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…

Winners:

France: I guess the astrological cards continue to help Domenech.

Mexico: It’s a rare thing to paly the opener in a World Cup… and play against an unproved side. Its a golden chance for Guardado, Dos Santos, Vela, Blanco or Juárez to make grow thier value exponentialy.

Argentina: An easy group for a troubled team. Do you remember 2002 WC?

Every team in Group C: England will have 3 extra friendly matches, USA and Slovenia will enjoy a rare chance to make the next stage and Algeria will avoid a blowout in at least 2 games.

Italy: The defense of title route won’t be rough, at least in group stage.

Chile: The spectacular red machine got a chance to shine in this tournament. The opponents aren’t tough as Germany and Serbia, and them  fit well for the offensive-minded Chile.

Weak teams: With the heartbreaking exception on North Korea, the minnows (Algeria, New Zealand, Honduras) don’t seem in position to break the Salvadoran record. Their opponents are better but no 10-1 stuff.

South Africa organization: Ceremony was nice and there wasn’t notorious mistakes, something that a lot of people were fearing to happen.

Charlize Theron: If someone didn’t know her or put her charm in doubt… that someone doesn´t exist anymore.

FIFA: Blatter and Co. shaked off the criticism about their lack of Fair Play. With South Africa and Brazil being drawn in tough, the questions about a “rigged” draw had faded. There were plenty of them, in the prior WC draw, indeed.

Losers

FIFA: Well… Do you imagine the face of Blatter and Co. if Brazil and/or South Africa get ousted in the early matches? Nevermind.

Bafana-Bafana: If everything in the universe of football behaves normal, the vuvezelas will reach the utter sound in 3 matches and maybe the Final  game.

Serbia: The Serbs were given again with a tough group.  If only they could swap places with Slovenia…

Germany: In a very hard pool, a second place finish and a matchup with England in 1/8 Finals is an actual possibility.

Cote D’Ivoire: Read the Serbia paragraph… and change the word “Slovenia” for this: “Algeria”.

North Korea: I don’t like to be hard on some team, but believe me… this team is a serious contender for challenge the Salvadoran (1 GS and 13 GR) or Zairean (O GS and 14 GR).

Portugal: The qualifying torment continues…

Spain: OK, they are spotted in an easy group. But the matchup in 1/8 Finals don’t seems that soft. Suddenly, the ghost of Past WC’s appears in the Spaniard headquarters.

Ousted teams fans: It was disgusting to read things like “Hopefully, Chile will be blown out” in Peruvian forums or “Hopefully, Honduras will be blown out” in Costa Rican fellow web sites.  Please, realize this: your teams ARE NOT in this tournament. ARE NOT. Period.

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.

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.

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. So, the French succesful campaign in Germany let them to get the nod. It isn’t the case for Portugal and Netherlands, especially the latest.

The rest of the post are these (made by geographical criteria):

Pot 2: Denmark, Switzerland, Greece, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, Netherlands and Portugal.

Pot 3: Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay, Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria and Algeria.

Pot 4: Mexico, USA, Honduras, Japan, Koreas, Australia and New Zealand.

As a loyal football fan, I find this system terrible. You must be prepared for watch a boring and predictable group phase.

Just imagine about this possible group: Spain, Slovakia, Nigeria and North Korea. Boring as a Geraldo talkshow marathon. I don´t complain about Spain, they´re the real deal. But. ¿can you imagine that team playing the weak North Korea? The Spaniards wouldn’t need even a 50% of their capacity to get the three points.

The existence of a group of death in this scenario is minimal. It would take a group drawn with high-seeded team (minus South Africa), Netherlands or Portugal, Cote D’Ivoire and the USA. Nothing less. It will occur if the 0,0000013% of possibilities works…

It´s a shame. And FIFA has to take the blame for it. They want more money, more TV coverage. This have turned the World Cup in a great show for the ones who want to know more about different countries and cultures… but pretty horrid for the ones who look for well-played football.

This is ironic. I never watched the 16-teams World Cups. But I miss them.

Hello,

I’d begin this blog just because I’m very enthusiastic about sports. The disappointments, the celebrations, the biggest moments…

My illusion: a jawdropping number of viewers with their grudges, praises or simply… share your opinion. My goal is making this blog a kind of interactive space about the biggest of our loves: the sports.

I’ll try to make my homework, with analysis, stats, fun facts, previews or news of almost every sport in this world: soccer, football, NBA, MLB, Tennis Opens, Golf, among others…

Hopefully, this will be a nice trip and, luckily, i’ll be well accompanied.

Read this post in Spanish.