 (FC Barcelona)
Ryad Boudebouz 24 (Hoffenheim)
Djamel Mesbah 29 (Stade Rennais FC)

---Volantes
Amine Linganzi 24 (Roma)
Nabil Kaïd 20 (Toronto FC)
Hassan Yebda 30 (Paris Saint-Germain)
Mehdi Lacen 30 (Racing)

---Meias
Sofiane Feghouli 24 (Grenoble Foot 38)
Karim Ziani 31 (Chelsea)
Kamel Ghilas 30 (Hull City)
Abdelaziz Touati 22 (Dinamo Moscow)

---Atacante
Abdelkader Ghezzal 29 (Inter Milan)
Rafik Djebbour 30 (AEK)
Idir Ouali 26 (Bochum)
Sofiane Hanni 23 (FC Nantes)

Now, a look at the opponents.

Paraguay
Venue: Albertão, Teresina (PL)
14 June 2014
FIFA Ranking: 21
---Road to Brazil
Chile 0-2
at Bolivia 4-1
Peru 1-3
at Venezuela 1-2
Uruguay 2-1
at Argentina 2-0
Colombia 1-3
Bolivia 4-0
at Ecuador 1-1
at Chile 1-3
at Peru 2-1
Venezuela 3-1
at Uruguay 1-1
Argentina 1-0
at Colombia 0-3
Ecuador 5-0
(8-2-6, 26pts, 3rd in CONMEBOL Zone)

Serbia
Venue: Vivaldão, Manaus (AM)
19 June 2014
FIFA Ranking: 10
---Road to Brazil
at Macedonia 0-0
Albania 2-0
at England 2-3
Ireland 6-1
Macedonia 1-2
England 1-0
at Albania 2-1
at Ireland 2-1
(5-1-2, 16pts, won Group 9 in UEFA Zone on goal difference)

Croatia
Venue: Maracanão, Rio de Janeiro (RJ)
24 June 2014
FIFA Ranking: 9
---Road to Brazil
Romania 1-1
Georgia 2-1
at Azerbaijan 2-0
at Lithuania 1-0
Czech Republic 2-2
at Georgia 1-1
at Romania 3-2
Lithuania 4-0
Azerbaijan 4-0
at Czech Republic
(6-4-0, 22pts, won Group 1of UEFA Zone)

And a look at the overall draw:

---Group A
Russia
New Zealand
Romania
Mexico

---Group B
Serbia
Croatia
Paraguay
Algeria

---Group C
Brazil
Holland
Ghana
Japan

---Group D
Portugal
Colombia
Italy
Bahrain

---Group E
Germany
Cameroon
Montenegro
United States

---Group F
Argentina
China
Switzerland
Morocco

---Group G
Sweden
South Korea
Nigeria
Uruguay

---Group H
Spain
Ecuador
France
Costa Rica