I can start looking for a good World Cup wall chart for my bedroom. The draw is made the fixtures are out and I can look forward to matches which we would never see if it wasn't for a World Cup. Argentina-Iceland jumped out at me first. Argentina and Iceland at a World Cup. And how about Saudi Arabia-Egypt. It sounds fascinating. Portugal-Spain, of course. Morocco-Iran or Costa Rica-Serbia could be candidates for the most turgid matches of the first round, or they might turn out to be the most enthralling.
Group of death? They said, with the new draw format, that there probably wouldn't be one. And it's sort of true. It's more that there's such a spread of evenness in some groups that it's hard to predict who might qualify.
Group A: Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Uruguay it's the group of possible infinite life for all four teams. Who do you leave out if you are betting on it? They could all win the group, they could all finish last.
Group C: France, Australia, Peru, Denmark. Favourites France, and then who? What an opportunity for Australia. Or Peru, who haven't been here since 1982.
Group D: Argentina, Iceland, Croatia, Nigeria. Argentina, yes, if Messi shows up but who else?
Group F: Germany, Sweden, Mexico, South Korea. Germany will probably sleep walk through this and pretend that it's hard but what a battle for second place.
Group H: Poland, Senegal, Colombia, Japan. The group of "Oh it's group H matches today, I think I have to do my laundry". Not me. I watch all the World Cup matches that I possibly can but this is hardly the group that will have the bandwagon World Cup fans very excited.
England? They will probably have an epic battle with Belgium and manage to make a real meal out of getting something out of their matches against Tunisia and Panama. I can never take Tunisia seriously at a World Cup when it doesn’t seen that long ago that I watched Malta beat them, and that was one of 5 wins, with only three defeats. But we also beat Belgium in 1994. Malta have a 100% winning record against Belgium. Hey, Malta would have a chance in this group.
The excitement is up to another level today. Tomorrow morning Chelsea-Newcastle might kill it.
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