I suppose some of you are football fans, so here are the groups after the draw:

Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
Group B: Argentina, Nigeria, South Korea, Greece
Group C: England, United States, Algeria, Slovenia
Group D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana
Group E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
Group F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
Group G: Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Portugal
Group H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile

South Africa opens the tournament with Mexico, Uruguay plays with France the same day. All other groups follow the same pattern (group leader v. #2, #3 v. #4) for the inaugural matches.

So... are you happy with your group?

Looks like england got put into a group with easy to beat teams....then again i dont really care about football or the world cup:)

Yeah, very happy! Don't fancy Germany's chances much.

We Germans don't have an as easy group as usually with our luck in tournament seedings, but it should be manageable.

Oz has honestly played furiously at the last World Cup, but they aren't anymore coached by Hiddinks, who has probably been the driving factor behind their success in 2006.
It's however tough to estimate how this hampers their performance, as they haven't seen world class opposition in serious games since he left them in favour for Russia. (And no, the Asia qualifyings don't really count as "world class".)

Ghana has shown some potence and several promising performances with the age-restricted national teams, but seems to lack continuity as most African teams. (Remember how the exceptionally poorly performing Brazilians thrashed them soundly with 3-0 in the Round of 16? That shouldn't ever happen to a focused and concentrated team in a World Cup.)

Serbia has probably the most realistic chance to stir anything up and is a strong though not outstanding team, with key players playing as legionnaires in all of Euro's internationally active clubs.
But it isn't like _any_ of the qualified Euro teams is a walk in the park, and everyone was bound to meet one of them from pot #4. So we'll have to take them as they are.


What about Uruguay, Jong? Having to face South Africa instead of one of the actual top-notch teams seems quite good. OTOH, Mexico is probably the strongest single picking they could get from pot #2.

Quote from: Skyrock;346695What about Uruguay, Jong? Having to face South Africa instead of one of the actual top-notch teams seems quite good. OTOH, Mexico is probably the strongest single picking they could get from pot #2.

It's a tough group for us. South Africa looks weak on paper, but no host country has ever been eliminated in the first round. Mexico knows our style of play. France... well, need I say more?

I will be satisfied, but not happy, if we survive the group.

Quote from: JongWK;346702France... well, need I say more?

I'm really not following football much but the French team sucks a bit right now no?

I guess we are out, again. For a country which is supposedly football mad, we are not very good at it.

Regards,
David R

Quote from: Skyrock;346695Oz has honestly played furiously at the last World Cup, but they aren't anymore coached by Hiddinks, who has probably been the driving factor behind their success in 2006.
It's however tough to estimate how this hampers their performance, as they haven't seen world class opposition in serious games since he left them in favour for Russia.

That's my impression too, but I'm no soccer afficionado.

My soccer-mad ex reckons the team itself is undersold, regardless of coaching.  We'll find out.