World Cup Breakdown: Group A

"I'm harder than a diamond in an ice storm right now"

-Ricky Bobby, Talledega Nights

Yes, we're now less than three weeks away from the beginning of the World Cup in South Africa and I'm beginning to feel a little bit like Mr. Bobby. He nailed it. In fact, screw all of this 'In form' business. From now on, when somebody is really hitting their stride (i.e. Wayne Rooney, England), let's start saying they're hard. I'll go for variations, as in "Kaka is hard as a rock right now" or "U.S. really needs Jozy Altidore to get hard for the second half" or my personal favorite (a tribute to my roommate Tristan) "Michael Ballack go hard".

You can find a breakdown of the best World Cup players here.

What follows is the first of my delightfully unrelenting and never-ending series of group breakdowns.

Group A Breakdown

Team	Vegas Odds To Win
1. Uruguay	125-to-1
2. France	16-to-1
3. Mexico	80-1
4. South Africa	150-to-1

While in Las Vegas three weeks ago, I immediately noticed how much of a misnomer France had become in this version of the World Cup. The team that had taken Italy to PKs despite playing down one man (even more, it was their best player, Zinedine Zidane) for some of regulation and all of extra time in the 2006 World Cup was looking at a whopping 16-to-1 odds to win the whole thing. I remember thinking that it had to be a misprint because the lowly and beleaguered Yanks were listed at 10-to-1 (you've got to love American optimism).

I know they played like horseshit throughout qualifying and only got in because of a cheap hand ball by one of their best players, but they're the 2006 World Cup runners up. Doesn't that count for anything? Then I remembered that was four years ago. France no longer has Zidane. And, in reality, they are not nearly as good this time around. Nicolas Anelka fills in for the retired Zidane and, while I'm a big fan of Anelka, he doesn't compare to the bald head-butting bastard of yore.

Further debilitating France is an aging roster and a couple noteworthy injuries, not to mention a draw into a solid Group A, where they'll face a road-tested Uruguay squad and the always dangerous, yet delightfully inconsistent, El Tri from Mexico.

Starting off with an upset pick, I fancy Uruguay winning this group. Luis Suarez and Diego Forlan were both in the top 5 in World Cup qualifying in goals and assists, so Oscar Tabarez' squad won't be short on goals. Couple those scoring threats with the experience of playing many a match against Brazil and Argentina in qualifying and I think we've a recipe for an upset.

The second match on opening day between France and Uruguay will be telling as both desperately need a win to avoid the second-place parity forthcoming. From everything I'm reading on both squads, it seems as though France would be happy enough to draw with the mighty South American squad, whereas Tabarez and Co. are playing to knock the Frogs out.

I hate to say it, but I see Les Bleus from France taking the second position in the group. The truth of the matter is that El Tri plays a sloppy style of ball -- as evidenced in their 3-1 friendly loss to England -- relying too much on dives and erroneous slide tackles. They're going to need young guns like Giovani Dos Santos and Andres Guardado to be rock hard to get a win in South Africa (you see how well it works?).

Host nation South Africa may have the spirit of Africa behind it, but that's not worth shit on the pitch. They may eek out a point.