So Les Bleus and Domenech will have the daunting tasking of potentially facing one of the top seeds in the group stages at the World Cup. No doubt this is due to the terrible showing at the Euros coupled with the struggle France had to qualify for the World Cup...thanks Domenech!
Here are the pots -
Pot 1 (seeds): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England
Pot 2 (Asia, Oceania and North/Central America): Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, United States, Mexico, Honduras
Pot 3 (Africa and South America): Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay
Pot 4 (Europe): France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia
France have done themselves no favors by not playing up to their talent level and are now going to be forced to take a very difficult route to the knock out stages. Short of being drawn with the host - South Africa - France will be the underdog facing any of the other seeded nations. The most difficult draw for Les Bleus -Brazil, Ivory Coast, Mexico...that would be a serious group of death and I could see France finishing last in such a group.
The easiest group - South Africa, North Korea, Algeria (although that match would be very tense).
France have been matched up with some of these nations in past tournaments - facing England in the 2004 Euros where a late game rally saw them snatch the full 3 points through a Zizou free kick and penalty. However with Capello running the 3 Lions it would be interesting for Dumbenech to have to face another Italian manager, I am sure if this draw happens the Irish might root for the hated English for once.
Holland has also been in Les Bleus' group during the last Euro...and that did not end very well: a 4-1 drubbing by Oranje. Which could have been worse, the Dutch sliced through the old French defense with ease. Speaking of that Euro...France also had Italy in their group, no need to dive into the history between these neighboring nations from the Euro 2000 finals, to the World Cup 2006 finals, through the qualifiers for the Euro 2008 as well as the group stages for the Euro...France and Espana have not been in the same group since the 1996 Euros in England...anyone want to guess what the result was? That is correct a draw...facing the defending European champions would be a daunting task. I am sure Spain will be very motivated to exact some revenge on Les Bleus for knocking out what looked like a solid challenger during the 2006 World Cup. Plus such a match up would make Jose very nervous...
Being draw with Germany...well that match up needs no hype. All one needs to do is look at what happened between West Germany and France in the 1982 World Cup semi finals, if these two nations get matched up I am sure this will be brought up. I know I will!! Facing Argentina would be an i
interesting draw pitting two managers who have been disappointments to their home nations. What would be interesting would be if Argentina and France played and would meet in the last game of the group...with both nations already eliminated! Then Maradona and Domenech could commiserate after the match about where they will be looking for new jobs. Finally a draw versus Brazil might be the most interesting and difficult. Les Bleus have always had good success against the Samba boys, they are one nation that for some reason, Les Bleus can play well against on a regular basis. In addition, if France lose to the Samba boys, Domenech will have a ready made excuse! So Les Bleus will have a very difficult road to take, this is what happens when you do not take care of business during qualifiers. Combine being dropped from the seeded pot with the FFF's continued faith in having Domenech run the team will translate into a very difficult time in South Africa...Let us see what happens on Friday, of course much depends on the groups but also how the games get scheduled. France could be drawn with a Brazil or Spain but may face them in the last group game, if they already have a full 6 points by then the match might only be for 1st place...but my pessimist continues to grow.
7 comments:
Hi, Sarah from The Offside here. Good post. I hope this is the kick we need to find the right form. None of these teams are unbeatable, and ultimately it is probably worse for the seeded teams that they are eligible to play France so early.
@Sarah - I could not agree with your more! I think none of the teams in Pot 1 are happy to see Les Bleus drop to the 4th pot. However I think that Escallettes and the rest of the FFF can only blame themselves for this and I fear that if France do not do well in South Africa they will be dropped from seeding for the next tournaments they qualify for!
Ok Guy, a short posting on Facebook is not enough for me! FIFA has me doubting them big time! After taking a closer look at the World Cup pots, I think that they need to reconsider this process. You seed the top 8 teams and then you "randomly" group the remaining teams by geography? This does not seem very consistent. If you are going to rank the teams, rank ALL of them from 1 to 32. Then divide them in 4 pots: teams 1-8, 9-16, 17-24, and 25-32. THEN, make the groups by having 1 team from each pot. A process similar to the NCAA basketball tournament. By not doing this, FIFA treated some higher ranked teams very unfairly: Take for example the U.S. They beat Spain, almost beat Brazil, climb into the top 15 of the world rankings and what is their reward? They are put in a pot of weak teams and therefore have NO chance of facing a New Zealand or a North Korea in the first round. They will most likely play one top 8 team, a difficult European team, and a formidable team from South America or Africa. Now I admit that Spain is my team, but I must sympathize with the U.S., and for that matter, the plight of soccer in the U.S. How can we expect people to get excited about soccer in this country when the process is so arbitrary? The rankings should apply to all teams. If a team has climbed through the ranks, they should be rewarded through a higher seeding, even if they are not a traditional powerhouse. Alright, i'm done for now Guy. And yes, it would make me nervous if Spain had to face France again. Thanks for reminding me. Peace, bro. Manes
Good point Mr Manes, I agree that the way the pots are created is confusing and at times appears to be done in some back room horse trading. However, I would argue that for the most part the groups work out well. Why I think you want to avoid just breaking down nations by their "ranking" is that you want to avoid have say 3 nations from the same confederation in one group, so you have to keep the pots loosely lined up with geographies to ensure a good distribution of nations within each group. I understand your comment about the US, but to play devil's advocate they looked terrible in the first two matches of the Confed Cup, were helped by Italy laying down in front of Brazil to get to the semi finals where they beat, who I would consider, an unmotivated Espana and then held more than their own against Brazil for 45 minutes before the Samba Boys woke up...I think one needs to look at the overall picture for a nation.
Good insight, Guy. I'm looking forward to your preview of the WC, based on the draw...let the discussion begin!!
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