What else are we goign to talk about until December? (Oh yeah, games... I guess ) But we already know Brazil will be in Group A and it appears we know the seeds: http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1585481/fifa-confirms-seeds-world-cup-finals-draw?cc=5901 If the pots are similar to last time we had this distribution, we'll have something this simulator can produce (teams with asterisks have not yet qualified): http://ultra-zone.net/2014-FIFA-World-Cup-Group-Stage-Draws That has sucked up all my afternoon productivity. Can you imagine Germany Italy in the same group? Have fun.
So basically we could have a 5/8 chance of getting Italy, Netherlands, England, France, or Portugal (if both qualify and don't face each other) in our group. Portugal and France don't scare me. Might be a good time to get some much needed revenge on the French. England is always a tough game although every time we've faced them in a WC we've won it. Could be a good luck charm. We've owned Italy since you guys know when but it is a WC ... I guess the Dutch would be the worse case scenario in our group.
Guess this could belong here. Odds for winning the WC (parentheses indicate what the odds were last month) ODDS TO WIN 2014 WORLD CUP, BRAZIL, JUNE 12 - JULY 13, 2014 BRAZIL 11-4 ARGENTINA 9-2 GERMANY 9-2 SPAIN 5-1 BELGIUM 12-1 (15-1) NETHERLANDS 15-1 ITALY 15-1 ENGLAND 25-1 (30-1) URUGUAY 25-1 COLOMBIA 25-1 FRANCE 30-1 (40-1) PORTUGAL 40-1 CHILE 50-1 USA 50-1 RUSSIA 50-1 MEXICO 60-1 (80-1) CROATIA 100-1 ECUADOR 100-1 (150-1) GHANA 100-1 (150-1) IVORY COAST 125-1 BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA 125-1 (200-1) SWITZERLAND 150-1 SWEDEN 150-1 JAPAN 150-1 UKRAINE 200-1 (250-1) NIGERIA 200-1 (250-1) SOUTH KOREA 250-1 CAMEROON 300-1 AUSTRALIA 300-1 (250-1) GREECE 300-1 ROMANIA 500-1 COSTA RICA 500-1 SENEGAL 1000-1 (500-1) ALGERIA 1000-1 BURKINA FASO 1000-1 HONDURAS 1500-1 (1000-1) ICELAND 2000-1 (2500-1) IRAN 2000-1 NEW ZEALAND 2500-1 EGYPT 5000-1 (300-1) JORDAN 5000-1 (1000-1) ETHIOPIA 5000-1 (2000-1)
dat 1500-1 odd for Honduras.. lol how are their odds worse than some teams who won't even make it to the World Cup..
How does the geographical draw work? All other federations, with the exception of Uefa can't have 2 teams in the same group. But since Uefa has 13 teams, there will be 5 groups with 2 Uefa teams in it, and 3 groups with 1? So there is a possibility that a South American seeded group (Brasil, Arg, Col, or Uruguay) can end up in a group with Italy and the Dutch. Imagine the worst possible group. Brasil, Italy, Holland, and the best African team
It depends on how the European pot is handled. Every group will get one European team added from the European pot. Europe has 9 non-seeded teams though so there will be one left over and it is guaranteed to go into a group with a South American seed. There is an excellent thread about seeding in the bigsoccer FIFA forums, a very fact-based discussion. I don't recall if they have talked about how the 9th Euro team will be handled, but I highly recommend reading it. If FIFA haven't revealed the procedure for the 9th team yet (and they might not until the draw) we can only base our speculation on past draws. You could have a pre-determined 9th Euro team in a pot all by its own (say, the worst-ranked one) to be drawn into one of the 4 non-European seed groups. If that's the case then Italy and the Netherlands would never be in the same group. It's likely you could see Brazil Italy or Germany Italy, but not Brazil Italy Netherlands I think. Of course, the caveat is always that FIFA can do what they want when the draw comes around.
South Africa got the short end of the stick last time around. Wouldn't surprise me if we got something nasty as well.
FIFA will make sure you can't have 2 non-seeded strong European teams in the same group. That means Netherlands, Italy, and England will be in different groups. Look at the link with the simulation tool Mengao posted on his thread opener. It places all of those teams in Pot 4. The one exception may be France depending on how things work out. They may be placed in the another pot if they happen to be the lowest Euro ranked team to come through the play-offs. That could mean France and Netherlands/Italy in Brazil's group. Of course it depends on how you rate France nowadays.
sorry guys I don't think Portugal will make it to Brazil! Sweden will beat them there! But I am going to predict that we will get a group of death
Not like anyone had any doubt, but Uruguay basically cemented their berth today with a 5-0 win in Jordan. It'll be interesting to see how Mexico does.
didnt realize they were playing today, thought they were all on the 15th After the past 6 months of results in Azteca, it wouldnt surprise me at all to see Mexico tie 0-0 or 1-1.
Yea I think Nz is capable of getting a result. Long balls and physicality should do the trick. Keep it scoreless the first 20 minutes and watch Mexico fold.
I think most may know that the Mexico coach didn't call any European based players for this game. But not only that, 7 of the starters will be from Club America where he was coach. Should be interesting. Should be no reason why they can't go to the return leg with at least a 2 goal lead. Altitude will probably kill NZ.
The coach is smart using America as a base. Use what you're comfortable with. I think they'll get the result they need.
It's a bit radical, but it should be enough to get the job done. He definitely won't be doing the same for the WC. I would be curious to see if he would do the same if he were facing a quality opponent.
Depends.. that player base isn't really good and have only played one game to gel, which was a 4-2 win over Finland's Domestic B-Team in California iirc. Plus the conditions in El Azteca look pretty sh1tty.. Some Rain and its supposed to be 42 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the coldest its has been lately.
Yeah, although I think if there's one team in these playoffs that can win by 2 at home in a deciding match, it's France. Really pulling for Iceland too. They have their work cut out for them in Zagreb though.
I think on Tuesday France will beat the Ukraine 3-0! And Iceland will pull an upset over Croatia, Sweden will beat Portugal 1-0 and it will go to penalties which Sweden will win with Ronaldo missing the vital kick