Your Top 16 Teams [pre-draw]

Top 16

Germany
Brazil
Italy
France
Argentina
Spain
Mexico
England

Czech Republic
Netherlands
Croatia
Portugal
Sweden
United States
Paraguay
Poland

Top 8
Brasil, Argentina, England, Mexico,
USA, Netherlands, Spain, Germany

I'm guessing you didn't realize you voted twice. Especially considering the first time you didn't even have Croatia making the R16, and the second time you had them in the semifinalists...

Some people strayed from the original question and just started making predictions as to what will happen at the tournament, rather than just list a top 16. Still, I've tried to glean some results as best I can.

Final Tallies:

Netherlands 31
Brazil 31
Argentina 31
Sweden 30
England 30
Germany 30
France 29
Italy 29
Mexico 28
Spain 28
Portugal 27
USA 26
Czech Republic 25
Ivory Coast 15
Croatia 15
Paraguay 15
---------------------
Japan 11
Serbia 11
South Korea 11
Poland 10
Ghana 7
Iran 6
Ukraine 5
Australia 5
Ecuador 3
Switzerland 3
Costa Rica 2
Saudi Arabia 2
Angola 1
Tunisia 1
Trinidad & Tobago 0
Togo 0

To say there's some agreement on the Top 13 seems to be an understatement. But, there also seems to be a consensus emerging around the Top 16, as well. Will be interesting to see if a Group of Death is comprised of 3 or 4 of the Top 16 teams.

Well, if you go by the above unscientfic poll results, Group E is the Group of Death, followed by Group C and Group B.

Group C contains 3 teams that the vast majority of people thought would be in the second round. As such, that means "death" for one of them. Add in the darkhorse spoiler of Ghana, and you have a very tough group.

Yes, Group B does contain Argentina and Netherlands, which are both tournament favorites, But neither Ivory Coast or Serbia is an overwhelming pick to make the second round. Group B is a very, very, tough group...I'd say, the "hardest"...but, based on reputation, I think Group C is the Group of Death.

And Group H rivals Group H from 1998 as the weakest group in World Cup history.