FIFA came out today with their respective pots for the upcoming World Cup draw on Friday. Outside of the inclusion of 1998 champion and 2006 runner-up France in Pot 4 and 1966 champs England in Pot 1, there were very few surprises. Although some attribute France's assignment to the lower pot as karma, the logic behind this remains blurry.
Let's start with the most obvious thing in this puzzle. The members of Pot 1 might want all eight teams in Pot 3 to be in two groups by themselves. You could make the argument that Pot 3 is the strongest, most evenly matched Pot from top to bottom. If you consider Uruguay or Algeria to be the weak links, the chain must be pretty strong. All five African teams look strong, Chile look like a formidable team and if given the right group will go deep in the tournament. Paraguay under Gerardo Martino will also be a tough nut to crack.
Argentina and England are two shady top seeds.
Beating Kazahkstan and Andorra do not make them legitimate contenders for the Jules Rimet trophy. It was sad to hear the English press got whooped up into a frenzy they they had to play Andorra.
"Whoo, 6-0."
Yes, they beat Croatia, but they were a shell of the team that knocked them out from Euro 2008. The big boys toyed with England, and they could be setting themselves up for a big disappointment come this southern hemisphere winter.
Argentina was a Martin Palermo goal away from being in the playoff against Costa Rica or buying HD TVs to watch the World Cup from home. Outside of that, the only thing that kept Argentina out was the same thing that hampered them in the second half of qualifiers- Diego Maradona.
Pot 1 (Seeded teams): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Holland, Italy, Germany, Argentina and England.
Pot 2 (Asia, Oceania, North/Central America): Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Mexico and Honduras.
Pot 3 (Africa, South America): Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile and Uruguay.
Pot 4 (Europe): France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark and Slovakia.
What do you think? Which scenarios do you like? let us know.
Comments