Winners and Losers: World Cup Draw

After de the draw, the Brazilian coach Carlos Verri (Who?) was complaning about their bad luck, whose sent them Portugal and Cote D’Ivoire. In addition, he said the opposite for Spain, who was drawn “in a easy group”.

I don´t get his attitude… ¿What was his goal with that statement? A cheap excuse to chirp about Chile or Switzerland, to send a message to Spain or to do an early excuse to a possible failure. I just don’t get it. It was weird.

So I want to play that game, too. If Brazil were a loser and Spain a winner… there are other teams (or things) with the same fate…

Few hours after: The World Cup Draw.

Ok guys, the World Cups groups have been drawn and we all now the calendar for the utter football event.

It was a simple but entertaining ceremony. Well done South Africans. Little by little the host country is dissipating every doubt about their organization.

Image from nytimes.com

The most important thing… yeah the groups. Some of them are balanced, some are boring, some are ultra-boring and some are exciting.

Like I anticipated in a previous post, there’s no group of death. It could be the “G”, but North Korea isn’t group of death stuff. The “D” is a slaughter, though.

A little correction: Netherlands is a high-seeded team

Ok, I was wrong. No France in the pot1 in the World Cup Draw. Its place was taken by the Dutch team, in recognition for their perfect qualification.

This make sense. I do not know if the infamous Henry’s handball has something to do in this decision, because it was a consensus about France being in the Pot 1, but we can live wtih it.

Now the Dutch can avoid a dangerous opponent in the group phase and pass easy through quarter-finals or more. Something that they couldn’t do in Germany.

I just have to say: luck for the 32 teams.

We will return for analysis post-draw. Until friday.

Pungent thoughts: No group of death in South Africa 2010

Seemingly, the high-seed teams (and the rest of draw-pots) in the World Cup of South Africa are determined. Maybe, the rumors about famous and news guests will increase… or prepare to see the likes of Beckenbauer, Pele, Karembeu and the rest of the gang… once again.

Image: servifutbol.com

Germany, Argentina, Spain, Brazil, France, England, France, Italy and South Africa. Sweet and comprenhensible list, beyond the weird formulas used by FIFA for these draws.

I’m just waiting for criticizing for France high-seeding, while Netherlands and Portugal are stuck with second-fiddle roles. I just have to say one thing: the performances in recent FIFA tournaments are taking in consideration for this seeding.