Group A overview

South Africa
Mexico
Uruguay
France

Fixtures:

11/06/2010, Johannesburg - JSC, South Africa vs Mexico
11/06/2010, Cape Town, Uruguay vs France

16/06/2010, Tshwane/Pretoria, South Africa vs Uruguay
16/06/2010, Polokwane, France vs Mexico

22/06/2010, Rustenburg, Mexico vs Uruguay
22/06/2010, Mangaung/Bloemfontein, France vs South Africa

At first glance it looks like a straight forward France dominated group, with the rest fighting out for the 2nd place. A statement South Africa star Steven Pienaar agrees with: "For us to go to the second round, that is the expectation of the people. I think we can get out of the group. Mexico and Uruguay play quite similar to us, only France will be a bit of a challenge for us."

I would not be so certain with things. Anything can happen with Raymond Domenech in charge of France. The fixtures list also doesn't favour the 1998 winners. They have to take on FIFA rankings nr. 19 in Uruguay and nr. 15 in Mexico, before South Africa, who are the worst ranked team in the whole competition with 86.

I don't expect any of the teams to reach 6 points here. South Africa's ranking doesn't really reflect their quality and with thousands of fans behind them, they won't be pushovers. I personally have seen all the teams, except Mexico, in action recently and I can see all the games being very tight and the group as a whole very competitive.

Winner of the group will meet group B's second team and the runner-up will meet the group B winner (Argentina). Imagine France - Argentina already in the first knock-out stage. Awesome stuff.