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.

Well, here we go with the analysis:

Group A (South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France): Surprising. I, you, he, she and them expected a easy group for South Africa with the likes of New Zealand and Slovakia… well there wasn´t the case. It’s a tough draw for the host team, and an oust in the group stage is a latent possiblity. In other hand, great luck for France. They want to avoid the likes of Brazil, Spain and the others. They get it.

Group B (Aregntina, Nigeria, Korea Rep., Greece) Reminiscent. Do you remember the Group D in the 1994 WC? This group is almost a carbon copy of that pool. The Argentinian are happy, like they were in the grunge year. For Maradona and friends this a opportunity to gain confidence and trash their opponents, who share one characteristic: they’re a shadow of what they were in their prime.

Group C (England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia) Boring. The godness ofluck was merciful with all these teams: England will enjoy a easy ride to the next round, USA and Slovenia could take a rare opportunity to qualify to 1/8 finals (in other group neither of them couldn’t) and Algeria won’t be routed in 2 matches (expect it in the England match, though).

Group D (Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana) Underrated. The German side will sweat in order to earn their points, as well the other 3 teams. Australia and Serbia have a tough defense and Ghana have a great midfield. And Germany needs no introduction. These aren’t spectacular andglowing names, but the 4 teams are dangerous.

Group E (Netherlands, Denmark, Cameroon, Japan) Overrated. The Dutch side won’t sweat in order to earn their points… Denmark faded in the qualification, Cameroon in one-dimension team and Japan is a shadow from what it were with Hidetoshi Nakata in the lineup. The Netherlands choke in big time in most of the time. These are sweet and glowing names… but the 3 of 4 teams on this group are no-entertaining anymore.

Group F (Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia) Ultra-boring. Italy should win this group, but expect a tough matchup from the scrappy Paraguay. The Albirrojos should must advance, too. The Slovakia-New Zealand game will be a free day for the scalpers.

Group G (Brazil, Korea DPR, Cote D’Ivoire, Portugal) Exciting. Nobody expected a tough group for Brazil, since them have been always favored, suspiciously, with easy matchups in prior WC’s. Portugal got a very high mountain to climb as they did in the qualifiers. Bad luck, no doubt. The Drogba Boys will be headache of both teams. And the poor Koreans should wonder about forfeiting in the next 5 months.

Group H (Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile) Mysterious. Spain should qualify as the leader of this mess. And then… we can expect everything. Chile can give us show or a meltdown. Switzerland could be tough or soft. Honduras could be a stone in the shoe or a bag full of conceded goals. This group is hard to predict.

I’ll be writing furthermore about these groups. Stay tuned.

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