Well its fast approaching. Friday is the day where the seeded teams are announced and the pots are established. Here is a funny article from goal.com to lighten the mood. "Top 10 Things To Expect From World Cup Draw" 8) The Greek delegation get their dinner early and then defend it for the rest of the night. http://goal.com/en-us/news/114/mexico/2009/12/01/1659510/top-10-things-to-expect-from-world-cup-draw I can see us getting a pretty difficult group. Similar to the one in the last world cup that included Italy, Ghana, Czech Repbublic and USA.
Turns out Portugal is in the 4th pot/seeding. Portugal evita França no sorteio AS DUAS SELEÇÕES ESTÃO NO POTE 4 Foram revelados os potes que agrupam as seleções para o sorteio do Mundial'2010 e Portugal encontra-se no Pote 4, fora do grupo dos cabeças-de-série. Desta forma, evita a França, Eslovénia, Suíça, Grécia, Sérvia, Dinamarca e Eslováquia. Como habitualmente, o grupo é sorteado com uma seleção de cada pote. Pote 1 África do Sul Alemanha Brasil Itália Espanha Inglaterra Holanda Argentina Pote 2 Japão Coreia do Sul Coreia do Norte Austrália Nova Zelândia Estados Unidos México Honduras Pote 3 Costa do Marfim Gana Camarões Nigéria Argélia Paraguai Chile Uruguai Pote 4 França PORTUGAL Eslovénia Suíça Grécia Dinamarca Eslováquia Sérvia
It's not a seeding the only seeds are pot 1 the rest are geographic pots. IMO Netherlands and England have no business being seeds but they had a good qualifying campaign to make up for their abysmal last 2 World Cups I hope we go into one of their groups and put them to the sword but then again we don't have a manager to have us play the way we did vs them the way we used to. Just like what happened vs Brazil after 20 years of bragging rights. I like that Europe is last this time that way the draw makes it more exciting for us.
Based on these pots/seeding, I feel that our: Best Scenario: South Africa Nova Zelandia Argelia Portugal Worst Scenario: Brasil United States Ivory Coast Portugal Although that worst case scenario, could also be the best thing for us, we always play better in tougher groups and under pressure, just think back Euro 2000 when our group was: Portugal England Germany Romania And we came out on top with 3 wins from 3 games (including a 3-0 win with our bench team) So it all depends on how you look at it.
Were screwed in the 1st pot. Only one team out of 8 in the 1st pot isnt world class. And even then South Africa is the home/hosting nation so you know they'll play their hearts out and still wont be easy at all.
I think Spain would be worse than Brazil. Brazil being 2nd worst team we could get. I pray we avoid both, not just in the group, but in the whole tournament.
I would agree with that. The US-Portugal game was very tough for me at that time, but let's be honest: Portugal came out as they used to come out against "inferior" teams and got caught with their pants down. I would say Mexico would be tougher to beat than the US.
Group A South Africa Japan Chile Slovenia Group B Argentina USA Nigeria Denmark Group C England Australia Cameroon Switzerland Group D Brazil Honduras Ivory Coast Greece Group E Spain Mexico Paraguay Serbia Group F Italy North Korea Portugal Uruguay Group G Germany New Zealand Ghana Slovakia Group H Netherlands South Korea France Algeria
I'd rather play Uruguay than Paraguay. Paraguay has been consistently strong and currently I would put them under Brasil as probably the 2nd strongest team in South America. That's not to say that the Argentina team that shows up won't be strong, since they're a good tournament country.
I put Spain and Brasil as the top 2 as well, however I feel that Brazil is still Brazil, and after the 6-2 beatdown they gave us last time was no fluke! Spain on the other hand is a great team, but overrated! And after all the ball is round and could roll either way, on any given day any team can loose. Either way come Brasil or Spain to win the cup we will have to beat the best teams.
Thanks for sharing; enjoyed it. I also liked: 9) Suspended Argentina coach Diego Maradona gatecrashes the ceremony and starts blowing a…Vuvuzela.
obviously its impossible to predict exactly but ill explain now why I think some of these match ups may occur Portugal's group. I have a strong feeling it will be something like Italy, Portugal, North Korea, and Uruguay North korea vs italy and Portugal for rematches of the famous 1966 WC matches (N.Korea 1-0 Italy and Portugal 5-3 N.Korea). Italy-Portugal, why? weve never been drawn against them in a tournament so this may be the time. and Carlos Querioz will have a chance to get revenge for his 1994 losses against Italy which kept us out of WC qualification that season. Uruguay... cant think of any reason but they are a historic side obviously, south american, and can use cynical tactics like Portugal and Italy can sometimes use so it would be a battle between these 3 teams on the pitch. as for other matchups - I gave south africa a fairly easy group (compared to the others) because lets face it, Hosts (especially weaker hosts) tend to get favorable group draws... whether its by coincidence or not. Argentina and Nigeria will likely be in the same group. they always seem to meet, especially in youth tournaments thats why i wouldnt be surprised if it happens. England-Australia... anglo-saxon kind of rivalry Brazil usually gets an easy group so they will have a easier group compared to others imo. I have a feeling greece will get them and get demolished. spain-mexico-paraguay-serbia.. meh no reason i guess 3 spanish speaking countries in one group is interesting so I could see it hapening Germany will get a piss easy group like usual Netherlands-France... france will get a tough group I feel maybe as karma for the way they qualified to the Wc... France will be drawn against algeria and face off against their former colony just like Portugal v Angola in 2006.
If I'm not mistaken, you can't be drawn two teams from the same confederation (unless it's Europe), so we can't get both Argelia and SA. Agreed, they look like a different team with Aguirre. Very dangerous. I think one of the top two teams in that pot along with Ivory Coast.
So guys, being the football nut that I am, I just did a mock draw. This is how the balls rolled, or my case, the folded up pieces of paper, lol: Group A South Africa North Korea Paraguay France Group B Spain South Korea Chile Slovenia Group C Italy Japan Ivory Coast Serbia Group D Argentina Australia Nigeria Denmark Group E England USA Ghana Portugal Group F Germany New Zealand Uruguay Greece Group G Brasil Mexico Algeria Switzerland Group H Holland Honduras Cameroon Slovakia Should be interesting to see what the actual draw will produce, hopefully we get an easier group than what i got. Not sure if everyone knows, the draw will be televised on tv on ESPN 2 from 12pm - 3pm EST
I do not want this group at all. USA and Portugal are my two teams, so I want them not to meet until the final
Wouldnt want that group either as it's tough, but at the same time, knowing that we kind of underestimate the smaller teams, we might be better off. I have no problem going against the States again, I want revenge for 2002.
I am so anxious for this draw that I just had a draw "papers out of a hat" to see possible groups, here are my results: GROUP A: South Africa South Korea Cameroon Denmark GROUP B: Germany N. Korea Paraguay France GROUP C: England Honduras Ivory Coast Switzerland GROUP D: Italy New Zealand Uruguai Portugal GROUP E: Netherlands Japan Ghana Slovakia GROUP F: Brasil Mexico Algeria Greece GROUP G: Spain U.S.A. Chile Slovenia GROUP H: Argentina Australia Nigeria Serbia Our group with Italy, New Zealand and Uruguai, is certainly accessible (only if it came out this way, not too easy not too hard). Forca Portugal!
Funny how you have this strong feeling about Portugal being paired with Italy and Uruguai, I just had a mock draft with papers out of a hat and came out with: ITALY NEW ZEALAND URUGUAI PORTUGAL 3/4 only difference being New Zealand for North Korea (both 2 word countries with 1st name starting with same letter "N"! Could this mean something...we'll find out tommorrow!
I think ters a flaw in the first group because you cant have 2 african teams in one group? I dont know anyways it doesnt matter lol. I wouldnt mind that group. Did you actually do you're draw the official way where u draw a team and then you draw a group letter. Must have took a while. Ill make my own too because im bored. lets see which of us get it the closest
A South Africa USA Chile Slovenia B Germany New Zealand Uruguay Greece C Spain Mexico Cameroon France D England North Korea Paraguay Swiss E Italy Honduras Algeria Serbia F Netherlands Japan Nigeria Portugal G Brazil South Korea Ghana Slovakia H Argentina Australia Ivory Coast Denmark Done