watch out for Slovakia. Eastern European teams are always unpredictable. No one saw Bulgaria coming in 94, Croatia in 98 and Ukraine had a good run as well in 2006. Great technique, great skill, lot of flair. There's a lot of quality in this Slovakian team. Jan Mucha is an excellent keeper. Just got transferred to Everton. Martin Skrtel, good defender on a good day. Marek Hamsik. The soul of Napoli. Great midfielder and great goal scorer. Very skilfull and also good with set pieces. Miroslav Stoch. Fantastic for Twente this season on loan from Chelsea. Pretty skillful coming from the right.
Slovakia will give Italy a run for their money and will spring a lot of surprises

medjai:

watch out for Slovakia. Eastern European teams are always unpredictable. No one saw Bulgaria coming in 94, Croatia in 98 and Ukraine had a good run as well in 2006. Great technique, great skill, lot of flair. There's a lot of quality in this Slovakian team. Jan Mucha is an excellent keeper. Just got transferred to Everton. Martin Skrtel, good defender on a good day. Marek Hamsik. The soul of Napoli. Great midfielder and great goal scorer. Very skilfull and also good with set pieces. Miroslav Stoch. Fantastic for Twente this season on loan from Chelsea. Pretty skillful coming from the right.
Slovakia will give Italy a run for their money and will spring a lot of surprises

Good point. 
You fail to mention Jendrisek, Man City's Weiss and Chelsea's Stoch, still have a lot to learn but do have potentials in abundance. A team with a glimmer of promise no doubts but lacking in depth and quality. Beyond the group stage, they will be like fish outta water.

This truly is a WC of injuries :-

Denmark forward Nicklas Bendtner trained separately from the rest of their World Cup squad as he struggles to get over a groin problem.
However, he has no worries about his overall fitness ahead of the opening Group E game against Netherlands next Monday.

"I've been training hard with the physical trainer and I'm one of those with the best heart rate in the squad and the football side of things shouldn't be any problem," Danish national radio website (www.dr.dk) quoted Bendtner as saying.

Defender Simon Kjaer, who injured his knee in a friendly with Senegal last month, had to sit out Monday's session.

He would prefer not to play with painkilling injections but said he will leave the final decision to the medical team.

"We're not there yet and I'd rather not but that's a decision I'll let the doctors take," he was quoted as saying by Danish newspaper Politiken on Monday.

Midfielder Martin Jorgensen believes Denmark's altitude training with the World Cup ball will give them an advantage over the Dutch when they start their campaign.

"Holland haven't played here yet, so they may get something of a culture shock -- unless of course they are so good technically that they don't need to hit a long ball," he told Danish radio.

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/07062010/58/world-cup-2010-injured-bendtner-training-alone.html

@ ruddie
i didnt know Vladimir Weiss made the team. I've seen play for Man City and yeah, i did mention Miroslav Stoch, read my post

& still more injuries to worry about. . . . even to match officials. 

Cahill, Iniesta, Julio Cesar, Frei and ref Pablo Pozo Quinteros from Chile

What could be a reasonable explanation for the unusual and seemingly endless injuries. Are tackles getting harder or Physio's aren't doing their jobs

or perhaps players are calcium deficient

jalether:

What could be a reasonable explanation for the unusual and seemingly endless injuries. Are tackles getting harder or Physio's aren't doing their jobs

or perhaps players are calcium deficient

I'd pin it to a huge dose of calcium deficiency & a long, gruelling season. . . . but in Nani's case (& Nani only) tryna do what he shoulda been doing all season long for MU. I mean if the bloody plonker had impressed wella during the season, would he have to be sweating it, tryna to show everybody that he's got something to show!?

& believe me u. . . . . i think three-quarters of the whole bunch of players in that WC that play consistently for Chelsea FC are nursing 1 injury or another except that they do not wanna declare it publicly.