Groups of Death

I have finally recovered from all the hype from the draw. I certainly made out better than the teams in Groups C and E. Not to mention, since I am following Paraguay for the first round, I was less than enthused to have Paraguay draw Eng-a-lund (thugs), Sweden (boring) and Trinidad/Tobago (could be meaningless).

However since we are flying into Frankfurt and the Paraguay v England game is in Frankfurt makes travel easy. Also, since the match is at 3pm will at least give us a reprieve as those Brits will have six hours less of booze that normal, and will allow us to get out of dodge after Paraguay knocks their blocks off (well, probably not, but hopefully...)

Now, let's take a look at this draw...

GROUP C
What a rip off for the favorites of Group C (Argentina and Holland). Cote d'Ivoire is completely unknown and Serbia only gave up ONE goal in all of qualifying. How they were rated the lowest side of all European teams coming into the draw I have no idea. Assuming that Argentina and Holland get through to the next round, their opponents will likely be Mexico and Portugal, in whichever order. How would you like a round of 16 knockout game of Holland v Portugal? Great game, more like a semi-final to me. Mexico v Argentina? Whatever.

GROUP E
Speaking of ripoffs, let us look at Group E. Three of the top 12 ranked FIFA sides (Czech Republic (2nd), USA (8th) and Italy (12th) in one GROUP?? Ghana has won 8 straight matches and has gained 27 places in the FIFA rankings this year.

Worse yet, whoever ends up 2nd in this group will likely get Brasil, so likely a short run for the 2nd finisher. Top finisher will probably get Croatia....or Australia? Japan? Brasil should have no trouble topping this group, however got no favors for their round of 16 game.

If Spain was ever going to make their run to win this thing, this would have to be the year, assuming some one can knock off Brasil before they see them in the quarterfinals. The easiest by far of the draw for these perennial underachievers, I think the FIFA ranking gave them a bump to overall #6 just looking at their draw: First timers Ukraine, Tunisia and the horrendous Saudis round out the group.

Spain, as winners of the group will likely get the Swiss or Korea. Lets hope for Korea so they can atone for the penalty shootout loss in the 2002 quarters after the controversial disallowed goal in extra time sent the Koreans into the semis.

For some extra flavors, check out these first round rivalries and potential matchups:

First round:
Germany v Poland on June 14. Should be colorful to say the least.
England v Sweden on June 20. Sven gets his countrymen again. What happens this time?
Portugal v Angola on June 11. The colonial war gets underway.
USA v Italy and Czechs. Hopefully not a repeat of 1990 when the USA bowed out early.
France v Switzerland June 13. Both qualified from the same group. they meet yet again.

Second round:
Mexico/Portugal v Netherlands/Argentina. Brutal anyway you slice it
USA v Brasil could loom here
Germany v England. If either team makes just 2nd place in their group, huge game very early.
Spain v France. If France can only come second, Spain will have a nice border war.

Quarterfinals:
Spain v Brasil
Germany v Argentina or Holland. Come to think of it, Germany could play England and either of these two just to get to the semis. No home town advantage here with the draw.

Of course, it never works out this easy. Remember that Senegal went to quarters last time, and aren't even here.

Trying for the following tickets to compliment my three Paraguay games:

USA v Czech Republic (key opening round match for the Americans)
Australia v Brasil in Munich (even if we both get tickets we will be there)
Both rounds of 16 Mexico/Portugal v Argentina/Holland (probably will end up being Angola v Serbia and Iran v Cote D'Ivoire)

Bye for now