Three ‘death’ groups emerge
The most anticipated sporting draw in history came down Friday.
An estimated 600 million fans from 200 countries tuned in to the Brazilian beach resort of Costa do Sauipe to find out who will play whom among the 32 finalists when the FIFA World Cup 2014 finals sweep across Brazil in June.
World Cup draws always serve up a Group of Death, a phrase that strikes fear into national coaches and spooks fans who too often engage in futile optimism over their country’s chances. This one gave us three.
The best place to start must be Group B. The last World Cup saw Spain win the title after an acrimonious final against the Netherlands. Now they must go at it again in Brazil. Spain is credited with transforming the game at the international level. But it has stumbled a little in recent months. The Netherlands aspires to the same passing and possession game and qualified for the finals with little difficulty. Revenge time looms.
Fine, you say, these two will advance to the final 16. Not so fast. Chile is also in this group. Which two of these three move on is a coin toss. What is almost certain is that Australia will be unable to stay with any of them.
Group of Death 2 is G, and it involves Jurgen Klinsmann’s U.S. squad. So here’s the irony: Klinsmann is one of Germany’s all-time great players. As Germany’s coach, he was instrumental in transforming the playing style of his home country. Now he is working on the same thing as U.S. coach and he has to face his homeland in a thoroughly frightening group.
The Germans have a host of young talent, including attacking midfielder Mesut Ozil, starring for Arsenal in the English Premier League. But even they might have trouble containing Portugal and its star Cristiano Ronaldo. If Germany has difficulty, expect it to be a nightmare for the Americans.
The fourth team here is Ghana, possibly the best team out of Africa and a country that has beaten the U.S. in the finals in both 2006 and 2010.
And how about D for Group of Death 3? England and Italy launch their qualifying round matches against one another deep in the Amazon jungle city of Manaus, where the air is sticky and the temperature hovers in the high 30s.
Italy has almost always been a World Cup power house and England has not — especially in recent years. English fans will argue otherwise, but getting past the Italians will be a tough task. In addition, there’s the little matter of Uruguay and Luis Suarez. Any fan who saw Suarez score four goals against Norwich last weekend will marvel at his brilliance. Even if he can be contained, opponents still have to cope with Paris St. Germain scoring star Edinson Cavani.