Any guesses to what the pots might look like? My guess: Pot 1: USA, GBR, JPN Pot 2: PRK, CAN, COL Pot 3: SWE, FRA, BRA Pot 4: NZL, CMR, RSA
Some basic principles. 1) The top 4 teams will be in separate brackets. 2) the host country gets the easy bracket. It sells tickets. ok, try again.
Pot 1 will most likley be the seeded pot, holder,host and the top rated of the rest so I think you are right there. But the for the rest FIFA always likes to create pots based on Confeds not ranking so I think your wrong on Pot 2 and 3, change places between BRA and either PRK or CAN and we have a likley senario, but probably with some odd FIFA twist to it.
Interesting! We can end up with France Japan USA in one group or Great Britain, New Zealand and Canada.
More like the following with Great Britian(hosts), USA(holders) & Japan(top ranked after USA) as the top seeds. Pot 1: GBR, USA, JPN Pot 2: FRA, SWE, PRK Pot 3: BRA, COL, CAN Pot 4: RSA, CMR, NZL GROUP 1: Great Britian, North Korea, Brazil, Cameroon GROUP 2: USA, France, Colombia, New Zealand GROUP 3: Japan, Sweden, Canada, South Africa
Forgot to mention that setup was based on the 2008 Olympics. Pot A: China PR (host), Japan, Korea DPR Pot B: Canada, Brazil, USA (holder) Pot C: Germany (WC winner), Norway, Sweden Pot D: Argentina, Nigeria, New Zealand They made the pots on geographical criteria and at the request of the organizers, they've placed China, USA and Germany in different groups to maximize tickets sales.
Bah, they should make the pot based on rankings (at max with some corrections to avoid too much inter-confederational fights) and not based on geo-political or economical criteria... I mean, if your prediction about pots is correct, we could get a group like France-Japan-USA-Colombia, and doesn't it sound incredibly wrong and unfair?
As I said, in 2008 they kept China PR, Germany and USA apart even if they were in different pots. So you couldn't get a France-Japan-USA-Colombia.
Ok, so what about France-Japan-Brazil-Cameroon instead? Wouldn't it look incredibly unfair if one team between France, Japan and Brazil would risk elimination (although, if I got it right, only the worse third team in the groups rankings goes home) or a dificult pairing in quarter finals? And maybe everything could be decided on who gets to score more goals vs poor Cameroon (that could in turn depend on who gets Cameroon in the last match of the group)?
1. FIFA might very well choose a different setup for the pots. 2. Football seeding is not always fair. See Côte d'Ivoire's (men) draws in the last two World Cups.
Well, in this case, as a Nadeshiko Japan fan, I can't help but hope that JFA is currently "powerful" enough to not let anything really bad (like the hypotetical group I designed) happen to their team. But I have to add that I really hate having to hope that.
this article was an extraordinary interesting and enlightning read, thank you very much intoronto1125. Unluckily, the section that is the most interesting in my eyes totally confirms all of my fears. The very title of the section is self explaining:
Eh. It's a 12 team tournament. Great Britain has a chance of having the easiest run through, but all the groups have a chance of being pretty hard. I'm not looking forward to the 2011 redux if US draws Sweden and North Korea (for what seems like the third or fourth major tournament in a row). I think Japan-Brazil and Japan-France would both be really interesting games, since they haven't played them in a major tournament. Presumably, by then, Marta will arrive for the Japan game and Brazil will have sort of sorted out their defense issues. I like this grouping for the US: Group G: United States, France, New Zealand, South Africa I mean, I dunno if we win the group, but I think the games would be fun to watch.
It is just in the WWC. USA, Sweden, North Korea and Nigeria have been drawn together in all WWC since 1999 except that Sweden and Nigeria was each allowed one time of. 1999 Sweden was replaced with fellow Scandinavians Denmark and in 2011 Nigeria was replaced by Colombia. In the Olympics it looks like the draw is almost random (with may indicate that it is not ).
I don't like this group, given it could cause headaches for France. They need to meet the USA as late as possible. It's like them playing Germany in the WC group. As far as Brasil goes, Jorge needs to move Erika to attacking mid-field. her skill sets are closer to Daniela than Simone. Right now, they are Marta and who else thinks they can be apart of the attack. Sweden and Brasil = current train wrecks.
Hmmm, I think you want France to be in a group with Brazil and Japan . When you step back and think about it, a top 3 group finish gets you to the next round, so in a strange way, a tough trio with a South Africa thrown in actually becomes a group of life. If France can top 3 finish versus the lower ranked but dangerous Africans, the individual threats of Marta factor, and figure out the increasingly slick and confident system of the Japanese, then playing Sweden, USA, Canada, or GB/Arsenal Ladies, in the next round should hold few surprises. newsouth, outside of their random Algarve Cup, I can't see what suddenly puts Sweden in similar company to Brazil's obvious defensive "train wreck" .