South Africa 2010 teams

This summer, 32 national teams will head to South Africa to compete in the 19th World Cup finals each hoping, with varying degrees of realism, to write themselves into the illustrious history of football's most coveted prize.

There are the usual suspects from Brazil, Italy, Spain and Germany the damaged but dangerous Argentina, France and Portugal, but also the dark-horses from the Ivory Coast and USA, those capable of a latter-stage surge like Australia and Cameroon and a differing collection of determined dreamers from across the globe.

GROUP A:

SOUTH AFRICA


Manager: Carlos Alberto Parreira

Key player: Kagisho Dikgacoi

Best: Round one (1998, 2002)

World ranking: 86


MEXICO

Manager: Javier Aguirre

Key player: Rafael Marquez

Best: Quarter-final (1970, 1986)

World ranking: 15


URUGUAY

Manager: Oscar Tabarez

Key player: Diego Forlan

Best: Winners (1930, 1950)

World ranking: 19


FRANCE

Manager: Raymond Domenech

Key player: Franck Ribery

Best: Winners (1998)

World ranking: 7


GROUP B:

ARGENTINA


Manager: Diego Maradona

Key player: Lionel Messi

Best: Winners (1978, 1986)

World ranking: 8


NIGERIA

Manager: Shaibu Amodu

Key player: Yakubu Aiyegbeni

Best: Round two (1994, 1998)

World ranking: 22

SOUTH KOREA

Manager: Huh Jung-Moo

Key player: Park Ji-Sung

Best: Fourth (2002)

World ranking: 52

GREECE

Manager: Otto Rehhagel

Key player: Giorgos Karagounis

Best: Round one (1994)

World ranking: 12

GROUP C:

ENGLAND


Manager: Fabio Capello

Key player: Wayne Rooney

Best: Winners (1966)

World ranking: 9

UNITED STATES

Manager: Bob Bradley

Key player: Landon Donovan

Best: Third (1930)

World ranking: 14

ALGERIA

Manager: Rabah Saadane

Key player: Karim Ziani

Best: Round one (1986, 1982)

World ranking: 26

SLOVENIA

Manager: Matjaz Kek

Key player: Milivoje Novakovic

Best: Round one (2002)

World ranking: 33


GROUP D:

GERMANY


Manager: Joachim Loew

Key player: Michael Ballack

Best: Winners (1954, 1974, 1990)

World ranking: 6

AUSTRALIA

Manager: Pim Verbeek

Key player: Tim Cahill

Best: Round two (2006)

World ranking: 21

SERBIA

Manager: Radomir Antic

Key player: Nemanja Vidic

Best: Fourth place (1930, 1962, as Yugoslavia)

World ranking: 20

GHANA

Manager: Milovan Rajevac

Key player: Michael Essien

Best: Round three (2006)

World ranking: 37

GROUP E:

NETHERLANDS


Manager: Bert van Marwijk

Key player: Mark van Bommel

Best: Runners-up (1974, 1978)

World ranking: 3

DENMARK

Manager: Morten Olsen

Key player: Christian Poulsen

Best: Quarter-finals (1998)

World ranking: 26

JAPAN

Manager: Takeshi Okada

Key player: Shunsuke Nakamura

Best: Round two (2002)

World ranking: 43


CAMEROON

Manager: Paul Le Guen

Key player: Samuel Eto'o

Best: Quarter-finals (1990)

World ranking: 11

GROUP F:

ITALY


Manager: Marcelo Lippi

Key player: Andrea Pirlo

Best: Winners (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006)

World ranking: 4

PARAGUAY

Manager: Gerardo Martino

Key player: Oscar Cardozo

Best: Round two (1986, 1998, 2002)

World ranking: 30

NEW ZEALAND

Manager: Ricki Herbert

Key player: Ryan Nelsen

Best: Round one (1982)

World ranking: 77


SLOVAKIA

Manager: Vladimir Weiss

Key player: Marek Hamsik

Best: No previous appearances

World ranking: 34

GROUP G:

BRAZIL


Manager: Dunga

Key player: Kaka

Best: Winners (1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, 2002)

World ranking: 2

NORTH KOREA

Manager: Kim-Jong Hun

Key player: Hong Yong-Jo

Best: Quarter-final (1966)

World ranking: 84

IVORY COAST

Manager: Vahid Halilhodic

Key player: Didier Drogba

Best: Round one (2006)

World ranking: 16

PORTUGAL

Manager: Carlos Queiroz

Key player: Cristiano Ronaldo

Best: Fourth place (2006)

World ranking: 5

GROUP H:

SPAIN


Manager: Vicente del Bosque

Key player: Xavi

Best: Fourth (1950)

World ranking: 1

SWITZERLAND

Manager: Ottmar Hitzfeld

Key player: Tranquillo Barnetta

Best: Quarter-final (1934, 1938, 1954)

World ranking: 18

HONDURAS

Manager: Reinaldo Rueda

Key player: Wilson Palacios

Best: Round one (1982)

World ranking: 38

CHILE

Manager: Marcelo Biesla

Key player: Alexis Sanchez

Best: Third place (1962)

World ranking: 17

HOSTS: South Africa

AFRICA QUALIFYING: Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria

ASIA QUALIFYING: Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea

EUROPE QUALIFYING: Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland

SOUTH AMERICA QUALIFYING: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay

NORTH, CENTRAL AMERICA AND QUALIFYING: Honduras, Mexico, United States

ASIA/OCEANIA PLAY-OFF New Zealand