What's going on with different teams this year? Let's take a look...
Ireland- Lost top strikers David Brown to a knee injury, Jay Tomchuk and Brett Levis to Poland, and a couple other key cogs...is this finally the year Ireland crumbles? Knowing Ireland, they'll replace the players with some quality players and keep it going. It will be interesting, since they play Sudan right at the beginning, and won't have a difficult challenger until the playoffs.
El Salvador - Could be losing a key defender in Jordian Farahani and striker in Jerson Barandica-Hamilton to teams in the United States where they have tryouts scheduled. Remains to be seen how those tryouts go. Still, this is a team that took Ireland to shootouts last year. They'll still be quite strong.
France - France is another team that will be missing some key players. Losing striker Brett Bachelu and defendersYianni Harbis and Mason Bulych will hurt the most, but France is replacing them with top players. The Patterson twins were in talks to join France, but it appears they'll remain with Germany this year. Expect France to be a top team and challenge El Salvador for Group D.
Poland - It's easy to see why Poland is this year's most exciting team. With strong additions at striker and defence, a strong fan base, Poland has to be the most dangerous team in the tournament.
Germany - Assuming they can keep the Pattersons, Germany has added a couple more players from Regina and Saskatoon. They still need to find some consistency, but they're going in the right direction.
Serbia - Serbia is looking to add some former Ukraine players, and could a surprise contender in their group with Ireland and Sudan.
Canada - Look out for Canada this year. They've added a strong midfielder in Ahmed Shirif, and replaced a couple other players with good players. Definitely a strong team.
Colombia, Greece, Nigeria, Hungary and Northern Ireland are all taking part in the RSA Tournament at the end of February, this should be a decent indicator of what each team will bring to the WCP Cup.
Anything else?
Ireland- Lost top strikers David Brown to a knee injury, Jay Tomchuk and Brett Levis to Poland, and a couple other key cogs...is this finally the year Ireland crumbles? Knowing Ireland, they'll replace the players with some quality players and keep it going. It will be interesting, since they play Sudan right at the beginning, and won't have a difficult challenger until the playoffs.
El Salvador - Could be losing a key defender in Jordian Farahani and striker in Jerson Barandica-Hamilton to teams in the United States where they have tryouts scheduled. Remains to be seen how those tryouts go. Still, this is a team that took Ireland to shootouts last year. They'll still be quite strong.
France - France is another team that will be missing some key players. Losing striker Brett Bachelu and defendersYianni Harbis and Mason Bulych will hurt the most, but France is replacing them with top players. The Patterson twins were in talks to join France, but it appears they'll remain with Germany this year. Expect France to be a top team and challenge El Salvador for Group D.
Poland - It's easy to see why Poland is this year's most exciting team. With strong additions at striker and defence, a strong fan base, Poland has to be the most dangerous team in the tournament.
Germany - Assuming they can keep the Pattersons, Germany has added a couple more players from Regina and Saskatoon. They still need to find some consistency, but they're going in the right direction.
Serbia - Serbia is looking to add some former Ukraine players, and could a surprise contender in their group with Ireland and Sudan.
Canada - Look out for Canada this year. They've added a strong midfielder in Ahmed Shirif, and replaced a couple other players with good players. Definitely a strong team.
Colombia, Greece, Nigeria, Hungary and Northern Ireland are all taking part in the RSA Tournament at the end of February, this should be a decent indicator of what each team will bring to the WCP Cup.
Anything else?
