He won the World Cup with Argentina, played some of his best football in England and has recent managerial experience of Japan. OSSIE ARDILES will be based in Yokohama for the World Cup, flying to all the top games and giving TheFA.com his unique insight. In this column, Ossie explains why the Gods seem to be with Argentina - and names the 16 teams he think will be making progress from the group stages, also predicting the eventual winners...

TIMING IS EVERYTHING AT THE WORLD CUP

Timing is everything in football. You can plan for a World Cup over four years - then see the preparations go up in smoke at the last minute.

Two months ago, England fans were on a high. Now, hand on heart, they don't think they can win the World Cup because Steve Gerrard is out and David Beckham hasn't played since the Champions League quarter-final.

The Republic of Ireland were relying on Roy Keane and he will be sitting at home when the Irish play Cameroon on Saturday. Suddenly, instead of feeling confident of qualifying from their group, Ireland fear how tough it will be.

Yes, timing is everything. That is why I tend to follow the strong feeling in Argentina that this is their tournament to win - just like 1978 and 1986.

Unlike nearly every other big nation, Argentina have missed the big problems in the build-up. There isn't even room for star players like Riquelme and Saviola in the squad. Overall, the team of 2002 can go out and prove they are as good as the 1978 team I played in.

Batistuta, Crespo, Ortega and, above all, Veron are world-class players. Nobody has a bigger incentive to win the World Cup than Seba after the season he has had.

In France 98, Daniel Passarrella the coach - a good friend of mine - told me Veron was 50% of the whole Argentina side. In my mind, Veron is still a fantastic player and the players around him have improved as well.

Seba knows he did not shine at Manchester United last season. He was not terrible but was unable to be as influential in the Premiership as he had been in Italy. He will be thinking at the moment 'I am going to make this my World Cup'. I know how determined he will be to make it his stage and I can't wait to see how he starts against Nigeria on Sunday.

As a country, Argentina always seems to be in a crisis. The pressure is always great on the football players to create happiness by winning the World Cup but this squad is experienced - they know what they have to do. It won't put them off.

Bielsa is a very forward-looking coach, he is tactically aware and can switch systems around to suit the players and the match. Argentina are definitely better than four years ago when they beat England on penalties. Pablo Aimar of Valencia is a wonderful player, Sorin is a good youngster, Simeone and Zanetti have experience; Crespo and Bastituta have goals in them.

Don't think I am taking an Argentine victory for granted though. Nothing could be farther than the truth with teams like France, Italy, Germany, Brazil and England about.

In many ways, this is going to be the fairest World Cup of all to determine the best team in the world. For the first time, it's not in Europe or the American sub-continent. For Brazil and Germany, Argentina and Italy this is truly neutral territory. And this is one of the reasons I think this will turn out to be a great World Cup.

There has been talk that conditions will favour the South American teams but if there is any advantage, it's going to be slight. Sure some matches will be played in hot conditions - but not all of them. England v Argentina is an evening kick off in Sapporo, which is a northern city and cooler than London.

With fewer fans than normal travelling to the World Cup, I think local support could be an important factor. David Beckham is probably the most famous player in the world so that will help England, but Brazil will also have a big advantage; they are hugely popular in Korea and Japan - they are popular wherever they play really.

I think Brazil will go very well but I am not sure about their big striker Ronaldo. He has been away from the game for so long, I am wondering if he can cope with playing every few days - against the best and with all the pressure surrounding the World Cup.

The French are interesting. Zidane will miss the first two games through injury but their young strikers Thierry Henry and David Trezeguet will be terrific to watch. It is hard to believe France won the World Cup four years ago without these two playing from the start. It makes you think how good they will be now.

 

What about the rest of the European challenge? I like Francesco Totti and Michael Owen. I think the chances of Italy and England depend a lot on them. I am not sure about Spain. They also have a quality forward in Raul, but I can't see the creativity from midfield. Mendieta has had a poor season with Lazio as Veron's replacement and it is a lot to ask for him to suddenly switch on.

Certain other countries have a special interest for me. I have worked in both Croatia and Mexico and so I am fascinated to see what happens in Group G where both countries play. I have also worked in Japan, I know the organisation and stadiums will be first-rate but the team itself will consider it a major triumph if they emerge from their group with Russia and Belgium.

Both England and Argentina start on Sunday and both need to come flying out of the traps. They will want to win the group to avoid a likely knockout tie against France. That is why they will have a winning start on their minds against Sweden and Nigeria.

 

OSSIE'S PREDICTIONS


Group A - Winners: France; Denmark to qualify
Group B - Winners: Spain; Paraguay to qualify
Group C - Winners: Brazil; Turkey to qualify
Group D - Winners: Portugal; Poland to qualify
Group E - Winners: Germany; Cameroon to qualify
Group F - Winners: Argentina; England to qualify
Group G - Winners: Italy; Mexico to qualify
Group H - Winners: Russia; Japan to qualify

World Cup winners - Argentina
Top scorer - Hernan Crespo (Argentina)
Star of the tournament - Juan Veron (Argentina)

Ossie was speaking to Joe Bernstein