Group of Life
The World Cup is a celebration of many things: national pride, competition, the world community, and on and on.
So why is there all this talk about death?
Sure it is interesting to debate which group is the most difficult - the proverbial Group of Death - but after listening to this jabber for a while I start questioning my own mortality. Since that is a bit of a drag because I plan to live forever, I’d rather discuss the Group of Life.
Henceforth the Group of Life shall be defined as the group where if you are a fan of any team in said group and you see the draw you take a breath and say with a straight face, “We can get past the first round and it won’t be that difficult.”
This year’s G.O.L. (admittedly a slightly less powerful acronym than G.O.D. but still apropos) has to be Group G – France, Switzerland, South Korea and Togo. In my view, you can make a case for any of these four teams advancing and for any of these four teams making an early exit.
France is the favorite on paper. Desperate to avenge the disaster of 2002, France has the talent to move on. But does it have the mental toughness to withstand the pressure to avoid another embarrassment? The verdict is still out.
Switzerland is the epitome of average, and therefore is a dangerous team. Not powerful enough to be the group favorite, but certainly skilled enough to advance if its team is in form.
South Korea is still riding high from its 2002 run and many of its players will benefit from cashing in on their run to land on top club teams in Europe. But this time around South Korea won’t have the twelfth man that some call the referee.
Finally there is Togo, the most difficult team to argue will advance but because the rest of the group is not invincible the Hawks do have a chance. The team is young and athletic which could prove to give it an advantage against the two European sides. It is also strong and has height up front, which could make the difference against South Korea.
There you have it, the Group of Life where optimists come to play.
Now back to your regularly scheduled programming about death….
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Comments
By Chris | January 20th, 2006 at 4:51 pm 
I would say Group H meets G.O.L. requirements, Spain have tons of talent but are always a let down, Ukraine might bomb or produce some solid performances, Saudi Arabia have got past the group stages before and Tunisia like a lot of the north African countries usually have very skillful players.
By Group G: Our Infallible Prediction - FIFA World Cup 2006 - World Cup 2006 Blog | April 17th, 2006 at 3:02 pm [...] Last month I called Group G the Group of Life because I thought any of the four teams had a realistic shot of advancing. After watching Togo’s performance in the African Cup of Nations and the subsequent sacking of its coach, I no longer think the Sparrowhawks have a shot in hell of making it to the airport on time for their flight to Germany let alone the knockout stage. Too much turmoil, too little talent. So that leaves three teams vying for two spots. [...]
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