When the World Cup draw took place last December, it came as no surprise to anyone that England got the easiest group of the lot. It would seem easy to discount group C and say England will finish top and the USA will finish second, however, this group could potentially be one of the most interesting of the lot.

First of all, I'd like to say that I have no doubt England will progress from the group; they simply have too much quality for the other sides. But it's the battle for the second spot that is really interesting.

To be brutally honest, the current USA side doesn't impress on paper and I think that Algeria and Slovenia could pose a significant threat to them. In particular, an experienced Slovenian outfit could be a real dark horse in this group. The combination of some outstanding young talents such as the towering young midfielder Rene Krhin (of Serie A club Inter Milan) and their experienced-but-not-Craig-Moore-style-actually-past-their-peak-old players means that they certainly have the potential to cause an upset.

It's more than a month until the World Cup but I'll take a leap of faith and say I think that Slovenia will qualify second. I know what you're thinking. Why, yes, I am insane, thank you for asking.

Another interesting point to take from group C is that it's the group that pairs up with Australia's group D in the round of 16. If Australia progresses from the group stage in second spot, it's almost certain that we'll be facing England. And that would, quite frankly, be the most awesome round of 16 match ever and another really good excuse for the whole country to prove (again) that Australia is greater than England.

While we're on the topic of England bashing (which may feature quite frequently in this group C blog), I can't help but notice how old their squad is. For every old player problem we hear the Socceroos have, it looks like England have two. Sure, our central defensive pairing will probably be retired when Brazil 2014 rolls around but we've got Rhys Williams, Matthew Spiranovic, Shane Lowry and Ben Kantarovski! England fielded a defensive line with an average age of about 27 in their friendly against Algeria. Yes, I know, so they're all in their peak. But have any great young defenders really emerged for them? (As far as I know) Not really... Except Ryan Shawcross but with his tendency to dish up pretty hard (i.e. career threatening) tackles you could envisage him not being a manager's favourite player.

Then again, Kevin Muscat is still around...