Regarding the recent grouping for the worldcup (Soccer)
Can you believe it?!
Of all the groups why o why o why did England have to get that one?
In case you dont know the group is as follows:
Argentina (pre-tourament favourites)
Sweden (Europe’s top qualifying team)
Nigeria (Africa’s top qualifying team)
England (Umm, well er, David Beckham plays for us)
Is it me or this this group a little unfair?
Top two go through, and if we get past what the pundits are calling the ‘group of death’ chances are that we will have to play France (Current world and european champions).
I was just beginning to convince myself that it could be Englands turn to win it, we get put in a group like this!!
Its 6 months before the first ball is kicked and already I’m thinking we will be on our way home before the last 16.
The real pain in the arse is that I was seriously thinking about making the trip over to Japan and Korea. No I’m not sure if it worth it.
The games should be great fun. I hope Eriksson brings through some of the Under-21s first though. I hate the thought of Gary Neville or Nicky Butt vs Veron or Larsson.
Amazing. First time ever England’s World Cup first round group hasn’t consisted of three no-hopers plus England. I guess they’re not used to having to play some kind of opposition in the first three games.
The inherent unfarirness is that two absolutely no-hoper nations are getting seeded status so that the rest of the draw ends up skewed.
I think that home nations should only get the status within the draw that their proven ability deserves.
Does Englands proven ability deserve better ? Well there were 8 groups with 8 top seeded teams, and England are apparently 9 according to the mysterious world of the FIFA board. This is something entirely separate from the world ranking table which is seriously flawed anyway, since moderate teams in weak zones get rated above good teams in the worlds best zones.
On the Americas side the US, even though it was placed in the same group as South Korea, has good chance to go to the next round. Costa Rica has to beat Turkey to even dream of a chance to continue with the other country that WILL go to the second round: Brazil. Mexico and Ecuador got in the same group. Uruguay is in very bad spot!
As For Argentina, I agree that group F is the group of death. But I hope both England and Argentina will pull ahead.
FWIW, I just started a thread in IMHO to get across the board reactions (beyond England) on the groupings.
As for England, if they play to their potential they can make it out. If they play to the level of their opponent, and stick with the old tried and true players (verus getting the younger players involved), they’ll be “home before the postcards”. Good luck!
Just in case you didnt realise how serious football is taken in the UK the BBC is running this story as their main headline.
Not sure if its a slow news day but should this really be the lead story??
Looking at the groups you can see how flawed the selection procedure is, just look at Japan and Koreas groups, it means that all the other teams are in harder groups, every team in the England group is better than every team in the Japanese group, and the only team of note in Koreas groups is Portugal.
This draw is a total crock, true the winner will be true world champions but the competition is all the poorer for the gerymandering, as it is now obvious that some very good teams will not be present in the draw for the last 16.
I agree that the draw is a crock, seemed to be designed to maximise TV revenues more than anything. And can someone remind me why China had to play in Korea?
For all that though I’m quite happy with the way it turned out. The US avoided Ireland (no divided-loyalty problem for me, whew!) and both countries managed to get about as good draws as we could hope for. And sorry guys but I was praying you’d get Argentina Anyone taking bets on the tabloid reaction when (oops, er, I mean if ;)) Sweden beat you? Given your manager’s nationality, I mean.
I guess it’s all relative really. In 1998 our group opposition was Romania, Columbia and Tunisia. The first two of those are not exactly shabby and Tunisia is improving all the time. (It won’t be too long before an African nation wins the World Cup.)
1994 we didn’t qualify, 1990 we had Holland (yep, them no-hopers :rolleyes: ) and Ireland (ditto) and Egypt.
1986 was Portugal, Poland and Morocco. That’s recent history. What was your point again?
Yes! It’s the only thing everyone is talking about. The World Cup is easily the grandest sporting event in the world - I’ll be arranging my life around it for four weeks along with the rest of Europe, South America, Africa and Asia - and a great many Americans no doubt.
As for the draw, at least we’ll have a few big games to watch. I for one can’t wait for England Vs Argentina - always a classic hard fought encounter. But it’s gonna be difficult to progress from F: The Group of Death.
And suprise suprise, Japan have been given the easiest possible group. FIFA would very much like the Japanese to do well - it’ll aid the development of the game in Japan: which in turn will tap into the potentially huge Japanese market, and earn the powers that be a nice hefty wad of cash. A host nation has never failed to qualify from the first round of the World Cup, and FIFA (or the - cough - luck Gods) have pretty ensured it won’t happen here either.
It is of course a big conspiracy to make it as tough as possible for England to qualify for the finals. UEFA and FIFA have convinced themselves that England carry the only hooligan threat out of all the nations, and are determined that they spend as little time at the World Cup and future championships as possible.
Paranoid? Recently, in preperation for the World Cup, under the gaze of Sepp Blatter (Fifa head-boy), the Japs had been preparing their police for any hooligan trouble by dressing up a bunch of locals in England shirts and having them cause pretend trouble. When asked about the potential for trouble at the world cup, Blatter replied: “The English government are taking steps to stop them traveling. Hopefully it will be too far away for many of them to get to.” That was his reply to a question about hooliganism in general, with no mention of any specific country!
Me thinks that some of those nice balls had been left in the fridge before the draw.
Do you have a cite for that, as it would be absolutely shocking if that did happen. I would be disgusted and would give up entirely on their not being any trouble.
I was hoping that the SDMB would be a little more inspired than this same old crap I’ve been hearing hourly on the radio.
Who in their right mind would want to start a tournament against, say, the tournament favourites, and follow this by playing all the top seeded teams until the final? Who I ask you?
I’d rather an easy game or two to get started, then bring on the big guns once we’ve got warmed up and out of the group stage.
Do you have any idea how long a team such as England will have been together as a squad before their first game? Potentially, with the European cup final being held on the 15th May, less than two weeks should any English players be involved in the final.
Andy, :rolleyes: for the umpteenth time since the draw.
I’m rather looking forward to the prospect of not having to justify a liquid breakfast – 6.30am is staggeringly early but bless 'em. Now, if we can only wake the landlord up…
Hey - Not that a lot of you care, but the US draw actually looks pretty good. Certainly better than the Brits’ lot. I think Portugal is rated a little higher than maybe they should be.
“The Other Team I Am Required to Root For, For Reasons I Won’t Get Into Now,” Brazil, looks like they can handle their first bracket, too. I don’t know if they’ve turned around their underachieving completely just yet, though. They mailed in a couple of their performances in recent months, and it’s really showed. China or Costa Rica would seem to pose the biggest threat to them, but I see one of the Brazilian players appears most concerned about Turkey.
Anyone taking bets on the tabloid reaction when (oops, er, I mean if ;)) Sweden beat you? Given your manager’s nationality, I mean.
) and Ireland (ditto) and Egypt.