One of the contenders for the group of Death - Group D preview

Before the draw for the world cup was made in December, I published an ante draw special and this is what was written there.

I will now pick what I think would be the so called group of death

Brazil
Spain
Iceland
Nigeria

I can hear the cacophony of dissenters saying but that is only two of the four teams as this group consists of the last two plus Argentina and Croatia, but for a group of death to exist, it is the teams ranked third and fourth which are the most vital.

Croatia are many pundits choice as the dark horse of the competition, (that means a team that nobody expected to do well who does). Since their appearance on the international stage after the break up of Yugoslavia in the nineteen nineties, they have been just below the top level of world football and are a team that nobody looks forward to playing against. Their best finish was third in the nineteen ninety eight cup.

Iceland are playing in their first world cup after making an exciting debut on the international stage in the European championships two years ago. If they can reproduce that level of performance here, they are going to be upsetting some apple carts.

As the name suggests Iceland is a cold little island in the middle of the Atlantic with a population of around 340,000 people which means it has the smallest pool of players to pick from of all the teams. Iceland displayed a tenacity on the field which surprised their opponents but it was in the stands that their true input was felt with the viking clap.

Mexico 86 brought us the wave, Euro 2016 the Viking clap, who can forget those awful Vuvuzelas from South Africa 2010. What will we as fans take home from Russia 2018?

Welcome home Viking clap 2016

Nigeria have an interesting record in the world cup and the most notable fact here is that this will be the fifth time in six appearances that Nigeria are drawn in the same group as Argentina. Nigeria have lost on all four occasions to date, although they have given the Argentinians a run for their money each time. Nigeria have successfully reached the last sixteen, three times out of five which just goes to show how difficult this group may be when you figure in Croatia and Iceland.

Last but not least we have Argentina, and here I must put in a disclaimer, I admit to not liking Argentina but not for any of the reasons you might think, the Falklands War, having given safe haven to loads of Nazis, being the inspiration for a West End Musical.

No, my reasons are purely football based. They start with one Antonio Rattin, a dirty player who featured in the 1966 world cup and who was labelled as an animal by the then England manager.

They do not deserve to have won two world cups, in 1978 along with the Junta, they used every dirty trick in the book to win and in 1986, well, Maradona and the hand of God goal, need I say more. Do not comment that his second goal was one of the best ever scored. If he had not cheated and punched in the first one, he would never have scored the good one.

Another example from 1998, Diego Simione making a meal of falling over after David Beckham retaliated (I admit foolishly, but Becks was never known as the brightest spark on the block) and getting Becks sent off

Simione on Beckham

Despite all that, one must not lets ones prejudices cloud ones writings and I hope it will be so.

As we wrote about Portugal and Ronaldo, so it is true about Argentina and Lionel Messi. Argentina are not a very good team at the moment but in Messi they have arguably one of the best two footballers currently playing, the other being Ronaldo.

One of the biggest arguments in football today is who is the better player of the two. I personally do not think you can make a decision based on skills alone. They play in different positions and have different abilities, and therefore you can not say one is better than other because they are both the best at what they do.

However if you look at the larger picture, I know where I stand. One of the biggest criticisms of Messi is that he was won nothing at international level. The things that annoy people about Ronaldo are what makes him the more important player.

To put it simply, when you surround either of them with lesser players, who will make the most of the situation and drag those other players to heights they would not normally achieve. I think the answer is obvious and that is why I do not think that Argentina are one of the favourites for the tournament.

Lots of football to go and we were off at least goals wise to a good start in the first game.

The previews for groups E & F will appear on Sunday morning, so until then Dasvidaniya.