For Chile along with Honduras and Switzerland it must feel like they are all playing for second place behind Euro 2008 champions and favourites for this year's World Cup, Spain in Group H.

La Roja, who are making their first appearance at a World Cup since France 98, qualified impressively for the World Cup finishing second behind Brazil in the South American qualifying group. Not that you can really call it a group with all every team being involved.

Under the tutelage of Argentinean coach, Marcelo Bielsa (he of the ill-fated Argentinean campaign at the 2002 World Cup) the Chileans have developed into an impressive attack-minded team who like to get forward at every opportunity scoring an impressive 32 goals on their way to qualification.

This could quite possibly be the beginning of a golden generation for the Chileans that could rival the team of '98 that featured the deadly strike duo of Ivan Zamarano and Marcelo Salas. The key to La Roja's recent success is the impressive number of young talented players coming through the ranks, especially those who were part of the team that finished third in the 2007 U-20 World Cup. With that in mind it is now an opportune time to look at some of the players that will be key to Chile's chance of progressing past the group stage.

Arturo Vidal is one of those graduates from the aforementioned 2007 campaign and is currently plying his trade in the Bundesliga with Bayer Leverkusen. Although predominantly a defender, he can also play in the midfield and like many of his teammates likes to get forward and score goals.

As previously mentioned, Chile scored an impressive 32 goals during its qualification campaign and key to that tally were the ten goals from Humberto "Chupete" Suazo. No matter what team he plays for he has no problems finding the back of the net with his goals to games average being extremely high.

Suazo is currently plying his trade in Spain with Real Zaragoza, where after a slow start he has now become a fan favourite according to The Guardian's Sid Lowe. If Chile are to progress in South Africa, this man will definitely need to be finding the back of the net on a regular basis.

The third player that I want you all to look out for is Alexis Sánchez, who like Vidal was part of Chile's impressive showing at the 2007 U-20 World Cup. He is a attacking midfielder/striker/winger who after plying his trade with South American giants Colo Colo and River Plate (two teams that I despise) he can be now found in Serie A with Udinese. Along with Suazo, they will form Chile's main scoring threats.

Other players to keep an eye out for are 'keeper and captain, Claudio Bravo, defender Gary Medel and midfielders Matias Fernandez and Mark Gonzalez.

Like Australia's campaign four years ago, the key to La Roja's progression from the group will rely heavily on its first game of the tournament against Honduras. If they can take the three points in this clash it will go a long way to determining the success of their tournament. If they get their momentum and confidence up, they make it further in the competition than anyone expects and I would go as far as to say that they remind me a lot of the Turkey teams that did so well in the 2002 World Cup and 2008 Euros. And it's not that both teams are predominantly short in stature.

Where it may all come unstuck for the South Americans is between the ears. Whilst extremely skilful and playing an exciting brand of football (a brand of which caused my father-in-law to switch allegiances from the Socceroos and back to his native country) they can be extremely temperamental and it wouldn't surprise me if you saw a couple of red cards during the tournament. But with almost half their qualifying points coming away from home it looks like Bielsa may have got that problem solved. I am still yet to be convinced though.

Finally, I must admit that I have a rather soft spot for Chile and I would even go as far to say that they will be my second team behind the Socceroos at this year's tournament. This affection has mainly been born about through my in-laws and a visit to their country a few years back. So it is with a Chi-Chi-Chi, Le-Le-Le, Viva Chile! I wish my second team all the best at the World Cup, except of course if their path shall cross that of the Socceroos.