A, B and E are easy groups. The rest is pretty competitive because of the strong second tier UEFA and the strong CAF/COMNEBOl teams. But every European team wants to get in South Africas group.
Just using the July FIFA rankings as a snapshot, we have ... Group D: Brazil (4), Greece (18), Japan (34), Egypt (24) Group E: Spain (1), Turkey (14), USA (30), Nigeria (27) which makes it seem fairly close, but from from my (non-neutral) perspective, I would agree that Group E definitely appears stronger than Group D.
Yeah, group D is an easy one for Brazil. Group E has the European Champion, a Euro semifinalist, and then arguably one of the top two teams in each of the final pots.
I meant D. Greece just isn't a good team. But they may qualify, because their group is a joke. But I think Israel and Switzerland are stronger.
Quote: Group A: South Africa, England, Korea Republic, Chile Group B: Argentina, Romania, Honduras, Ghana Group C: Germany, Netherlands, Australia, Cote d'Ivoire Group D: Brazil, Greece, Japan, Egypt Group E: Spain, Turkey, USA, Nigeria Group F: Italy, Croatia, Saudi Arabia, Cameroon Group G: France, Russia, Iran, Paraguay Group H: Portugal, Czech Republic, Mexico, Colombia GOD is easily C, H is not even close C you have 2 of the top 5 european teams and arguably the best sides in Asia and Africa. A: England 7, Chile 5, SA 2, Korea 1 B: Argentina 9, Ghana 6, Romania 3, Honduras 0 C: Holland 5, Germany 5, CIV 4, Australia 1 D: Brazil 7, Egypt 4, Japan 3, Greece 1 E: Spain 9, Nigeria 4, USA 2, Turkey 1 F: Italy 7, Croatia 5, Cameroon 4, KSA 0 G: France 5, Russia 5, Paraguay 3, Iran 1 H: Portugal 5, Mexico 5, Colombia 3, Czech 1
Funny that, with this mock draw, England losing its seeding benefits them massively. I'm sure they'd take that trade ANY day. Thanks, Egdar, for the US draw These draws just convince me more and more that we were mostly lucky in 2002 to get the draw we got, and it's going to be a long time before we ever get into the knockout rounds again. Unless we host again.
Possible Draw: Group A: South Africa, Greece, USA, Chile Group B: Argentina, England, Mexico, Cote d'Ivoire Group C: Germany, Netherlands, Australia, Cameroon Group D: Brazil, Czech Republic, Saudi Arabia, Egypt Group E: Spain, Romania, Korea Republic, Ghana Group F: Italy, Russia, Honduras, Paraguay Group G: France, Croatia, Iran, Columbia Group H: Portugal, Turkey, Japan, Nigeria This would be a good draw for USA
You can do the math yourself. The odds of any set of groups is (1/8)^3 = 0.2% Any of these random "draws" are just exercises for fun, they mean nothing. What are important are the pools. Picking one out of 512 equally possible draws is irrelevant. Note: Before someone tries to be a stickler, I'm not accounting for different second round/quarterfinal draws. So, I'm saying that there's only one way to draw Greece, South Africa, Chile & the US, and ignoring the fact that technically that group could be group A, B, C... If we only look at first round match-ups, then any team can be paired with any one of eight teams from the other three pools. That's all.
I meant a group that easy. It wouldn't necessarily have to contain Greece or Chile specifically, just a pool B and D team of that level. There are 2 or 3 "lesser" teams in each of those pools at the moment. South Africa knocks it down to 12.5% by themselves, as no one is like them in pool A.
I don't think you've done one of these yet where Australia hasn't been in one of the tougher groups IMO H is G.O.D over F (Italy, Romania, USA, Cote d'Ivoire)
hopefully the groups are not this hard, we are assuming with this exercise that all the best teams qualify. There will probably be a few that don't make it to be replaced by weaker teams. BUt I do think the groups on average will be harder than 2006.
My perspective must've been recently warped. I don't really see anything that stands out as a group of death in there.
Whatever way the seeds work out. Group A will be the group every non seeded team will want to be drawed into.