I came home at 21.30 h, at half-time, France were already leading 2-0, Sweden - Portugal was still 0-0;
I changed between the two games (and also saw a few minutes of the friendly Belgium - Japan: 2-3 > Japan clearly is an important outsider for a place in the quarter or semi-finals, along with Belgium and Colombia) and saw some of the most exciting football in years. A terrific Ronaldo scored three goals for Portugal, an equally terrific Ibrahimovic scored twice for Sweden. Portugal and Ronaldo deserved the qualification, but Sweden could’ve had a penalty at 2-1, when Ibra was pulled down by his arm by a Portugese defender; Who knows what happens when Sweden scores 3-1.
France finally showed what they’re capable of. A fantastic Ribéry took the team by the hand and they really demolished a not so bad Ukrainian team. Still don’t know if France will be a serious contender in Brazil: they have the players, and they have a good coach (Deschamps knows football) but there were racial tensions again in the group, so I read in the French press. They pulled together tonight, but if these tensions return, will they be able to stick together for a period of five or six weeks? I have my doubts. They will have to solve these problems, or the same thing that ruined their chances in South-Africa will happen again.
I was waiting until I was sure we qualified, I traveled from Angola in time to watch the first game live, and I was sure we qualified cause we are a better team than Sweden. Yes this all play off thing was trully unnecessary, we are a better team than Russia also, but we like it this way the under pressure way, Portugal performs better under pressure it’s our mentality.
Still I have no real great expectations, without Ronaldo this would be one of the worst national teams we had in recent years, with only more three real top players Pepe, Coentrão and Moutinho (our right back Pereira is doing very well also a good player). But apart from that any team with Ronaldo in top shape can expect for the best.
And all this enconomic crisi tis doing one thing good in fooball terms, big teasm are betting more in oour young players for the main squad. so there’s a new generation of young players coming up with great quality, mostly from Sporting as usual but not only.
Yers t would be impossible for us to imageine not being in a world cup in Brasil, it wouldn’t be same.
About Almeida the kind of player nobody loves in Portugal, yes it tells a lot about our teams and the way they play, or how we like them to play.
[size=14pt]WORLD CUP DRAW Friday December 6[/size]
We’ll have the final draw (that is the draw for the World Cup Finals) tomorrow, in Salvador Brazil
As usual, teams will be divided over four pots of eight teams, and as usual there has been quite some discussion, especially in regard to pot 1 with the seeded teams.
No surprise Brazil (hosts) and Spain (defending champions) are among the seeded teams, and the same can be said about Germany and Argentina. However, the other four seeded teams are more controversial. Some would have expected the likes of Holland, Italy or France among them, but instead we get Colombia, Belgium, Switzerland and Uruguay.
Now Belgium and Colombia are mentioned as outsiders for the title and are expected to reach at least the quarter finals, so their status as a seeded team seems defendable, but Switzerland (out of the blue) and Uruguay (only fifth in the South-American qualifications) are odd choices, to say the least. This FIFA ranking sucks.
Anyway, these are the four pots:
(Pot 2 has only seven teams, pot 4 has 9; one of the European teams will be trasferred to pot 2)
POT 1 (Seeded teams):
Brazil - Argentina - Spain - Germany - Belgium - Colombia - Switzerland - Uruguay
Japan - Australia - S. Korea - Iran - Honduras - Mexico - Costa Rica - USA
POT 4 (Europe)
Holland - Italy - France - Bosnia Herzegovina - Croatia - Greece - Portugal - Russia - England
Even though seeded teams are supposed to be ‘protected’, all can be drawn in a so-called group of death.
The Rehearsal Draw resulted in no less than two ‘groups of death’, ironically for both Brazil and Spain:
Brazil - Italy - France - Australia
Spain - England - South Korea - Ivory Coast
Holland (not seeded) drew in this rehearsal: Cameroon, Honduras and Colombia, which would be (or seem) easier than the draw for Brazil. But Holland could also be in one group with Germany, Ghana and Japan, or Brazil, Mexico and Portugal, which would be a nightmare draw.
Somehow I’ve ended up with goal-happy Ecuador (3-3 against Portugal and 4-0 versus Japan) thumping the Belgians 3-0 and knocking them out at the group stage. ;D And in a bit of horrid inevitability I’ve also got England up against Germany in the last 16.
not an easy group for Portugal in my draw. Colombia, Ghana and South Korea. Gota a Germany Italy and Spain England groups, also got a curious Netherlands/Belgium group.
In the second round I got a fantastic Germany Spain (italy won the group stage), and an Italy England ahah
Belgium got Argentina
No comments so far after the draw. As expected there are some difficult and some easy groups.
Not a real death group amongst them, but group D will be tricky for England as along as Uruguay plays better than in the qualification.
Germany hasn’t an easy group too, but after the group phase maybe a good chance to reach the half final against not so strong teams.
Group B is also problematic. If Spain and the Netherlands make it, one of them has to face Brazil in the round of 16 (why is that not called eight final like in Germany?). That is if we assume that Brazil won’t be eliminated in the group phase.
Group C is then the easiest one. Closely followed by group E.
I do not agree about Group C. Belgium, one of the outsiders for the title, played Colombia and Japan last month, and was beaten twice. Both Colombia and Japan made a very strong impression. Japan also drew against Holland - and were the better team. They have at least two world class players, one of them - Honda - will play for AC Milan next year. I don’t know too much about the actual force of Ivory Coast, but usually they have a good team.
I do agree about the other groups. Holland and Spain are in a difficult position, one of them will have to face Brazil in the next round, and I don’t think Brazil can be knocked out at that stage; it’s written in the stars that they will reach the semi finals. Spain and Holland also have to watch out for Chili. Normally that team would be no match for them, but they play on ‘home soil’: this tournament is a sort of home tournament for the South-American teams.
Germany has a very difficult group, but as Stanton points out, it may all be a bit easier afterwards (until the semis)
England’s group is a difficult one but I am quite happy with that. We had a so called ‘easy’ group last time and it only added to our player’s chronic sense of complacency. I much prefer that we are thrown to the lions straight away as we are here and then we sink or swim from the off. Either we are good enough or we aren’t. If we are then we will be off and running straight away. If we are not then we go home nice and early and stop kidding ourselves. The only part of the group which I would rather have avoided is the geographic element of it. Playing the first game in Manaus will be a potential killer as the humidity will be extreme and the travelling time excessive. This will not only adversely affect us in the next games but will probably lead to a slow, non risk taking opening game as both us and Italy try to survive it rather than win it. I predict a 0-0 in that one already.
That’s the problem of having ‘big games’ on the first day: teams don’t want to lose it and therefore take no risk. This could affect Spain - Holland and Germany - Portugal too, although in the case of Spain and Holland winning the group seems vital (see above).
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