2014 World Cup Draw

The draw was made this afternoon for next years World Cup in Brazil. Looking at the way the groups have been drawn I'd have to say that Group D put me in the mind of Gordon Strachan in 1986 when he said that there were groups of death and Scotland were in the group of certain death. England will play one of their matches (Italy on 15 June) so far up the Amazon that Werner Herzog may well be one of their supporters. 

With two teams going through from the Groups into the Second Round I would have thought that the following teams will qualify: Brazil and Mexico. Spain and Netherlands. Colombia and Ivory Coast. Uruguay and England. Switzerland and France. Argentina and Nigeria. Germany and USA. Belgium and Russia.


     GROUP A: Brazil, Croatia, Mexico, Cameroon

GROUP B: Spain, Netherlands, Chile, Australia

GROUP C: Colombia, Greece, Ivory Coast, Japan

GROUP D: Uruguay, Costa Rica, England, Italy

GROUP E: Switzerland, Ecuador, France, Honduras

GROUP F: Argentina, Bosnia, Iran, Nigeria

GROUP G: Germany, Portugal, Ghana, USA

GROUP H: Belgium, Algeria, Russia, South Korea

Despite expecting the last four to be Argentina, Brazil, Germany and Uruguay I think this may be the best chance since 1986 of a European team winning the World Cup in one of the Americas.

Incidentally for all it's promotion as a global event the World Cup next year will actually only represent 41% of the worlds population among its competing nations - 13 of the top 20 most populous countries did not qualify including China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan among them.