Group of Life where maybe everyone has a chance

Bloomberg sports provides us with World Cup data visualisation and percentages ... I love percentages.

At the moment Bsports projects that Belgium are one of the NTs most likely to reach the R16 ... I feel that Belgium owe it to these analysts to prove that they've done a decent job.

 

Actually, this team was mainly made of Ukrainians from Dynamo Kiev.

 

if you're talking about actual Ukrainians, there were Demyanenko, Yaremchuk, Yakovenko, Bal, Rats, Litovchenko, Yevtushenko, Krakovskiy. Others were Russians living in the Ukrainian SSR. Even Blokhin - his parents are from St.Petersburg.

Dasaev - Astrakhan, Russia
Bezsonov - Kharkiv, Ukraine
Chivadze - Karachevsk, Cherkessia, Russia
Morozov - Moscow, Russia
Demyanenko - Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine
Bubnov - Lubertsy, Russia
Yaremchuk - Veliki Bichkiv, Ukraine
Yakovenko - Nikopol, Ukraine
Kuznetsov - Madeburg, Germany
Blokhin - Kiev, Ukraine
Bal - Rozdil, Ukraine
Litovchenko - Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine
Rodionov - Moscow, Russia
Larionov - St.Petersburg, Russia
Chanov - Donetsk, Ukraine
Yevtushenko - Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine
Protasov - Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine
Belanov - Odessa, Ukraine
Aleinikov - Minsk, Belarus
Rats - Galichina, Ukraine
Krakovskiy - Mikolaiyv, Ukraine


anyway, back then it was the same country. can you say that the NT had better results because of the Ukrainian blood? sure, you can. but by the same account, look at Germany, France, England, Belgium etc of today. Half their teams are ethnically from elsewhere.

As far as that other guy who attacked Russia, yeah we haven't had much success at the WC stage since 1966 really. 86 was 1/4 against Belgium which they lost. Recently though, we had a pretty decent result at Euro 2008. Sure, Algeria was at the WC more often but look who you have to qualify against and look who we have to qualify against each time. It's like saying Iran, Honduras, Australia are stronger than Russia because their regional qualifying campaigns are easier and they've been there more often in the last 12 years.

Anyway, I'm actually going to predict a bit of an unusual result for this group:

I think Belgium will choke - tie with Algeria, lose to Russia and beat Korea. 4 points. Algeria will beat Russia, tie Belgium and beat Korea, also 4 points. Russia will beat Korea and Belgium and lose to Algeria. 6 points.

Algeria will go through on a better goal differential over Belgium and play 1st seeded Germany in 1/8.

Russia will end up meeting USA, as Portugal and Ghana will not qualify. They will defeat USA and then lose to Argentina in 1/4.

 

Algeria have already been one of the most unlucky teams, winning 2 games at a World Cup and still getting knocked out because of the Germany Austria collusion. However, beating Russia and South Korea and drawing to Belgium, and somehow ending up with 4 points meaning a last 16 meeting against Germany instead of USA; I think that would be even more unlucky.

 

I hope you're not talking about me?

Russia not doing anything in world cup since 86 as a member of ex URSS is a fact not an attack.
Algeria being much better now than in the last 20 years is also a fact.

I'm cheering for Russia and Algeria in this group, think that Belgium and Russia will go through is not a wish just a thought.

I got a very good friend from Russia, a girl that i met in Croatia in Dalmatia on holidays 6 years ago and with whom i built a small circle of friends that i see from times to times, they even came by my side in Paris for few days last year, she became one of my dear friends, she studied in sarajevo as her father is russian diplomat there in Bosnia and now she just started working in russian embassy in zagreb.
And few russian girls or ladies i dated or made friends with there and there...

when i got two algerians in my best friends i grew up with...one is cousin with the player Ryad Mahrez...but you know where is the difference? girls don't bore you with their national team as they don't care much about football in general, that's why there are plenty of teams in this world cup that i tend to appreciate cause of their nice girls than cause of their fans...when guys settle a kind of rivalry even when there is no need to and i don't know any russian fan, i know obviously that croatians and serbians can make their team disliked for the same reasons...

 

You misunderstood me, I wasn't implying that at all, I understand that Russia is the legal successor of the USSR, but assimilitating the relatively succesful teams of the mid to late 1980s to Russia only is not exactly true.

 

getting close to game day.. anyone out there who follows Belgium know what the latest news is on Lukaku's ankle and whether Januzaj will make it into the game vs Algeria?

 

In 1986 the Soviet Union were favorites in our R16 tie but lost a.e.t. ... Belgium 4 - 3 Soviet Union ... Belgium went on to beat Spain in the QFs ... in the SFs against Argentina there were several bad calls that prevented us from punching above our weight again ... e.g. flagging 2 offsides while those Belgian players were clearly on side. This wasn't the first and also not the last time that a referee gave us something to moan about.

PS a Russia v. Belgium rivalry doesn't exist as a few matches don't make it so ... we're already settled ... subdued ones with Holland and France.

 

Still a week to go ... hoping Lukaku will be in top shape for our opener ... Januzaj probably won't start but could always sub.

 

I think that there were several bad calls against the Soviet in your Rd 16 meet too...

 

Proof or it didn't happen.

 

I do want to believe that your statement is valid. We have only few days to turn things around.

 

Top 10 worst refereeing decisions in World Cup history :

You might find this article biased, it is since it's somebody giving his opinion on the "worst refereeing decisions" so I found this source from a pro-belgian football fan blog :

Two belgian goals were offside (one of them, way too much...).

 

Only the Ceulemans' one looked off-side ... was hard to tell if it really was the case but I'll be happy to ignore that one ... even the Russians on the pitch didn't complain. Besides it only allows the Russians to moan about bad calls going against them while I can still moan about bad calls going against us ... or do you want to take that away from me?

 

Anything can happen in this group. Belgium's team is talented but lack that balance of experience and maturity that sharpens a national team entirely. Thus, it's always possible for a upset to occur. Especially with the mentality pressure that they're getting from media and fans (neutral as well).

However, I do expect them to take every match as seriously as they can.