TheCable

World Cup debutantes, Bosnia-Herzegovina, play Ivory Coast on Friday in Saint Louis, Missouri, United States.

But Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi, who is also in the US with his team, need not bother traveling or sending his assistant, Daniel Amokachi, to the venue to get first-hand information on Edin Dzeko and co.

There are 811.48 miles (by air) from Saint Louis and Philadelphia and 886 miles by road. The average flight time takes about 105 minutes. And by road? 15 hours 36 minutes!

Keshi doesn’t have the luxury of time, so count out 90 minutes in front of the TV. It takes less than five minutes to read this story — even a busy manager with 30 egos to manage (excluding another 30 from the Nigeria Football Federation) can spare that time.

Why go through that pain to Sokoto when you can have the information in your Sokoto! 

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Strengths

They have one of the best strike partnerships among all the 32 finalists. Dzeko and Vedad Ibisevic scored 18 of the team’s overall 30-goal total during the qualification campaign.

The team have an incredible mental strength for an inexperienced team. In qualifying, they managed to claw back a greater share of points than all but two fellow finalists.

In Zvjezdan Misimovic and Miralem Pjanic, they have talented midfielders to supply the strikers with passes.

Weaknesses

Well, the obvious one is a lack of experience of playing at the World Cup. But then, Keshi et al didn’t have World Cup jitters in their debut tournament in 1994!

Almost 80 per cent of their goals came from Misimovic, Ibisevic and Dzeko, which is dangerous should any of those players lose form or pick an injury.

While they have a good goalkeeper in Asmir Begovic and a solid defender in skipper Emir Spahic, their defence as a unit is inconsistent. They also do not have a stable back four, which could prove costly against quality attacking sides.

Iran

Strengths

A strong defence that conceded just seven goals during their entire qualification campaign, albeit they will be under sterner test from the Terrific Trio of Emmanuel Emenike, Osaze Odemwingie, and Victor Moses (in their first game) and fantastic quartet of Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio Aguero  and Angel Di Maria (in their second).

Iran are the strongest of the finalists at converting set-pieces in terms of the proportion of goals. In qualifying, 40 per cent of their goals came from dead balls.

They have an experienced manager in Carlos Queiroz, who has previously taken South Africa and Portugal to the finals.

Weaknesses

They are poor at defending set-pieces (ironically, given their prowess at converting attacking set-pieces). More than half the goals they conceded came from set-pieces, which make them the poorest side among the 32 finalists in that respect.

They do not have an out-and-out striker.

Argentina

Strengths

The Fantastic Quartet are unplayable on their day.

Argentina will be the deadliest finalist in terms of creating chances through the middle by intricate play; they created 75 per cent of their chances from the middle of the park.

Their high tempo starts make them the third-best finalist when it comes to scoring early.

Weaknesses

While they have a balanced midfield and terrifying forwards, their defence was erratic during the qualification campaign. They only managed to keep a clean sheet in four of their 16 games, which is the worst percentage of all the finalists.

Their goalkeeper Sergio Romero struggles with crosses. Romero might also be rusty as he is out of favour at Monaco.

A heavy reliance on Messi’s creativity, plus the inherent nature of Higuain and Aguero to converge centrally, starves their game of width, so they may struggle against centrally-packed defences.