- Hands off that Cup, Nelson!
FIFA convened today to set the pots for Friday’s World Cup draw and, if you’re English, you’ll be delighted to know that the Three Lions did secure a seed and prime placement in Pot 1, ensuring they should at least be able to make the knockout stages. We all know what happens from there…
Regardless, it gives Capello and co. a major boost to avoid the seven best teams in the tournament at the outset, despite fears that they’d miss out on the seeding depending on which world rankings FIFA chose to use.
An average of rankings from the last three years would see England out of the seeding, as would the current rankings (bizarrely, at present both France and Argentina are above England, despite needing Helping Hands and last-minute goals to secure passage to South Africa. I’m guessing the fact that both nations, along with Portugal, were still playing soccer in November explains the odd shift in the Top 10.).
Mercifully, FIFA went with October’s rankings, thus explaining the arrangement (PS. Ha! Croatia!), and now we can have a little more fun with our group guessings as the pots are set. However, the most thankful gaffer out there should be Diego Maradona, as his utterly lackluster team in qualifying has been blessed with a seed, meaning they should be a lot more entertaining in struggling to emerge from a group that could potentially contain Algeria, North Korea and Denmark.
Pots and prognostication after the jump.
POT 1 (seeds) – South Africa (as hosts), Germany, Brazil, Italy, Spain, England, Argentina, Holland.
POT 2 (Asia, Oceania, North/Central America) – Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Mexico, Honduras.
POT 3 (Africa, South America) – Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay.
POT 4 (Europe) – France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia.
If you’re England, you want the runts like North Korea, NZ, Honduras, Chile, Algeria, Slovakia and maybe even Denmark in your group. Same for the USA really, who are unfortunately lumped in a pot with the weakest teams from Asia and Oceania meaning that they’ll conceivably face two big European teams, or a difficult European team and a one of South America’s best, coupled with any one of those strong African teams.
Worst case would be to have England and USA in a group (though how awesome/delicious would that be?), along with an African team like the Drogba Coast and then Portugal or France to round things out.
Plenty of difficult combinations there. That said, here are groups (based on potential entertainment value/drama) that I would love to see:
GROUP A: South Africa, South Korea, Cameroon, Slovakia
GROUP B: Germany, Mexico, Uruguay, France
GROUP C: England, Australia, Nigeria, Portugal
GROUP D: Brazil, Honduras, Ivory Coast, Serbia
GROUP E: Argentina, USA, Ghana, Denmark
GROUP F: Holland, Japan, Paraguay, Greece
GROUP G: Italy, New Zealand, Algeria, Switzerland
GROUP H: Spain, North Korea, Chile, Slovenia
We’ll be liveblogging/open threading the draw on Friday, so we’ll have some fun with predictions once the groups are confirmed. Man, can it just be next summer already?
I don’t want any part of Essien and co. next summer, thanks. Also, ha ha at putting together the “make PR choose” group in Group G
/Where’s Group I?
//Where’s Scotland?
u75: yep, that was totally deliberate. After all, I did say I picked these for entertainment/drama value!
You really should have put Algeria and France together as well.
Shit. Good thinking. My geopolitical knowledge isn’t really working at 6.30am
It’s a shame there’s no way one of the Korean teams can draw Japan, that’d be right up there with France-Algeria in terms of hate.
Some borderline good US news:
Everyone’s favorite German mercenary began training today.
http://www.kicker.de/news/fussball/bundesliga/startseite/517828/artikel_Jones-zurueck-im-Training.html
I’d like to see Mexico in Spain’s group and Algeria in with France and Germany. Maybe Germany, Japan, Algeria, France?
Ryan, it’s also a shame the US can’t draw North Korea. That could be fun.
When I saw the pots this morning, I guessed right away that we’d see an Argentina/USA/Ivory Coast/France group. DEATHY!
This could be a lot of fun. Has anyone found a simulator to play with yet? Making one in Excel just isn’t as fun as it used to be.
Mine own Random drawing, now that we know seeds/pots:
A: Bafana, Australia, Cote d’Ivoire, Greezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
B: Germany, Japan, Mos & Talib, Switzerland
C: Italy, Allwhites, Cameroon, France (finals rematch FTW)
D: Ingerland, Free Korea, Chile, Slovenia
E: Argentina, OOO-SAAAAH, Nigeria, Denmark (no way Bob coaches us out of that group)
F: Spain, Mexico, Uruguay, Slovakia
G: Holland, Honduras, Paraguay, Serbia
H: Brazil, Dear Leader, Algeria, Portugal
I expect several blowouts in Group A, England to make passing through D look way harder than it should, The US to maybe steal a point in E, Nemanja Vidic to finally kill RVP in G, and B to be the most entertaining group.
SA can’t be in the same group as another African team can it?
Jeebus, it took a really long time for me to get Ghana out of “Mos & Talib”.
Def? No
Kwali? No
1, 2, 3,…? No
Black Star? Wait, yes. Black Stars=Ghana! Yay, me!
Am I the only one that doesn’t understand the logic that we play Conmebol in the playoff, but we end up in a pot with Asia? WTF?
oh yeah – money.
oof. I keep forgetting that. OK: switch Chile and Cote, which still means Bafana’s getting blown out in two matches (the third will be a dour nil-nil draw- you can guess who the opponent is), and England’s chances get tougher.
And glad you got that one, umlaut.
I don’t know how to do the Excel simulator thing, so I did the scraps of paper routine:
A:South Africa, Honduras, Chile, Serbia
B: Spain, Japan, Uruguay, Portugal
C:Brazil, New Zealand, Nigeria, Slovakia
D: England, USA, Ivory Coast, Switzerland
E: Italy, North Korea, Paraguay, Slovenia
F:Argentina, Mexico, France, Algeria
G: Germany, Australia, Cameroon, Greece
H: Holland, South Korea, Ghana, Denmark
Group F looks delicious, while A is about the best SA can hope for.
D’s pretty Deathy (c)WSR, too, Ryan
and I really, really like the idea of that group H.
As I stated yesterday, I don’t want any part of any African team. With the exception of SA, they all look scary in the group stages.
A)Just a note: when we did our mock draw the other week, we totally nailed the pots (although we called Pot 4, Pot 2). Granted it was only as hard as guessing that FIFA would have a hard time seeding France after all of the Ireland nonsense.
B) James at present, I’m totally pulling for the Kiwis over the Eye-Tals. The latter’s continual beating up of players I like or depend on for my other rooting interests (McBride, RvP) has me completely pissed off. The All Whites are DFL’ing in this thing though. I’m not kidding when I say that 0-0-3 with better than a -9 GD will be a good showing for them.
PR: a fair assessment all around. Though I reckon they could do better than -9, surely??!?!
They can, but I figure a 4-1 or so loss to a topline seed. Then if they draw Ivory Coast or Ghana, they are staring at a possible 5-spot. So it depends on that other Euro team. On the plus side if they get Greece, that a surefire 0-0 draw.
Here’s the random draw I just did.
A: Germany, New Zealand, Nigeria, Switzerland
B: Spain, Honduras, Ghana, Denmark
C: Italy, U.S.A., Chile, Greece
D: Brazil, South Korea, Ivory Coast, Slovakia
E: Argentina, Australia, Cameroon, Serbia
F: England, Mexico, Algeria, France
G: South Africa, North Korea, Uruguay, Slovenia
H: Netherlands, Japan, Paraguay, Portugal
Very friendly for the U.S. and yet I still have no confidence in Bobby getting us out of the group. Group of Death would be F, I suppose.
Morgan Freeman looks like shit!
HL, that Group C is dire. Chile, Italy, Grezzzzzzzzzz, and oosah in the same group? Under/over for all games in Group C play is 5
My groups, made with DiceMage:
Group A: Germany, Australia, Nigeria, Portugal
Group B: South Africa, South Korea, Uraguay, Serbia
Group C: Italy, Japan, Ivory Coast, Slovakia
Group D: Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, Switzerland
Group E: Spain, New Zealand, Algeria, Denmark
Group F: England, North Korea, Chile, France
Group G: Holland, Honduras, Cameroon, Switzerland
Group H: Argentina, United States, Ghana, Slovenia
I can’t see many surprises here. The big question is, obviously: which manager is less incompetent, Diego or Bob? Who finishes second behind Ghana? Other than that, I don’t really have a group of death; every group has a clear winner and maybe two teams fighting it out for the right to lose in the first knockout round.
HL: South Africa is in Group A. Matters for scheduling purposes as they play the first match. Just call Group G, Group A and it’s ‘fixed’.
Well, same with mine. Switch A and B.
Bored so decided to do a quick paper draw.
A: South Africa, Japan, Uruguay, France
B: Germany, Australia, Nigeria, Slovakia
C: Spain, New Zealand, Ivory Coast, Denmark
D: Argentina, Honduras, Ghana, Greece
E: England, North Korea, Algeria, Portugal
F: Brazil, Mexico, Cameroon, Slovenia
G: Holland, USA, Paraguay, Serbia
H: Italy, South Korea, Chile, Switzerland
I’m really trying to imagine a group in which I would feel good about the US reaching the knockouts. I’m not coming up with much unless we can draw the hosts. I think I’d also like to stay away from the other Africans. Give me one of the unseeded South Americans. All in all, not feeling very optimistic about Friday. Though it would be hard to get worse than ‘06.
Here it is. the winning ticket.
A: South Africa, North Korea, Chile, Serbia
B: Holland, South Korea, Algeria, Slovenia
C: Argentina, Mexico, Ivory Coast, France
D: England, Honduras, Ghana, Denmark
E: Italy, USA, Nigeria, Slovakia
F: Germany, New Zealand, Paraguay, Portugal
G: Brazil, Japan, Uruguay, Greece
H: Spain, Australia, Cameroon, Switzerland
group c is death, if death could die twice.
oops, wrong post. let’s try this again.