FIFA World Cup Draw

[Tim Partlett]

FIFA insisted on using its horribly flawed rating system as part of the seeding process, which meant that teams that gamed the system by playing lots of pointless friendlies, got easier draws than those who didn't.

It meant we had a situation where one of the top seeds was a team that has only qualified for the world cup once in its entire history, and was beaten in every single game. It meant that two teams from the last tournament's final 8 were second and third seeds.

The result was that Greece, for the second time in a row, get a stupidly easy group: Greece, Israel, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia, Luxembourg. The rest of the groups were luckily not so bad. England got drawn with fellow quarter-finalists Ukraine, but they were given one of the weaker first seeds, Croatia.

I'll be rooting for Israel again, who did England a big favour against Russia, only for the idiotic England manager to through it all away. This has to be their best chance of making the final since they got to qualify directly from the Oceania group (crazy but that's politics for you).

[Alan Dunkin]

Well I don't see Israel or Switzerland being easy (the latter definitely not) but yeah, the other three are easy points.

I can only laugh at England having to fight Croatia yet again. Petric is a god!

--- Ala

[Gary Whitta]

I can only laugh at England having to fight Croatia yet again. Petric is a god!

--- Ala
Well this time at least there's a chance we'll have a half-competent manager and not the "wally with a brolly" (who by the way gets a two million pound pay-off in reward for his failure.)

[Tim Partlett]

Considering that instead of Israel and Switzerland, Greece could have got England and Ukraine instead, I'd say they were relatively easy :).

Two teams from last tournament's quarter finals or two teams that failed to qualify (and rarely do). I know which I would choose!

And I'm happy to get Croatia. They occasionally turn out good teams, but they are rarely excellent, and they haven't got the pedigree of countries like Italy and Germany to turn out regular world beaters. They could well be off the boil within a year or two, and England will be roughly the same as ever.

[Brandon Clements]

The Special One for England manager! :)

[André Costa]

I seriously doubt that Jose is going to turn to international management at the moment(Barcelona or Inter are more likely!) and when he does, i hope he goes to coach our national team so that we can get rid of this retarded Brazilian >_<

Hey England, come and grab Scolari from us! Please? :(

[Alan Dunkin]

Scolari isn't supposed to be that bad. I thought he wanted the England job at some point. What's his deal?

--- Alan

[Gary Whitta]

The Special One for England manager! :)
He already said he's not interested.

[JD]

He already said he's not interested.
Go, Jürgen, go!

-Julian

[André Costa]

Scolari isn't supposed to be that bad. I thought he wanted the England job at some point. What's his deal?

--- Alan

Seriously, he is THAT bad but ... he is sucessful. He seems to be good at motivating the players but he has no tactical knowledge. People always point out that he has won the world cup but just go check the Brazil matches in Korea World Cup.

He was very lucky when he came to Portugal because he inherited a group of players that was been "built" in the last 8 years (Figo was at his best, we still had Rui Costa, Pauleta was scoring, Deco got Portuguese second nationality, etc) and i believe(in my arm chair manager view ;) ) that the players were the only responsable for our recent "sucess" in the last years.

Now our core group of leaders(altough with still very good players) is gone and we just had an atrocious qualification in one of the easiest groups.

But hey, maybe i'm wrong and he's probably great ... could you guys take him away from Portugal? :P

He already said he's not interested.

Portuguese newspapers say that although he isn't interested right now, he hasn't rejected the idea/offer.

[Lloyd Heilbrunn]

Concacaf is wierd, US gets Barbados-Dominica winner in a home and home before the FIRST group stage, then there is a second one.......

[Tim Partlett]

That's because CONCACAF consists of two decent teams, a couple of passable ones, and dozens and dozens of really poor teams from countries where 22 men on a field (plus the referee, linesmen, subs and five fans) constitutes the biggest population on the island.

[Lloyd Heilbrunn]

Well,the deciding factor is not the poor "quality" teams but the poor "money" countries which they want to participate but which could not afford the traditional group competition.

[Brandon Clements]

Yeah, CONCACAF is Mexico, the USA, and a bunch of teams like St. Kitts, etc. Interesting in this, the US and Cuba may be matched up.

Also:
Tell the FA to come and get me.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=485512&cc=5901

[Brandon Clements]

Just to bump this a little: Fabio Capello (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article3054248.ece) (who, IMO, doesn't look close to 61) is England's new head coach. Time to break out the Italian-English dictionary.

While I was looking forward to Mourinho from a sheer entertainment perspective, I think this a great hire.