The two Saturday morning games feature the start of Group B, with Korea Republic vs. Greece kicking things off at 7:30 Eastern, followed by group favorites Argentina vs. Nigeria at 10:00.
Using the Total Rating metric–A players’ Goal Difference per 96 minutes of 11 vs 11 play, adjusted for strength of teammates and strength of opposition during all GF and GA, compared to average for his league–here’s how the players on the Group B teams stack up (for players in the five top European leagues):
| Korea Republic – Players in the top 5 European leagues | ||||||
| Name | Position | Team | League | OR | DR | TR |
| Park Ji-Sung | Mid | Man. United | England | +0.35 | +0.58 | +0.94 |
| Lee Young-Pyo# | Full | Dortmund | Germany | -0.04 | +0.21 | +0.17 |
| Park Chu-Young | Fwd | Monaco | France | +0.02 | +0.08 | +0.10 |
| Cha Du-Ri | Full | Freiburg | Germany | -0.23 | -0.12 | -0.35 |
| Lee Chung-Yong | Mid | Bolton | England | -0.19 | -0.23 | -0.42 |
| Greece – Players in the top 5 European leagues | ||||||
| Name | Position | Team | League | OR | DR | TR |
| Theofanis Gekas | Fwd | Hertha Berlin | Germany | +0.15 | +0.40 | +0.55 |
| Vaggelis Moras | Full | Bologna | Italy | -0.05 | -0.10 | -0.15 |
| Sotirios Kyrgiakos* | Full | Liverpool | England | -0.42 | 0.24 | -0.18 |
| Sokratis | Full | Genoa | Italy | +0.03 | -0.24 | -0.21 |
| Alexandros Tziolis | Mid | Siena | Italy | -0.30 | -0.12 | -0.42 |
| Angelos Charistias* | Fwd | Nuremburg | Germany | -0.48 | -0.39 | -0.88 |
| Nigeria – Players in the top 5 European leagues | ||||||
| Name | Position | Team | League | OR | DR | TR |
| Lukman Haruna* | Mid | Monaco | France | +0.05 | +0.51 | +0.57 |
| Taye Taiwo | Full | Marseille | France | +0.34 | +0.22 | +0.56 |
| Chinedu Obasi | Fwd | Hoffenheim | Germany | +0.22 | +0.06 | +0.28 |
| Obafemi Martins | Fwd | Wolfsburg | Germany | +0.12 | -0.03 | +0.08 |
| Dickson Etuhu | Mid | Fulham | England | -0.09 | +0.14 | +0.05 |
| Victor Obinna | Fwd | Malaga | Spain | -0.10 | -0.04 | -0.14 |
| Joseph Yobo | Full | Everton | England | -0.11 | -0.07 | -0.18 |
| Danny Shittu* | Full | Bolton | England | -0.23 | -0.04 | -0.27 |
| Kalu Uche | Mid | Almeria | Spain | +0.00 | -0.31 | -0.31 |
| Yakubu | Fwd | Everton | England | +0.08 | -0.40 | -0.32 |
| John Utaka | Fwd | Portsmouth | England | -0.16 | -0.22 | -0.37 |
| Kanu* | Fwd | Portsmouth | England | -0.11 | -0.37 | -0.48 |
| Ideye Brown | Fwd | Schaux | France | -0.55 | -0.14 | -0.69 |
| Argentina – Players in the top 5 European leagues | ||||||
| Name | Position | Team | League | OR | DR | TR |
| Lionel Messi | Fwd | Barcelona | Spain | +0.68 | +0.36 | +1.04 |
| Martin Demichelis | Full | Bayen Munich | Germany | +0.56 | +0.22 | +0.78 |
| Maxi Rodriguez | Mid | Liverpool | England | +0.26 | +0.36 | +0.62 |
| Carlos Tevez | Fwd | Man. City | England | +0.30 | +0.24 | +0.54 |
| Gonzalo Higuain | Fwd | Real Madrid | Spain | +0.48 | +0.06 | +0.54 |
| Walter Samuel | Full | Internazionale | Italy | +0.28 | +0.21 | +0.50 |
| Nicolas Burdisso | Full | Roma | Italy | +0.26 | +0.18 | +0.44 |
| Gabriel Heinze | Full | Marseille | France | +0.26 | +0.14 | +0.40 |
| Javier Mascherano | Mid | Liverpool | England | +0.23 | +0.16 | +0.39 |
| Diego Milito | Fwd | Internazionale | Italy | +0.23 | +0.09 | +0.31 |
| Javier Pastore | Mid | Palermo | Italy | +0.19 | +0.12 | +0.31 |
| Mariano Andujar | Goal | Catania | Italy | +0.28 | +0.28 | |
| Sergio Aguero | Fwd | Atletico Madrid | Spain | +0.30 | -0.10 | +0.19 |
| Mario Bolatti* | Mid | Fiorentino | Italy | -0.67 | -0.12 | -0.79 |
*Minutes played are low enough where TR may not reflect actual level of player.
#Lee Young-Pyo played Dortmund in 2008-9.
Though having trouble finding playing time at Manchester United, Korean captain Park Ji-Sung has been a monster by TR over the past two seasons.
Theofanis Gekas, forward for Hertha Berlin, is the standout player for Greece.
Quantity, but what about quality? The majority of the Nigerian squad plays in the top European leagues, but a glance here shows that many of them rank as below average performers in those leagues. Still, they should have the inside track to advance over Korea and Greece. One of my greatest wishes: plenty of goals for Obafemi Martins, because that translates into many backflips.
Argentina is clearly the class of Group B and shouldn’t have any trouble going through to the Round of 16. While Lionel Messi is considered by many to be the best player in the world, he’s got a lot of talent surrounding him on this Argentine squad.