So what do you think of the World Cup draw?

Why is group f called the group of death. what do the letters mean ? do they really play footie in japan ?

Group of death is a phrase used in football tournaments, this means that it is going to be extremely tough to get through with 4 quality teams, therefore two teams will "die" - not qualify for the next phase.

Group letters are used for convenience to label the groups, also later stages of the tournament e.g runners up in group (x) play winners in group (Y)

Anthony, yes they do play football in Japan. The team I support, Portsmouth who play in the English 1st Division Nationwide League (the league just below the Premiership) have recently signed the captain and goalkeeper of Japan Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi for 1.8 Million pounds.

Yoshikatsu was born in Shizuoka and after graduating from High School joined Yokohama F Marinos, following his idol Matsunaga into the first team in 1995. Yoshi was the 1995 J League Rookie of the Year before representing his country in the Atlanta Olympic Games. Subsequently Yoshi played for Japan in the World Cup of 1998, the Copa America 1999 and the Asian Cup 2000. The 26-year old has over 50 caps for his country for whom he is currently the captain, and is due to lead the Japanese national team out for the opening match of the 2002 World Cup Finals to be played in the Yokohama Stadium. Through his outstanding ability and remarkable charisma Yoshi is a cult figure in South East Asia, who attracts enormous media attention, and his millions of fans over there are watching his progress in England closely. The Portsmouth fans were delighted by his decision to move to Fratton Park and the First Division as his chosen route to extend his experience abroad.

Ronan- Swap? Argentina (favourites) Nigeria (fearsome) + Sweden (bogey team). Definitely the group of Death.

russia have a slight chance. cameroon look a bit fucked. england??????????? uh oh. this is the first time ive seen the draw. brazil vs china? sounds interesting....my mate has got some tickets to some of the games....lucky git.

Can't argue with that. I bet Germany are fucking quaking in their boots. We should have no problem getting second place anyway.

That's a terrible draw! I think England can beat Nigeria and Sweden...but Argentina...that's tough!

Looks like the USA has a good chance of making it to the semis!

Yeah, I was noticing that about the USA myself. By no means assured, but still reasonably good...

...although wait, semis? Surely you mean second round.

are Nigeria as good as they used to be though?

Right, second round. *extracts cleated foot from mouth.*

I'm pleased with the draw for the USA. Korea are the worst group seed in history, with the possible exception of us in 1994, and we did get to the second round and looked decent against Brazil until Leonardo cracked Tab Ramos' skull. Poland are a good defensive team, but they rely on one player (Olisadebe, I think his name is) for all their scoring, and he's presently wasting away on Olympiakos' reserve team. (Poland did a neat old US trick by giving expedited citizenship to Olisadebe, a Nigerian who had barely been in the country for a year, for the sole purpose of getting some goals in world cup qualifying.)

Portugal is going to demolish the USA, unless we have some quicker defenders than Agoos and Llamosa, which we wouldn't know because Arena is worse than Glenn Hoddle in his insistence on playing favorites from his old club. And please, please can we use someone besides Chris Armas against Portugal-- not only will Rui Costa run past him as though he were just a shadow on the ground, but a cursory viewing of the last year of US matches reveals that Armas can't hold the ball under pressure. Result: a zillion scoring chances. Maybe it's time to move Reyna back in front of the defenders. He's not physical enough to be Roy Keane, but with Donovan and Mathis, we have better attacking midfielders.

Anyhow. I'm optimistic we'll finish second in the group. Meaning a second-round loss against Italy (whom we play in a friendly in February, hmmm).

Portugal is going to demolish the USA

You think? Both Spain and Portugal strike me as teams that have great individual players with a bad sense of working as a unit, though certainly Portugal did a much better job of things in Euro 2000 until That Notorious Incident in the semis.

I think the US plays better against teams lacking individual players of amazing skill. The reason that Agoos, Llamosa, Armas, or Richie Williams ever see the pitch is that they defend well as a team, shifting to cover space, but bursts of great skill undermine that very quickly. MLS is capable of producing players of excellent attacking ability (Mathis, Wolff, all those kids from the 1999 youth team), but the defenders don't see enough to learn much. Contain, contain, contain, then tackle, but when a Figo lulls a defender for forty-five minutes into thinking a simple cross, or a safe square pass, is what's coming next, then skins him alive, well, there's no preparation for that in MLS. Watching Zanetti or Cafu in those games against the US in the last few years makes it really clear that we have no answer for skill and pace roaring down the sides of the pitch.

I think that's a big reason why Arena is interested in those two outside backs playing in the Bundesliga (Cherundolo and Gibbs?)-- most of our defenders only see the likes of Ariel Graziani, not Mpenza and Pizarro and whoever else.

I´m just glad that Brasil is in the easist group ever and that Argentina is in the death group

Easiest group ever: Japan, Belgium, Russia, Tunisia.

Easy for who, though. ;-)

Ned + Benjamin, is interest in 'soccer' rising in the USA?

No, not really. The '99 women's World Cup victory was a big boost, the best the sport has ever had over here, but the professional leagues are languishing -- a hardcore and supportive fanbase, but that's not carrying over as it could to a wider audience yet. Unlike the big four sports over here (baseball, American football, basketball, hockey), football suffers from the problem that there are arguably more active players in all the pro leagues, school leagues and community leagues than there are active spectators of the big pro league itself, if you catch my drift. Nothing will happen immediately over here, but things may yet grow more.

Brazil being given such an easy group looks like a classic example of reputation being given more credence than current performance (as several have been saying over on Football365).

England have such a tough group because they didn't qualify in 1994 and that affects their ranking, surely?

Robin is right, England would have been behind even Mexico (who we demolished oin a friendly earlier this year) on the FIFA points list so they would have been ahead of us in seedings!

We should aim to win the group of cliche, scrape a draw against the Argies and then opull the stops out and beat Sweden and Nigeria. I really think that Argentina may slip up against one of thoose two, don't know why, just a gut feeling, plus they get better later in tournaments usually.

But what is the highlight game of the first round? my vote goes for Italy vs Croatia.

Brazil's group is just embarrasing. Mr Havelange's shadow looms large in footie politics...

First round looks boring except Argentina - England game of course :) Ah well, at least Spain got an easy group, now if only those tossers start playing like they do in every qualifying tournament without changing the basic set-up we got a decent chance (of course what will happen is that Camacho gets The Fear, starts with a bunch of has- beens and it will be Euro2000, France98 all over again).

Anyway France will win this thing without so much of a sweat. Finally they got some top-class attackers, solid defence and the midfield from heaven with Candela - Zidane - Viera - Pires (Makalele). At least that would be my midfield if I were Monsieur Le Trainer. Bastards. Are the still going with Barthez in goal? I think this will be the crucial question.

who's the alternative to Barthez? is it Rame? or the one at Barca (Dutruel?)

France's only weak point methinks.

We love Bernard Lama He smokes marijuana La la la la Ooh! La la la la Ooh!

Just like Carlton Palmer lalaa laa laah ooh!

Are but we are 9th currently in Fifa rankings. The seeding situation was a farce. Where is the point of seeding a competition if you don't have four sets of eight seeds. What is this artificality of no more than two European teams per groups? Whatever you say the next round will be infinitely worse of by dropping any of the teams from Group 4, let alone two.

Proof of the UK Group of death. We are paired with the three best teams (on qualification points) of the respective continents. Nigeria qualified with the most points of any African team. Argentina topped the increasingly bizarre South American confederation and the European group winner who had the most points were Sweden. Knackers.

I wanted us to draw England so we could beat you. Ireland are funny cos we're absolutely shite on paper except for Ian Harte, Roy Keane, Robbie Keane if he brings his shooting boots, Shay Given maybe, but we still win matches. I think to be honest if we didnt have Roy Keane to gel the team we would fail pathetically all the time. I still find it weird to think we knocked Holland out.......

I think Ireland will beat Germany. But Cameroon could well be the dark horses (nice world cup cliche for you there). They did beat some good young teams in the olympics and have some damn fine players.

I kind of think we will beat Germany aswell. But yeah I'd even be worried about Saudi. You never know with Ireland, we can be iffy at the back sometimes. Gone are the glory days of McGrath, Moran, O'Leary and the countless other good centre backs we had. Still, our wing back tradition lives on with Harte and Carr.

Group H Japan Belgium Russia Tunisia
We actually might have a chance! :-) Checked the newspaper today and I agree: we could get in the quarter finals without much effort.

If Carr ever gets fit again (Jonnie?)

I wanted England to get Costa Rica so we could show the Scots how to beat them ;-)

Will Spain under-acheive again? or will Raul shine like a star?

where will the upset be? (my guess for that is Uruguay beating France)

What about the "pre-draw spectacular" though? Worth it all surely for the one-man opera?

"That was a sexy performance."

AND who should do the England world cup song this year?

Will Mark Lawrenson and Alan Hanson ever stop flirting?

Oasis said they'd do the Irish song for half a million. Little do they know there is not that much money in the whole country, let alone in the FAIs pockets, they can barely afford footballs.

You don't know 'bout our Sven. by so solid Crewe Alexandra

Somethin Stupid like David Beckham by Hanson and Lawro. Can you imagine Lawro doing the harmony. Beautiful.

Will Spain under-achieve again? or will Raul shine like a star?

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Yeah Chris big question. This time around I really have some hope, let's face it not too many veterans are lurking around (bastard Salinas who Clemente played every time), there are two quality keepers in Casillas and Canizares (let the days of ball-dropping fools like Zubi and whatshisname from Deportivo finally be over). Midfield looks really solid with Valeron as playmaker, bit of a question mark on the left-position but Helguera and Mendieta are great (if they are inspired). And finally some really great strikers, already many hours are wasted in the discussions on who is going to be the man next to Raul: Tristan or Morientes. Probably Tristan since Morientes never lasts the season without a serious injury. Defense is probably the biggest problem area. Abelardo is seriously injured, Sergi is starting to become an old hobbit, Hierro is playing allright but gets slower with every match. Pablo is out with a big injury and I wasn't too impressed with him. Just hope they don't bring back that arsehole Aranzabal.

And so ends the Spain report. Always nice to have two nationalities although it's a shame Holland didn't qualify, a first round confrontation with zee enternal enemies would've been great.

Omar to off the thread a little, what do you reckon was the problem with Holland this year? I know when we saw the draw first, we thought we were fucked. But the way things worked, we were unlucky not to beat you guys twice. Van Gaal is certainly to blame for losing the head completely against us the second time, but do you blame him ultimately? You certainly have the players.

Surely it'll be Tristan up front with Raul? He seems to be playing well at the moment, so if he keeps that up, he should be there.

Mendieta needs to pull things around though doesn't he? He's disappeared at Lazio.

You're right about your keeper though, Casillas is a different class and so young too.

For some reason I know next to nothing about Spanish defenders, other than the ones you mentioned, hmm, must try harder.

Isn't Casillas a wee bit error prone though? Not Barthezesque but he seems to struggle against crosses - well he has done when I've seen him. I prefer Canizares because he looks so odd.

Group F is the dream ticket for England because it enables us to get all the toughest teams out of the way first. Come the Quarter Finals it'll be as easy as poaching goals from a Barthez.

You say that but if we come second in the group we meet the winners of Group A. Er - France.

By the way France Senegal opener - that'll rock.

I can't wait until Sweden beat England and Sven turns absolutely into Mr Burns as he cuddles Henrik Larsson and sets the hounds onto Beckham, Owen et al.

Canizares looks like a psycho and I wonder how long it takes him to get his hair in that shape. Good keeper though. Casillas indeed is a bit weak with crosses but has genius reflexes, just last saturday he saved the day again with an impossible double save.

Chris, you're right about Mendieta. It's a bit of a situation, but he shouldn't have gone to bloody Lazio. Still, there are plenty of quality midfielders: Barajas of Valencia could take his spot, Guti is useful, Victor of Deportivo should get a chance.

Ronan, the problem with Holland? It's difficult. Qualifying has always been a traditional problem for the Dutch. There have been lots of suggestions of a lack of winner's mentality. Already Cruijff has rubished this suggestion and of course he's right, players like van Nistelrooij, Kluivert, Seedorf, etc are used to win and give it their best at club-level. Obviously the players are excellent save maybe that fool Melchiot. I think prior to the Ireland game there were a couple of crucial absent players, esp. Davids who probably would have negated Keane, Frank de Boer too. But really the main factor: Van Gaal. The man is sick in the head, had been for quite a while btw. He insisted on training tired players twice a day, came up with shite tactics and frankly in the Ireland game lost it with the subs (already putting Hasselbaink as winger has become legendary). I was at the home game against Portugal and they looked tired, playing without joy and apparently nobody saw that Rui Costa was killing them. In a way I'm glad they didn't make it though, should give them a bit of a pause to think things through. Of course Van Gaal blamed the media when he resigned last week. Arsehole.

Or perhaps he'll turn into Robbie Burns, sing a hearty rendition of Auld Lang Syne, and call Beckham a wee radge.

Is this the reason why Scotland are taking their time appointing a new manager? Getting the man who sold England down the river would be fantastic.

One of my most memorable World Cup games = opening game of the 1998 World Cup, Scotland v. Brazil, watched live in the William Wallace, hardcore Scottish pub in London. Me and my mate Stu were the only two sassenachs in there. The level of bile in the air when Jimmy Hill appeared on the screen was stratospheric. After just a few seconds, his famous chin was flecked with the spittle of a hundred highlanders.

Are all Scotsmen this passionate about football?

And if so, WHY??

still off thread, Omar what's your take on the Adriaanse sacking, I mean I know they weren't playing pretty football but the game before they'd come from behind to win, was it purely the clamour for a return to beautiful football? And will Koeman be the man to bring it back. Especially as in England his reputation was largely based on two incidents, the free kick vs Sampdoria and his shameful foul in the worldcup qualifier when he should have been off the pitch then ran up the other end and scored his delightful free kick.

ie he's seen largely as a clogger who could take free kicks.

Oh dear, Chris I'm in a hurry, how to summarize something I have been discussing for over *a year* on the Ajax BB. :) Glad he's gone that's for sure. He tried to fuck with the holy Ajax system by playing with 5 defenders. He tried to get rid of one of our creative midfielders (Witschge), the man was a tactical disaster, his 2-man midfield probably cost us the C.L. qualifyer against Celtic. Ajax were playing without inspiration, he insulted Van Basten (long story I'll get back to it tomorrow). Obviously he never stood a chance since Cruijff hates his guts.

Koeman? Always thought he was an average player, no pace whatsoever and also with a nasty edge. He has done some good things at Vitesse. My first choice for coach was Wim Jansen, followed by Rijkaard. But I'm starting to like Koeman since he has apointed Ruud Krol as his assistent. So who knows, just today at his official presentation he suggested that he will only play in the Ajax-stijl and hinted that van Basten may soon have a job as assistent in his staff. Already the fans are very happy, esp. with rumours that Bergkamp may finally be on his way to Amsterdam. You'll notice that Ajax-fans are very nostalgic ;)

Omar, all one-club groups of fans are nostalgic: a shared history with a club is the currency of relationships between fans of the same club. If I'm travelling to some far-flung away game then all I have in common with the people I'm travelling with is the club now and the club past. The club now is available to all/any for nothing and therefore has little value, but only 'we' share memories of the old days or the great side of '89 or '76 or '63 or whenever. I'm not saying this is a good thing.

You may be right Tim. I think it can be a good thing, but it can also work against you (Spurs I guess is a good example).

Chris you should check out this Ajax bulletin board:

http://209.15.112.247/ajax/ubb/Ultimate.cgi

It has a seperate English section which isn't very lively but I could go there a bit more often. Most of the times I'm in the other specified forums talking about which player must be sold, what system we must play and generally praising Cruijff. ;) My nickname there is Real Ajax btw. just that you know if you decide to drop by.