WORLD CUP: Group D Preview

The Art of Deco boosts Portugal

PORTUGAL
Odds: 22-1 (9/32 teams). FIFA Ranking: 7 (7/32).
Previous appearances: 3. Podium finishes: 3rd (1966).

It is only because of its spectacular collapse at the 2002 World Cup that Portugal, with its array of brilliant players, is rarely mentioned among the
favorites.
Portugal lost 3-2 to the USA in its 2002 opener — a game 92 percent of Portuguese fans thought their team would win. In Portugal's last group game, it was tying South Korea 0-0 while the Poles were spanking the Americans, which meant the Portuguese would advance with a draw.
But Coach Antonio Oliveira didn't want to know the score of the Poland-USA game – the Poles led 2-0 after five minutes and won 3-1 – so he couldn't tell his players hold back. Not realizing their good fortune, they turned desperate and violent. Two were red-carded before a late South Korean goal ousted Portugal and sent the Americans through.
In came Coach Luiz Felipe Scolari, who guided had Brazil to the 2002 title. Scolari is a shrewder man and has a stronger team with the addition of Deco and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Returning from the 2002 squad is Luis Figo, still a dazzling winger at 34, and Pauleta, Europe's leading scorer in qualifying, during which Portugal outscored its foes 35 to 5. Playmaker Deco, a post-2002 addition, orchestrates Portugal's swift, lethal attacking game.
A Brazilian who came to Portugal as a teenager and now stars at Barcelona, Deco plays behind Pauleta, spraying passes to wingers Figo and Cristiano Ronaldo when not feeding Pauleta directly.

MEXICO
Odds: 40-1 (12/32 teams). FIFA Ranking: 4 (4/32).
Previous appearances: 12. Podium finishes: -.

A big, soccer mad country with a rich league, weather that allows year-round play and strong youth programs, Mexico has continued to disappoint at the World Cup, where all it's achieved are two quarterfinal appearances in 12 tries.
Indications that El Tri could finally break through came at last year's Confederations Cup, where Mexico beat Brazil, 1-0, and lost on penalty kicks to Argentina in the semifinals while defenders Ricardo Osorio, Gonzalo Pineda and Carlos Salcido proved that, like Barcelona-based Rafael Marquez, they were capable of handling foes outside their region. (Ricardo La Volpe has also recalled 37-year-old center back Claudio Suarez of Chivas USA, a veteran of two World Cups).
Charged with scoring are Jared Borgetti, the first Mexican to play in the English Premier League. He averages a goal every two games for his country and led all scorers in World Cup qualifying with 14 goals. Francisco Fonseca, whose strike rate has been even more impressive than Borgetti's since debuting in 2004, also sets up teammates frequently.
If Fonseca and Borgetti don't find the net, La Volpe's decision to drop veteran attacker Cuauhtemoc Blanco will haunt him. That La Volpe did pick his son-in-law, midfielder Rafael Garcia, prompted Blanco's mother, Hortensia, to say, ''Let's see if I can get one of my kids to marry La Volpe's daughter, too. Three of my boys are still bachelors.''

IRAN
Odds: 250-1 (t27/32 teams). FIFA Ranking: 23 (16/32).
Previous appearances: 2. Podium finishes: -.

Iran has won once in its previous two World Cups, the 2-1 upset of the USA in 1998, but this is its strongest squad ever. Playmaker Ali Karimi, who made 20 appearances in Bayern Munich's Bundesliga title run, is one of the German-based players providing the core of Coach Branko Ivankovic's squad, along with Mehdi Mahdavikia, Vahid Hashemian and Fereydoon Zandi. Iran's leading scorer in qualifying play was 37-year-old Ali Daei, who spent much of his career in the Bundesliga. Daei scored nine qualifying goals and has more than 100 goals in his 150-plus national team appearances.

ANGOLA
Odds: 500-1 (t29/32 teams). FIFA Ranking: 57 (31/32).
Previous appearances: 0. Podium finishes: -.

Nigeria, Africa's biggest country and its most successful in the last three World Cups, didn't make it this time because of Angola, which in its first World Cup faces its former colonial master Portugal. The oil rich country in which 70 percent of the population lives in poverty suffered through a 27-year civil war that cost 1 million lives before ending in 2002.
Said leading scorer Fabrice Akwa upon qualification, ''This proves Angola is not just about oil, poverty and war.'' Coach Oliveira Goncalves said the Palancas Negras, who include several players of Angolan heritage from the diaspora to Europe, aim mainly to present a good image of the nation.

Odds are Ladbrokes odds as of May 30.
FIFA/Coca Cola rankings are as of May 17.