The pots have been announced

 

Pot 1: Brazil Argentina Colombia Uruguay Spain Germany Belgium Switzerland

 

Pot 2: Algeria Cameroon Chile Ivory Coast Ecuador Ghana Nigeria

 

Pot 3: Australia Costa Rica Honduras Iran Japan Korea Republic Mexico USA

 

Pot 4: Bosnia-Herzegovina Croatia England France Greece Italy Netherlands Portugal Russia

 

One team from Pot 4 will be drawn into Pot 2

 

 

Draw takes place on Friday at 4pm

Typical of FIFA to change the rules at the last minute. Originally France were due to go into pot 2 as the lowest ranked European side but now that's all changed. Whichever side does end up in pot 2 could get a very tough draw.

It's very odd to change the rules this late so that any of the nine could end up separated - almost as if they have no confidence in their own ranking system. Which is probably fair justified, given I don't think they envisaged Switzerland being top seeds when they made the seedings based entirely on the rankings.

Got to admit it's very odd. It would make logical sense for it to be France, but you can't help but feel FIFA want them to do well and not land in a potential Group of Death. It could just as easily work the other way though if the European team in Group 2 gets drawn with Bosnia/Greece/Croatia.

Typical of FIFA to change the rules at the last minute. Originally France were due to go into pot 2 as the lowest ranked European side but now that's all changed. Whichever side does end up in pot 2 could get a very tough draw.

You could end up with Uruguay, Iran and Greece from being the left over European team. You could get drawn from the European pot and be with Brazil, Holland and USA.

Edited December 4, 201311 yr by RabbitFurCoat

It's very odd to change the rules this late so that any of the nine could end up separated - almost as if they have no confidence in their own ranking system. Which is probably fair justified, given I don't think they envisaged Switzerland being top seeds when they made the seedings based entirely on the rankings.

There's a good piece on the BBC website showing how Switzerland were able to exploit the ranking system to boost their position.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25134584

It also shows France's moanings for only having a 5 team group were complete rubbish. If they'd had San Marino or Faroe Islands in their group they'd have less points because their average would be brought down. It's actually an advantage to be drawn in the small group. Another thing that would've helped England was if they'd moved arranged another of their San Marino or Moldova matches to 2012 rather than 2013.

Someone at the FA is going to be very red faced right now! Total calamity!

Suarez to knock england out.

Suarez to knock england out.

 

Would be funny.

 

But we play Costa Rica in the last game :D

 

At least we'll be spared losing on penalties or to the Germans again

There are a few straws we can clutch in desperation. Italy have often struggled a bit in the group stages. The game against Italy is in a dreadful venue with its 99% humidity but it is a relatively late kick off (the only match to kick of at 2am BST while other matches there are somewhat earlier) and Italy won't like it any more than England do.

There are a few straws we can clutch in desperation. Italy have often struggled a bit in the group stages. The game against Italy is in a dreadful venue with its 99% humidity but it is a relatively late kick off (the only match to kick of at 2am BST while other matches there are somewhat earlier) and Italy won't like it any more than England do.

 

Uruguay will beat us hands down.

 

Playing Italy in the rainforest is the best possible match England could have coped for. It just depends how well we prepare, and we could possibly sneak a win. Don't think we'll go through though. Plus I expect Hodgson will massively dampen everyone's expectations in the lead-up. You would expect the FA want us to reach the last 16 at least though.

Uruguay really aren't much cop and shouldn't be anywhere near seeding. They were my 2nd preferred seed to get after Switzerland, thought it would've been nice to not have Italy I don't think it's that bad a group at all, before the European teams were drawn I'd have said it was better than A, B or G and on par with C.

 

As for location, yes one is in a shit location but it's at 22:00, not at 13:00 when some matches there will be played, it's not like Italy are a team that'll be used to it, and the other two games are at locations which are very near to where we're staying.

 

Overall, not great but nowhere near the disaster it's being made out to be.

Group A:

Brazil

Croatia

Mexico

Cameroon

 

Group B:

Spain

Holland

Chile

Australia

 

Group C:

Colombia

Greece

Ivory Coast

Japan

 

Group D:

Uruguay

Costa Rica

England

Italy

 

Group E:

Switzerland

Ecuador

France

Honduras

 

Group F:

Argentina

Bosnia-Hercegovina

Iran

Nigeria

 

Group G:

Germany

Portugal

Ghana

USA

 

Group H:

Belgium

Algeria

Russia

South Korea

 

What do you think of the draw?

 

 

 

This could be humorous. At least it won't seem like such a bad thing if we go out in the group stage, expectations being low has made this whole thing better, nothing worse than a load of 'England gon take home the cup' crap every time. And we could conceivably get through here, it is going to be a three-way dogfight but we have as much chance as either of the other two IMO.

 

In other news:

Argentina vs Nigeria AGAIN. Yay.

The prospect of at least 2 of Brazil/Spain/Netherlands (with a repeat of last year's final already confirmed as one of the first matches *.*) getting a matchup on early on in the draw is very interesting. While if we manage the QFs we're almost certainly facing one of them, it makes that side of the draw look shit hot.

All the underdog teams (aside from Costa Rica) to give as good as they get please. Let's get a couple of leftfield teams in the QFs.

USA have it worse than us in all likelihood. Remember that, guys.

Uruguay while not at the heights of 2010 are still a good team. Suarez along with a select few others is at the top group of players who are just behind Messi and Ronaldo. With him in their team they're always going to have a chance.

 

A lot will depend who Hodgson takes on the plane. Let's be honest as demonstrated over the past few weeks anyone with half a brain knows how to stop Townsend. And I'm sure the world will be dripping with fear at the prospect of facing Tom Cleverly and Danny Welbeck.

 

The German/Portugal/Ghana/USA is the Group of Death though. Four good teams, although I fully expect our group to get the bill from the UK media!

So will FIFA change the time of the England-Italy match to suit European TV audiences then?

Am I the only one to think that our group really isn't so bad? Italy and Uruguay are both beatable imo and we've avoided Brazil, Argentina and Germany in the group stages?

Am I the only one to think that our group really isn't so bad? Italy and Uruguay are both beatable imo and we've avoided Brazil, Argentina and Germany in the group stages?

 

They're beatable of course. Uruguay whilst they have two star players, they're not as good as they were 3-4 years ago. But they'll be more used to the climate, which surely must come in to a factor. And I'm sure we've never beaten Italy in a major tournament. We need to beat one of Italy/Uruguay to go through. And that's assuming we beat Costa Rica.