10 Things We Learned From the 2010 World Cup Draw

#11 Don’t tune into the draw until an hour after it is advertised to begin.

#12- Jérôme Valcke overheats easily.

#13 Jérôme Valcke needs to learn that looking a woman in the eyes requires a neck shift of approximately twelve inches.

When Theron responded “…interesting…” to some blather Valcke was saying, I thought I going to fall out of my chair laughing.

14. lets face it…she was only there to pick up a paycheck

3. There is no Group of Death When a group featuring North Korea is talked about as a GofD contender, that means there probably isn’t one.

Group of death is an informal sobriquet used in football and other team sports to describe a situation that often occurs during the group stage of a tournament (such as the first round of the World Cup), where:

-more teams are perceived to have the potential to advance past the group stage than the tournament structure allows;

-all (or an unusually large proportion) of the teams present in one group are considered to be roughly equal in skill;

-one or more of the underdog teams plays in a style which may shock a better team.

The key element is that any team could plausibly qualify and any could plausibly be eliminated, or at least one strong team will not advance. It is, in other words, the most unpredictable group of the tournament
http://malawi.worldcupblog.org/team-news/fifa-world-cup-south-africa-2010-draw.html

#4. Funny.

He’s instructing his players to horde food and medical supplies back to North Korea.

10 things we learned and 1 thing we already knew:

Charlize Theron is f*cking hot.

I apologize for my ignorance. What do mean by “An open draw”?
Open to the public, larger setting, not just to the press?

Or all teams in one pot?

15. Lalas should be fired from ESPN.

Johnny, I believe he means unseeded, where anybody has the possibility of drawing anybody else.

Poor Uncle Sam is gonna get raped by Her Majesty!!!

I don’t know James, Charlize is kinda flat titwise, and I wouldn’t really call her hot.

16. Sepp Blatter has a serious man crush on David Beckham. What was David even doing there??

They should re-release that “Match of Their Lives” movie or whatever it was called that was a Disneyfied account of the 1950 match. It wasn’t a terrible movie, but I think only about 40 people saw it.

I agree there is no Group of Death. The ESPN ticker ran today saying as a statement of fact the Brazil’s group is the “Group of Death,” as if Death Groups were objective, empirically verifiable categories. In Brazil’s group, Brazil and Portugal should qualify, period, if they don’t it will be an upset. In a true “group of death,” all four teams should be legitimately capable of qualifying, and three of the teams should have legitimate aspirations to win the tournament.

Heidi Klum > Charlize Theron.

@Thad: “Game of their Lives” with Gerard Butler, Patrick Stewart, and John Rhys-Davies. I’ll have to check it out!

I think group G looks pretty deadly. The best team from every pot except #2; no one is guaranteed anything. (Well, except N. Korea. They’re guaranteed to get creamed three times as BRA, CIV and POR try to pad their goal differences, cause it could all come down to that.) I wouldn’t want to trade places with any team there.

There is indeed a Group of Death, its Group D… Germany, Australia, Serbia & Ghana. With the exception of Serbia, the rest made it past the group stage in the last World Cup. Really tough group, I’m curious to see how Australia does, since their qualification was a joke. I think Germany will be the group leader but the rest will duke it out in a bloodbath. I predict some very good matches from this group.

As for Brazil’s group, other than the Brazil/Portugal match, the rest of the matches will be no test for the Brazilians.

France will have a hard time with both Mexico & Uruguay. I don’t think anything is written in stone yet as to what France will do in the World Cup, also take into account that Henry may still see a possible suspension from his handball incident. Group A will have probably the dullest matches, lots of draws and goal average will probably be an important factor to move on.

England/US match will be interesting just for the whole Donovan/Beckham matchup. Beckham already outclassed Donovan by nailing the penalty kick in the MLS CUP final while Donovan sent his penalty kick to the moon. I say Donovan ends Beckham’s career by breaking his leg, Donovan gets red-carded, US fails to move on and everyone is happy.

#15. European cup is more exciting than the World cup?

I agree that there is no GofD, especially if you compare it to GofD of previous WC.

I agree that Germany has been handed a very tough group. Ghana is the best African team, and they will surely give Germany a phsyical game that will have many yellow cards.

You can’t really tell who will advance from this group. Serbia has showed how unpredicatable they are, and Australia realy impressed everyone last time. Maybe they had a great coach.

The other thing is that everyone wants to avoid England in the second round. Germany had the same situation last time.

The team that will win all matches so easily is surely Spain.

Slovenia will win the group C. England and USA have no chances

Did anyone else get seriously pissed off at all the small talk between Valcke and Theron? I felt like shooting them after that whole segment with England-USA and “Oh my god how old do you think I am?

To Whom It May Concern:
I hoped an assignment of the matches in South Africa to be only based on a numerical draw which would pairing up the 32 teams selected only by chance .
In this 12/4/9 draw FIFA orchestrated the eight tournaments for the 32 teams like eight cages with a wolf and three chickens in each cage.
Odds are that the wolves would prevail on the chickens therefore FIFA increased the overall possibility that the world cup would and the $30 millions prize be remaining among the “historical” strong seeded teams of Pot-1.
In a simple numerical draw the seeded teams of Pot-1 would have had the opportunity to play themselves and possibly be eliminated sooner.
To favor intentionally the historical European teams and Brazil of Pot-1 at the expenses of all others is a scam.
The world cup 2010 draw was rigged because some end-results were statistically predetermined on
an engineered plan rather than have the teams playing their merit on the soccer field .
By increasing the odds and favor a group of soccer teams the South Africa swindle will also affect the final winner of the world cup.
It is true that the winner must prevail on all others but statistics indicate that without doubt wolves will prevail on chickens.
All teams outsite Pot-1 should take FIFA, together with all teams that benefited by the scam in court.
Regretfully,
Bruno Nardi

“I’m curious to see how Australia does, since their qualification was a joke.”
@Fernando, how do you consider Australia’s qualification a joke?