World Cup Draw

Remove all ads!

The following are the groups for South Africa:

In nearly all the groups the top seed should go through easily, or at least second. France being drawn in South Africa's group means they basically end up the same as a top seed.

Group G is the Group of Death. Brazil, Portugal and Africa's strongest team Ivory Coast. Very tough on Ivory Coast, they were in this the last time with Argentina, Holland and Serbia. They should have been expected to get an extended run in at least one finals. North Korea are the odd one out here obviously.

Germany's group is also interesting. I expect them to win it but it's the only group with four strong teams. No easy matches for anyone in that.

England should sail through their group. I'd fancy the US to make it out as well, the other two teams are poor.

 

Group B is also tough, even better than D. It's safe to say that Argentina will win it, but the other three teams are evenly matched. But group G is the Group of Death - for North Korea at least .

France had good luck to be drawn in the same group with "top seed" South Africa, but Mexico and Uruguay will certainly make it much harder.

Who knows - in Group F New Zealand just might make it?

 

It is going to be a long wait for the games to start....

 

If it wasn't for their managers I'd say Argentina or France could sleepwalk through their groups with the players they have. B's teams are good but I don't think they're quite as good as they were a few years ago. Not that I've seen much of them lately. You're right though, it certainly is another group without any weak teams.

New Zealand got a fantastic draw but to me that just means they're no longer racing certainties to lose every game. I can't see them progressing. It's since occurred to me that there's a great chance of Group G could come down to goal difference. Which would mean how big a stuffing you can give North Korea. There's no way they'll go the three matches without having a negative goal difference in the double figures. I'd love to see how the North Korean media will report their progress.

 

Go the All Whites!

But seriously for a second, we have no chance of going through. We'll be lucky to score a goal at all. We're ranked 77th in the world, and even that's a bit flattering. Slovakia are ranked 34th. Our goalkeeper is going to be very busy...........

 

These are who I'd expect to qualify to the knockouts...

GROUP A
Uruguay
France

GROUP B
Argentina
Nigeria

GROUP C
England
United States

GROUP D
Germany
Ghana

GROUP E
Netherlands
Cameroon

GROUP F
Italy
Paraguay

GROUP G
Brazil
Ivory Coast

GROUP H
Spain
Chile

 

I hope you won't be right about this prediction, Barmy, but who knows - our team tends to mess up horribly whenever things matter.

 

Given the front pages of the tabloids today most english have gotten ahead of themselves convinced of an easy group, we know how easily upsets come in this game.

 

England are certain to balls up a game somewhere along the line.

 

Most probably.

---------- Added 0 hours, 1 minutes and 36 seconds later... ----------

Ghana are a very good (and fast!) team, who I think will take some beating. The Serbs haven't got a lot going forward for me, but who knows.

---------- Added 0 hours, 2 minutes and 5 seconds later... ----------

Well you never know! History tells us that teams tend to do better when in their own climate, so I'd say Cameroon to sprint a surprise. They're not a bad side.

I also fancy Algeria to rustle a few feathers against the US. Slovenia will just be the whipping boys, though.

 

I find the world cup to be a joke to be honest with you, take for example the rugby world cup, south africa are the world champions, they lost to ireland last weekend, alot of people in the pub thought that was rubbish;

to me the world cup is like an MOT, it lasts a year but only proves the worthiness at the time of the test.

 

I wonder if New Zealand will score a goal.

 

Isn't that the idea?

 

Yeah, but since they only hold it once every 4 years, the team is the champion for 4 years... and we all know how much teams can change in 4 years. It would be more accurate every 2 years, even.

 

Any knockout style tournament is going to be less reflective of team quality than a league style competition, but that is the excitement of it. In a league, you often know who is going to win long before the end, but with a knockout, it always goes down to the very last game.

 

One of the main appeals of the World Cup is that it is only played every fourth year. It makes it a bit exclusive, if you played it more often it would cheapen and dilute the excitement of the tournament. The more often you hold a competition the less important it becomes.

 

There's a lot of other soccer to be played though. The European Championship will tell you who the best team is, minus Brazil and Argentina. And the international scene is supposed to be special and rare, the club matches are the bread and butter of the sport.

 

Like the time Greece won it? It was still a short knockout tournament so you can still get exciting upsets - which are what the fans want to see.