Groups A-D Preview

 

Today, we will start previewing the groups, as there are twelve groups this time round, I will do a brief overview of four groups at a time and today we will look at Groups A to D

Group A	Group B
Mexico	Canada
South Africa	Switzerland
South Korea	Bosnia-Herzegovina
Czech Republic	Qatar

 

Group C	Group D
Brazil	USA
Morocco	Paraguay
Scotland	Australia
Haiti	Turkey

 

As you can see, I have highlighted 4 teams in red and in a bold statement, those are the teams that I expect to finish last in their groups before a ball has been kicked. I must be honest that with so many teams, it has diluted somewhat the juicy rivalries that we so adore. It is hard to say that there is "a group of death" as in the past especially with the opportunity to finish third and still advance.

Group D for example is a very bland group, the only interesting thing here is how the host nation will fare. Paraguay qualified with the lowest average goals scored, less than one per game, but also only conceded 10 times in their 18 games played in qualifying. They open against the US of A and where I live, the game kicks off at 04:00, so there is no temptation at all to watch this game. Turkey is usually strong, which is why I have gone for the kangaroos as the weakest team here.

Group B is similar, another host nation with not much footballing pedigree in Canada. Canada has a manager who has some strange views on how the game should be played. They are joined by the Yodel boys from Switzerland, who may have as many players born in in the Balkans as the Bosnians do.  BH as with many of the nations that were formally once part of Yugoslavia, are a very capable European nation, they will not pull up any trees but should have enough to qualify. The group is rounded out by Qatar, who qualified for the first time for a world cup, as last time they were the host nation. They lost all three games then and I would expect to see that repeated this time round.

We shall leave the best for last, so now we focus on Group A, the last of the hosts, the cartel kids will play the opening game of the World cup against Bafana Bafana in a repeat of the opening game from 2010 which will always be remembered for this iconic goal by scored by Tshabalala.

Bafana Bafana, will probably not trouble the scorers to borrow a phrase from cricket, they are rather toothless in attack.  With South Korea, it is a question of how well they will travel, their best player is in his twilight days, but they should have enough. The Czech Republic is a better version of BH, the game between the Czechs and Bafana Bafana could well decide if either of them will be well placed enough in third place to progress, or will both be defenestrated.

So, to group C. This is a good group, I could probably do a whole post just about this group, but I will stick to the format I have chosen.  A Selecao as they are commonly known or the Samba kings as I like to call them are probably most people’s other team. They are the most successful team in world cup history with 5 trophies. They often flatter to deceive with their beautiful attacking football, such as when they were destroyed at home, by Der Shermans in the 2014 world cup semifinal, 1-7, but they are usually fun to watch and that is what we want.

Morocco, are a very good North African side, there is a dispute as to who should be African champions at the moment after the farcical scenes in the recent African cup of nations final, when Senegal walked off the pitch in protest at a refereeing decision and the game was then won by Senegal, when the decision was reversed and Senegal agreed to play on. However. that result has been overturned and awarded to Morocco. In short, a complete mess.

Haiti are appearing in their second world cup, the last time being in 1974, Haiti which is located on the island of Hispaniola, is a very poor country, devastated by a terrible earthquake in 2010 and years of brutal dictatorship first by Papa Doc and then his son Baby Doc Duvalier, who between them ruled the country for nearly 30 years.

Haiti could not play any of their qualifying matches at home, so the fact that they managed to qualify is amazing. They are an unknown quantity and could surprise perhaps the last team we are going to look at.

When Willian Shakespeare wrote his tragedy Macbeth, he knew what he was doing when he set it in Scotland, as Scottish football over the years has mirrored the components of the tragic genre. The Jocks have qualified nine times for the world cup but have never once advanced past the group stage. It has to be stated that with the new format, this is the Jocks best opportunity of breaking that hoodoo.

Perhaps the best example of Scottish ineptness was in the World cup in 1978, the hated Sassenachs (English) had failed to qualify, and Scotland were in a group with Holland, Iran, pre the Ayatollahs and Peru, one of the weaker South American nations.

The nation was in Euphoria, Ally’s army as the fans called themselves travelled en masse to dictatorial Argentina, only for the Jocks, to, well I can’t use the expression, dirty their underwear, for as we all know, real Scottish men do not wear anything under their Kilts, when all they managed was a one all draw with Iran, a loss to Peru and despite a valiant if ultimately futile victory over Holland 3-2, they went out on goal difference. 

The commentary says it all, the dream is alive, one more goal will see the impossible, etc., but alas not to be.

So, can the Jocks do it?  it will all depend on their game with Haiti, a comfortable victory there should be enough, but you can be assured that in Port-au-Prince, the Haitian witch doctors have prepared their voodoo dolls of John McGinn and Scott McTominay and are ready to stick in their pins in an effort to pull off a mighty upset.

I really like Scottish people, they are fun to be with if you can understand what they are saying, but as any football fan will tell you, another team's misfortune is often much more enjoyable than the success of your own team, so if the unthinkable happens, it will probably be the funniest thing to happen at this world cup.

Tomorrow we will look at the next 4 groups, Hasta La Vista.