Underwhelming group for a neutral. No offense, but Poland has no business being seeded. The eight seeds should have been Russia, Brazil, Germany, Spain, Argentina, France, Uruguay and Portugal.
If from here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...ive-international-team-world-football/poland/ then this isn't very accurate reflection - of the Polish team at least. It shows the money which were actually paid for someone, not the current market value. So you have flowers like Lewandowski for 4 mil pounds (he went when his contract was expiring), and Szczesny and Piszczek for almost 0 pounds... Transfermarkt is more accurate as of current money you would have to pay for someone, unfortunately, I could not find Senegal over there... In fact I do not think their team is worth even 75% of Polish, but of course, money doesn't play, and Senegal can still be a difficult opponent.
We will see how Poland will fare vs Uruguay in a friendly in November. Sure, both Spain and Uruguay are good teams, so is Italy, but simply the ranking works as it does, so Poland set up to get the seed... I think Uruguay is a bit worse then it was in 2010 though.
The reason I put it is because Poland played Peru at 78 and 82 as well and won both, so Peru could get a chance for a rematch, plus also Iran would be happy to meet them as well, as I see - only benefits. I would also be happy to draw England, but would hate getting Spain, as Poland generally does atrociously against them on both national and club level.
SENEGAL 208,75 MLN EUR. https://www.transfermarkt.com/senegal/startseite/verein/3499 POLAND 233,85 MLN EUR (minus one excess GK) https://www.transfermarkt.com/polen/startseite/verein/3442 The difference in value is basically explained by the goalkeeping position. Senegal's onfield players are actually more expensive then Poland's, not to mention Lewandowski is valued at 80 mln EUR, while Mane at 40 mln EUR, so general strength in depth is larger for Senegal (at least in terms of market value): Senegal GK value 2,35 mln EUR Poland GK value 33 mln EUR It's just numbers though and numbers don't play.
Uruguay? Nope, Uruguay has no place being seeded either. As it stands Belgium deserves the seeded position.
This is logical contradiction. If the teams that qualified are weaker, how did they qualify in the first place? I am so looking forward to this WC. Can't wait to see our team playing against best teams from other continents. I hope we will be the only UEFA team in our group.
In the Dutch/Sweden case, we had draw in Sweden, while a legit goal of Bas Dost was nullified for a non existent off side and the French goalie gifted the win in Paris to the Swedes by a horrendous kick. Sometimes the stars arenot aligned in your favour. But that makes soccer great as it isnot calculable like other sports.
They have owned their qualifying group, including a destruction of Italy. Two WCs ago they were crowned champions.
https://www.sportinglife.com/football/news/england-in-second-pot-for-draw/115186 England and Spain in pot #2
Spain in Pot 2 is a big deal. England does great in qualifying, but in the last two World Cups combined they have 1 win, which was over Slovenia.
Poland doesn't deserve less to be seeded than Colombia in 2014. Colombia by the way that did not a play any world cup between 94 and 2014. They reached 1/4 finals of euro and took Portugal to pk. You are just pissed off cause you feel already that Poland with lewandoski might do as much in world cup as your sacred colombia and chile did in 2014. I warned about 3 years ago. You will see teams among poland croatia russia serbia england in 1/4 or semis. Can't wait.
Poland reached the quarterfinals of a garbage tournament. We already know how well Colombia did at WC14, what do you want to bet that Poland does not do as well next WC?
Poland shouldn't be seeded, but the guy who put Uruguay instead of Belgium is not entirely right in the head. Poland benefitted from a self-fulfilling prophecy that is perpetuated by the FIFA rankings. A higher ranked team plays weaker sides that are beaten more easily, hence gets better results, hence is higher ranked. It happened with Switzerland and Belgium in 2014, now it happened with Poland.
The hype on Belgium has died down, losing without much of an effort against Argentina, then losing to an unstable Italy and to Wales shows that there is reason to be skeptical. Uruguay came in second place in qualifiers orders of magnitude more difficult to what Belgium faced in their qualification group. And until Poland actually proves in a WC that they have arrived, there is no reason to rank them so highly.
That's incorrect. We played in France 98" and Poland is wayyyyy over rated. I'm hoping and praying we end up in their group. They are by far the weakest team in that main pot. Plus you can't compare something a team did 4 years ago versus now.
Poland is better now than they were a decade ago. They tied both Germany and Portugal at the euro. Solid team with one of the best strikers in the world. Anyway we will see in 2018. Among Russia Poland Serbia Croatia Belgium England i said already in 2014 you will have 2-3 quarter finalists and one in semis. My bet is still possible as we speak now.
I agree that Spain is one of the top 7 teams in the world right now on paper (no doubt about it really). At the same time they don't have a divine right to be seeded. Poland's results the past 3 years have been very good.
I know that qualifying and tournaments are two totally different animals but I can't get out of my head how Denmark exploited Poland in their recent match. You just don't see top quality sides get smashed like that in big games. But I will try to be open minded since they now have a clean slate. I am a little less skeptical about Belgium believe it or not. I think there is less pressure on them in this tournament which can probably make them play with cooler heads.
I generally feel that labeling Belgium as underachievers is way premature (not saying you labeled them like that, but it seems to be people's general view). Lukaku, De Bruyne and Hazard were still well before their prime in the last WC. In any case, they went exactly as far as people should have expected, no more no less. I guess they get that label for losing to Wales. But that's one game! These are still early days in Belgium's golden era. De Bruyne is a completely different animal now compared to 4 years ago.
I was actually impressed with how far Belgium went in the last Euro considering how makeshift their back line was Too many injuries on defense would make any team suffer in knockout stages.