World Cup Draw
Well apart from the gorgeous Charlize Theron the highlight of the World Cup draw was England getting a bye to the round of 16 by putting them in Group C with three teams who would struggle to find South Africa on the map. That's not saying that it will be a walkover but it bloody well should be, David Beckham may well be in the same team as Landon Donovan stateside but there's a gulf in class between England and the other three sides bigger than the hole in Wigan's defence. Here's how Beckham's fellow LA Galaxy star reacted to the draw
If England progress they will face either Germany, Australia, Serbia or Ghana from Group D which would be an interesting match whoever they got - although history suggests it will be Germany and we will lose on penalties.
Away from England's group the two highlights were the 'group of (certain) death' which puts the three strong teams of Brazil, Portugal and Ivory Coast in Group G with, the team that is probably going to lose half its members to political defections, North Korea, the other highlight was the near silence when France were drawn in South Africa's Group A. As Ms Theron said, clearly not working from the autocue at this point, "Sometimes silence says more than words can." If South Africa want a good omen, at let's face it nobody believes they will win a single match, they could draw comfort from the fact that the last time Uruguay, Mexico and France were drawn in the same group was back in 1966 when the fourth team were the hosts and eventual winners: England. I didn't get that anorak for the colour you know!
There was briefly an all Spanish group when Spain, Honduras and Chile found themselves drawn together in Group H but then Switzerland were drawn to make-up what looks like another easy ride for the seeded team. Holders Italy, who beat France in the final four years ago in Germany, have what looks like an equally comfortable looking ride in Group F with Paraguay, New Zealand and Slovakia. Group B puts third favourites Argentina in with Nigeria, South Korea and Greece. Surely the short fat lollipop sucker can't cock that up. Group E puts the Dutch in with Denmark, Japan and Cameroon. This should be a good group to watch because the three 'better' sides are past their best and will be relying on individual brilliance (Robben, Bendtner and Eto'o) to make-up for what are, on paper at least, three very ordinary teams.
If the seeded teams progress, with the exception of South Africa, the Round of 16 should be like this:
France v Nigeria, England v Serbia, Germany v USA, Argentina v Uruguay,
Holland v Slovakia, Brazil v Switzerland, Italy v Denmark, Spain v Ivory Coast.
See, I've already got caught up in the excitement and there's still six months to go!
2 comments:
I was looking in here all morning expecting his post!
:-)
Agree with most of what you say and very interested in the anorak stat! Good omen for us too. Also, my hope of an England Spain final is still on course but the quarters and semis will throw up the usual maybe/maybe not encounters.
Two things I disagree on...(a) I'll put money on Paraguay beating Italy (unless it's the 3rd game and Italy have to win to go through) and (b) remember that Italy had to cheat and probably ahd to pay the ref too to beat USA last time so that won't be an easy match because they'll be even more "up for it" against England.
I wish Paraguay would do something, I've had this sneaking suspicion that they fail because they play too much like England used to i.e one big lad up front. Perhaps this will be there tournament.
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