World Cup 2010: Group G

BRAZIL

Coach Dunga won the World Cup in 1994 as an uncompromising defensive midfielder. Now, he coaches the way he played, with an eye on results, not style. Brazil will be effective, not attractive. Even so, with the likes of Maicon, Kaka, Robinho, and Luis Fabiano, the goals should still flow.

PORTUGAL

The Portuguese finished fourth in 2006 but are in the toughest first-round group this time. Coach Carlos Queiroz has the world’s most expensive player in winger/forward Cristiano Ronaldo, a useful understudy in Simao, a decent playmaker in Deco and a good defender in Ricardo Carvalho, but not much else.

IVORY COAST

Once regarded as the most likely African team to have an impact, the Ivory Coast slipped when it “sacrificed,” in his words, Vahid Halilhodzic as coach and hired Sven-Goran Eriksson. The unquestioned star is striker Didier Drogba, Africa’s player of the year, but he alone can’t make the Elephants fly.

NORTH KOREA

The only question surrounding Coach Kim Jong-Hun’s undistinguished squad is whether it or New Zealand will finish 32nd out of the World Cup’s 32 teams. The Koreans’ upset of Italy in 1966 is a distant memory, and the world has changed since then, even if North Korea has not.