From the seeded pot, I think you'd want to steer clear of Brazil, Germany and Spain. These are seeded teams, so there's no easy wins there. South Africa would obviously be the best results from Pot A but I'd happily take my chances to get a result out of England or Argentina (in their current malaise) as well. Of course, if I could beat any team in this world cup it would be England, closely followed by Italy. I hate the poms so much. Netherlands at full strength are my tip to take this out, and we played pretty well against their B squad but I'd like to avoid that. I'll also take the chance to post a pic of my favourite Jaaaapie. Not that there's a lot of competition.
Preferences here:
England, South Africa, Argentina, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands.
From Pot three, it's really just an enormous shitfight. You could make a case for drawing most of these teams as a "soft" option, though you could also prefer to avoid them all for reasons unknown. Paraguay and Chile qualified handsomely for this cup - Paraguay taking Brazil's scalp along the way. Eased off the throttle after qualifying, otherwise could have topped the South American group. That's great form. Chile got off to a slow start in the qualifiers, to romp home and have been the hottest team in South America in 2009. If you have to draw a South American, may I suggest U-R-Gay.
Of the Africans, Algeria is tipped to be relatively weak, though I don't necessarily concur. They'll be a stout defensive team that came through a relatively strong African group and I'd say they are the most underestimated African nation, possibly as they don't have that Sub-Saharan darling thing in their favour. Ghana look weak, it's last two starts resulting in a draw with Mali and a loss to Benin. The Ivory Coast and Nigeria look the class of the Africans.
If I have to put my preferences down here, I'll go
Ghana - Uruguay - Cameroon - Algeria - Ivory Coast - Chile - Nigeria - Paraguay.
The Europe Group is a bit of a mess to list my preferences.
I hate the Swiss. They share a border with the Dutch, charge $20 for a McValue meal and hate you for your general relaxed happy outlook on life. I'll take them in a heartbeat. Even with the aged Stefan Henchoz in tow. I'd happily draw the Danes for one reason alone,
Beyond that, Greece Serbia and either of the Slovs would be good. All I'll be saying is not France or Portugal.
Group of ease:
Switzerland - Ghana - South Africa
Group with tasty fans
Germany - Paraguay - Denmark (France and the freaky deaky Dutch get an honourable mention. I don't do that whole Brazil = hot thing, but you might think differently.)
Group of Douche (almost all in the same pool; you'd typically say England - Italy - Brazil)
ENG-A-LAND - U-R-Gay - Portugal
Group of Death
Netherlands - Portugal - Paraguay
Anyway, comment away. Particularly if you want to debate my hot fan thing.
2 comments:
I don't want Ghana. Having already qualified, they probably played those last two games with Michael Essien's 12 year old brother in midfield and his 14 year old sister in central defence. From Europe, I think that Slovenia are dark horses for SA 2010. Not only did they take out Russia in the playoff, but they conceded the least goals of any team in European qualies, whilst netting plenty of their own. So that's a no for me to Slovenia.
I will take the Danish beauties...the Jaaapies are hit and miss...
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