The World Cup Draw - Dec 4th, 5:45pm GMT

[Flabio]

Algeria second, not too bad. Dodged the strongest African and South American teams.

[edit] and Slovenia third. That's not that bad a draw for England at all.

[toythatkills]

Eaaaasy

[Flabio]

D and G are the tough ones. Spain have got a piss easy group H.

[MonkeyJuggleDX]

D and G are the tough ones. Spain have got a piss easy group H.

Yeah, it's when they qualify from that group that the fun starts.

Must suck to be Brazil.

[toythatkills]

I doubt it. Brazil will batter all those teams.

[merf]

so we've got months now of 'we're gonna win the world cup', conveniently forgetting that you play the good teams after the group bit and that we aren't actually that good.

[toythatkills]

You're gonna look pretty stupid when we WIN THE WORLD CUP!

[Kongster]

Hope springs eternal it seems lol.

Come the knock out stages it'll probably the same old story. Again.

[samanosuke]

Who cares.

...and...

Always prefer these things when England aren't in them, so hopefully they'll go out in the group stage.

USA/Ivory Coast/France please.

What's with all the angry Scots today?

[samanosuke]

As long as the players get back to their clubs without injury I don't care to be honest.

Why is it so bad when a player gets injured on international duty, yet if a player gets injured whilst playing for his club and misses a World Cup that's just A-okay?

[saturn-gamer]

It must not suck to be Brazil, it sucks to be in the same group as Brazil. Dunga made a machine out of this team, not much flair but effective like mad. Much like himself as a player.

I'd give Brazil and Spain the best chance to win it all. Germany is always a sure shot on World Cups, Italy will probably make a comeback too. Ivory Coast is my fave outsider, I think they grab the 2nd place rather than Portugal. God I hate Portugal.

As far as Orange goes, they'll probably obliterate their group yet again but its quarter finals at best. I have a gut feeling we'll face Brazil yet again.

[merf]

if anybody wishes to become the pub bore then this is an essential read, its explains in a very entertaining and readable way from a probability/economic (think Freakonomics) point of view, why for a country of Englands football experience, size & wealth the quarter finals are exactly all we should expect for out team, anything more is over performance. Its a great book that looks in the same way at many other 'known' footy facts and takes them apart.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-England-Lose-Phenomena-Explained/dp/0007301111/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1259997757&sr=8-1

[Flabio]

I read a review of that in When Saturday Comes that says it has more assumptions and bad science in it than the Daily Mail.

[VR46]

Eaaaasy

Uncanny resemblance, The Sun front page headline today reads

England
Algeria
Slovenia
Yanks

[prinnysquad]

I know they qualified legit, but there are loads of European teams in these finals who I associate with boring. Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Serbia, Greece, boring.

Where are Sweden? Czech Republic? Belgium? Croatia? Romania? Bulgaria? Do these new teams have Hagis? Scifos? Stoichkovs? Sukers? Nedveds? Rhetorical question really, but the shift in power is very noticeable.

I'm still living in the 90s!