FIFA Announces World Cup Seeds; Karma Announces French Retribution.

December 2nd, 2009 | by: chris |

FBL-WC2010-DRAW-RSA The seedings for the World Cup draw were announced today and there were a couple of surprises. Namely the news that the great Fabio Capello has effectively wiped Euro 2008 from statistical history and that France will need a small miracle not to be drawn into a Group of Death.

Going into today’s meeting it was undecided which methodology FIFA would use to determine the seeds for Friday’s draw. It could’ve been the most recent FIFA rankings, it could’ve been the whims of the committee members or, and this one had to be considered the likeliest, it could’ve been whichever countries gave the biggest timepiece to Sepp Blatter. In the end they went with none of the above, instead using the all too rubbish October 2009 FIFA rankings when teams had played an equal number of qualifying games.

France making way for England is, obviously the bigger news, but a second glance over the names will reveal that somehow, someway FIFA have deduced that Maradona’s Argentina are one of the seven best teams in the world. This despite ample evidence to the contrary – that evidence being known as World Cup 2010 Qualifying*, of course.

* – Yeah, yeah – FIFA Rankings criteria spreads back aways.

South Africa as the host team gets a free pass. Based on their friendly form, so too will the other clubs in their group. Hopefully they’re merely the sleeping tiger ready to pounce once the cage is opened.

Otherwise, all standard.

Pot 1 (Seeded teams): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Holland, Italy, Germany, Argentina and England.

Pot 2 (Asia, Oceania, North/Central America): Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Mexico and Honduras.

Pot 3 (Africa, South America): Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile and Uruguay.

Pot 4 (Europe): France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark and Slovakia.

Europe will, obviously, be the only continent allowed to two teams in the same group, simply based on numbers. And from there on it’s simple: pick one from each pot.

Now, if we were to be totally original and peg a Group O’Death on the back of this it would likely be: Brazil, Japan, Ghana, France. Or just as easily swap in Ivory Coast for Ghana should you so desire.

France are by some margin the biggest losers, and while the karma angle is easy, it’s really just down to the fact that they haven’t been very good for about two years now. Euro 2008 was a slight disaster and, by keeping that same astrologist on the sidelines, World Cup qualifying didn’t go a great deal more smoothly. You could even say it went less smoothly, given the backlash of the manner in which they qualified. (Notice I managed to avoid “manner in which they handed in their qualification”. Please pass this along to every announcer, journalist and boob assigned to next summer’s tournament.) So basically, it’s down to no one but themselves.

But if any Irish fans ask you, tell them France got their just desserts.

Tags: Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, Chile, Denmark, France, germany, Ghana, Greece, Holland, Honduras, Italy, Ivory Coast, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, North Korea, Paraguay, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United States, Uruguay, World Cup 2010

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Albo

>>>France have reached the final in 2 of the last 3 world cups.>>>

Sandrahan,
True, but you are not mentioning that 2 WCs ago (2002), France was the very first team to be sent back home. And that was on 1 of the last 2 WCs.
Daniel

Dreams and fears about teams in the world cup

If I were to choose the apparently most weak opponents for Mexico or many other participants, I would take South Africa, Algeria, and Slovenia. I say apparently because most world cups have surprises. Apparently weak teams may turn out to be strong opponents, and apparently strong opponents may turn out to be weak.

Argentina has great players in Messi, Tevez, Mascherano etc. But Maradona is a disaster as coach. So I measure Argentina the second most weak of the seeded teams.

What about the death group? If Mexico were in the death group and I were to choose, I would take Spain, France, and Ivory Coast. Why? I think Mexico still would have good opportunities of advancing if it played to its best. I would say the same about U.S. and Australia.

I consider France a declining team that may be even less strong next year when Henry will be a year older. Ivory Coast is very strong but African teams turn to be inconsistent. Spain is the strongest team on earth on paper but it has still to justify its mental strength in world cups.

I'm not saying that Mexico would beat Spain if they faced each other in the 2010 world cup, although I don't think it is impossible because no team is unbeatable. Any team that beats Brazil can beat any other team in the world and Mexico has beaten Brazil several times. As far as I know, Spain has never reached the semifinals, at least in modern time. Whatever best in world cup about Spain is still to be written. But for the moment, talking about mental strength, I fear most Germay, Brazil, and even U.S. Those teams have an outstanding capacity of recovery. Spain will win perhas with great margin of goals. But what about being in adversity two or three goals down. Would they recover? We know what happened in Confederations cup against U.S. Spain was a shodow of itself.
Coconut

not to mention, USA didnt even win the Confed cup, so i dont even know what youre talking about Alex.
Coconut

even though Argentina is weak, they're still way better and higher ranked than USA.

Get over it, already. I'd rather have Argentina seeded than USA, or god forbid, France.
alex

ummmmmm...argentina barely qualified on the last day of the qualifiers, they shouldnt b a seeded team, i think the US should got a seed cuz of the confed cup, and they won there group (barely by a point)

i hate this european & brazil/argentina bias
nwjake

@Pseudinho - From what I saw in qualifying, Honduras at their best matched up well with USA or Mexico on their average days. But I don't think they'll cause the seeded team they get grouped with any problems. I'm willing to be surprised by them, though. I think a lot of people will underestimate the Pot 2 teams.

@Seth - I'd love to see that matchup! I thought the Netherlands were the better team in '06 but lost. I think they're still the better team today, but that would be a huge game. I don't think that's a matchup Portugal should be hoping for.
Seth

Best case scenario for Portugal would be to draw against either South Africa or Holland (who we always trash lol).
Jose

"I think Australia are probably the best team in Pot 2, with the USA and Mexico a close second."

Mexico USA and Australia are about equal I'd say (Australia is definitely not better than either), but I gave Mexico the edge in Group of Death inclusion based on their past consistency.
Pseudinho

I think you'll find Honduras is stronger than you think. In CONCACAF they've been a constant underachiever. They aren't a typical central american side with loads of technique but no speed or physicality. David Suazo, Wilson Palacios, and Carlo Costly are all players who can play in most leagues.

I rate Australia, Mexioc, and USA all level in pot 2 with Korea Republic right behind them followed by Honduras and Japan and rounding out pot 2 I would North Korea and New Zealand.
Juan

Group 3 is terrifying.