While Diego Maradona will be in the spotlight in his first World Cup as a coach, his three Group B rivals also have plenty to prove in South Africa.
Lars Lagerback was hired by Nigeria less than four months before the World Cup and wants to make an impact after failing to get Sweden to the championship, South Korea coach Huh Jung-moo is out to show that a homegrown coach can follow the lead of Guus Hiddink, who guided the team to the semifinals in 2002, and Otto Rehhagel led Greece to a surprise title at the 2004 European Championship.
But of the four, it is Maradona who will dominate the headlines, especially after struggling to qualify Argentina for the 32-team tournament. If the two-time champions fail to hit any form, then this group could be wide open.
Maradona is one of the game's greatest players, but he has yet to convince the watching world that he can make it as a coach.
The diminutive Argentine will get an early chance to prove himself at the World Cup when his team faces Nigeria on the second day of competition. That game is at altitude at Ellis Park in Johannesburg, and it will be interesting to see how prepares his team.
When Maradona took a risk by playing a qualifying game at Bolivia by flying his team there two hours before kickoff, Argentina lost 6-1.
Even though Maradona dropped playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme, he has quality players such as Lionel Messi, Carlos Tevez, Gonzalo Higuain, Juan Sebastian Veron and Javier Mascherano.
Under Maradona's leadership, however, Argentina is hard to predict and that gives Nigeria, South Korea and Greece plenty of hope to finish in the top two and advance to the second round.
Like Maradona, Lagerback has a wealth of talented players in the Nigeria squad - Obafemi Martins, Nwankwo Kanu, Joseph Yobo and Ayegbeni Yakubu have played at the highest level in European leagues and have plenty of experience.
Lagerback took over from Shaibu Amodu, who was fired after the team finished third at the African Cup of Nations, and is out to show he still has the ability to blend them into a team.
While Argentina and Nigeria play their first game at altitude, the South Koreans and the Greeks meet at sea level on the coast at the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium in Port Elizabeth.
Park Ji-sung's return to form with Manchester United after a long injury layoff has boosted South Korea's hopes of making a mark even though repeating its semifinal appearance on home turf eight years ago may be too much to hope for.
Greece qualified under veteran coach Rehhagel with Fanis Gekas top-scoring in European World Cup qualifying with 10 goals. Although the 71-year-old German failed to get the Greeks to the last championship in his homeland four years ago, the Greeks go into their second World Cup with optimism and hopes of a better performance than in 1994.
Back then, they lost all three group games without scoring a goal, including 2-0 to Nigeria and 4-0 to Argentina, with Maradona scoring.
