World Cup 2014 Qualification

Psychedelic

Psychedelic wrote: »

What are they on about lots of travel involved for England, do they not have domestic flights in Brazil? They're not going to be stuck on some crappy bus for 12 hours anyway.

It's still traveling.

qwerty93

Really liking the look of group C:
Want to see more of Japan after that excellent Confederations Cup game with Italy so I Think Ivory Coast and Colombia will serve up crackers! Greece had 8 clean sheets in 10 games I Think so for me this is the real group of death! Every team has the potential to finish both top and bottom of this group!

Is there any reason for Brazil to be favorites? I know their ranking has been negatively affected by not playing qualifiers which is understating how good they are but I would've had them 4th or 5th on my list.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

Is there any reason for Brazil to be favorites? I know their ranking has been negatively affected by not playing qualifiers which is understating how good they are but I would've had them 4th or 5th on my list.

They have lots of quality and being at home is a massive advantage. They'll be thereabouts

The_Kew_Tour

Andersonisgod wrote: »

Just saw betting odds flash across my screen on RTE, Spain are the 4th favourites?!? A group of players who have won the last 3 major tournaments (an accomplishment that is unprecedented) and who could probably field a second team that would be feasible World Cup winners. Ridiculous.

Lol

Why would anybody complain about better odds.

Listen ill give you spain 1/5 outright if that makes you happy?

kksaints

Deleted User wrote: »

Is there any reason for Brazil to be favorites? I know their ranking has been negatively affected by not playing qualifiers which is understating how good they are but I would've had them 4th or 5th on my list.

Home advantage.

Confedrations Cup victory last year included thrashing of Spain.

They nearly always seem to be favourites anyway because of who they are.

lahalane

If Germany top their group they will have a handy enough run to the semi finals (assuming the groups go the way they are 'supposed' to). I did a €5 bet at the start of the season with 7 league winners, Champs League and Germany for the World Cup. I have the other ones practically sewn up so Im just waiting on Germany.

dfx-

Psychedelic wrote: »

What are they on about lots of travel involved for England, do they not have domestic flights in Brazil? They're not going to be stuck on some crappy bus for 12 hours anyway.

It's something like a 6hr flight from Rio to Manaus supposedly.

This is another case where Hodgson really should've shut up before talking about not wanting to play in Manaus...

ArmaniJeanss

Turtyturd wrote: »

Thought group matches had 3 set kick off times?

The day of the England Italy game has 4 matches, so theres a later kickoff.
It balances out for the first day having just one game.

cson

You've got 3 very strong teams in Brazil, Germany and Spain there. I can see why Spain would be 4th favourites - big players are aging etc whereas the Germans should be hitting their peak and Brazil are at home. Can't see why they have Argentina ahead of them though; maybe the Messi factor. They've been very flaky at the World Cup for a while now.

SlickRic

Argentina would be ahead of them because the tournament is in South America.

bmcc10

lahalane wrote: »

If Germany top their group they will have a handy enough run to the semi finals (assuming the groups go the way they are 'supposed' to). I did a €5 bet at the start of the season with 7 league winners, Champs League and Germany for the World Cup. I have the other ones practically sewn up so Im just waiting on Germany.

Who's winning all these leagues? Easy money so.

rarnes1

rarnes1 wrote: »

They have lots of quality and being at home is a massive advantage. They'll be thereabouts

Would 4th favorites not count as being thereabouts? :P

dfx-

England's group would suit Hodgson I think, setting low expectations. He'd have much more difficulty trying to force the game in groups E etc.

Deleted User

Deleted User wrote: »

Would 4th favorites not count as being thereabouts? :P

Lol, I suppose so!

dfx-

cson wrote: »

You've got 3 very strong teams in Brazil, Germany and Spain there. I can see why Spain would be 4th favourites - big players are aging etc whereas the Germans should be hitting their peak and Brazil are at home. Can't see why they have Argentina ahead of them though; maybe the Messi factor. They've been very flaky at the World Cup for a while now.

To me, Germany have a lot to prove...and a lot of baggage from the Euro 2012 semifinal to overcome. They've gone out to either Spain or Italy in all of the last four tournaments in either semifinal or final.

Spain have on the other hand achieved something. I'd have Italy ahead of Germany, but probably not Argentina, given the tournament is in South America.

keith16

Does anyone think this is strongest group of teams at WC for some time?

For me it lacks a team like Saudi Arabia / China / North Korea / United Arab Emirates(!). A truly weak team guaranteed to be whipping boys of whatever group they get drawn in.

Honduras, Algeria or Iran perhaps? But would any of them be as bad as the other teams mentioned above? I can't see Honduras or even Algeria getting absolutely hammered by anyone in their group. Iran have a tough draw.

titan18

keith16 wrote: »

Does anyone think this is strongest group of teams at WC for some time?

For me it lacks a team like Saudi Arabia / China / North Korea / United Arab Emirates(!). A truly weak team guaranteed to be whipping boys of whatever group they get drawn in.

Honduras, Algeria or Iran perhaps? But would any of them be as bad as the other teams mentioned above? I can't see Honduras or even Algeria getting absolutely hammered by anyone in their group. Iran have a tough draw.

New manager might help, but due to their group, could see Australia getting hammered if they play like they have been over the last few months

Rushden

lahalane wrote: »

If Germany top their group they will have a handy enough run to the semi finals (assuming the groups go the way they are 'supposed' to). I did a €5 bet at the start of the season with 7 league winners, Champs League and Germany for the World Cup. I have the other ones practically sewn up so Im just waiting on Germany.

Champions league bet sewn up, can you fill us all in who wins it please

keith16

titan18 wrote: »

New manager might help, but due to their group, could see Australia getting hammered if they play like they have been over the last few months

Yeah, was gonna mention them too, they have a stinker of a group.

I think this world cup could be similar to the 2002 edition. In other words lots of big fallers at the first hurdle.

It's not beyond the realms of possibility for Chile to advance at the expense of Spain or Holland.

Likewise in Group G, the US and to a lesser extent Ghana could also spring a surprise on Germany / Portugal.

France are France and could well be their own worst enemy. Groups C / D are hard to call too and could see the demise of a couple more big names.

Smithwicks Man

Italy are huge odds @ 33/1

lahalane

bmcc10 wrote: »

Who's winning all these leagues? Easy money so.

Ajax, Anderlecht, Chelsea, Galatasaray, Juventus, PSG, Benfica, Munich for Champions League and Germany for the World Cup. 5 quid pays 27,000. Money in the bank.

citytillidie

Start planning here are the fixtures

12 June
Brazil V Croatia

13 June
Mexico V Cameroon

Spain V Holland
Chile V Australia

14 June
Colombia V Greece
Ivory Coast V Japan

Uruguay V Costa Rica
England V Italy

15 June
Switzerland V Ecuador
France V Honduras
Argentina V Bosina

June 16
Iran V Nigeria
Germany V Portugal
Ghana V USA

June 17
Belgium V Algeria
Russia V South Korea
Brazil V Mexico

June 18
Cameroon V Croatia
Spain V Chile
Australia V Holland

June 19
Colombia V Ivory Coast
Japan V Greece
Uruguay V England

June 20
Italy V Costa Rica
Switzerland V France
Honduras V Ecuador

June 21
Argentina V Iran
Nigeria V Bosnia
Germany V Ghana

June 22
USA V Portugal
Belgium V Russia
South Korea V Algeria

June 23
Cameroon V Brazil
Croatia V Mexico
Australia V Spain
Holland V Chile

June 24
Japan V Colombia
Greece V Ivory Coast
Italy V Uruguay
Costa Rica V England

June 25
Honduras V Switzerland
Ecuador V France
Nigeria V Argentina
Bosnia V Iran

June 26
USA V Germany
Portugal V Ghana
South Korea V Belgium
Algeria V Russia

2nd Round
June 28
Match 49 - Winner Group A V Runner-up Group B
Match 50 - Winner Group C V Runner-up Group D

June 29
Match 51 - Winner Group B V Runner-up Group A
Match 52 - Winner Group D V Runner-up Group C

June 30
Match 53 - Winner Group E V Runner-up Group F
Match 54 - Winner Group G V Runner-up Group H

July 1
Match 55 - Winner Group F V Runner-up Group E
Match 56 - Winner Group H V Runner-up Group G

Quater Finals
July 4
Match 57 - Winner Match 49 V Winner Match 50
Match 58 - Winner Match 53 V Winner March 54

July 5
Match 59 - Winner Match 51 V Winner Match 52
Match 60 - Winner Match 55 V Winner Match 56

Semi Finals
July 8
SF 1 - Winner Match 57 V Winner Match 58

9 July
SF 2 - Winner Match 59 V Winner Match 60

3rd place play-off
12 July
Loser SF 1 V Loser SF 2

Final
13 July
Winner SF 1 V Winner SF 2

DubDani

Just looked up the current World Rankings, and they generally seem to align with peoples perception of the strongest groups. Only exception is Group B, as Australia is the lowest ranked team of all participants, which takes the average way down.

Just by looking at the World Rankings the German and English groups are the by far strongest, with the Argentinian and Belgium groups being the weakest.

Group A Brazil (10) - Cameroon (51) - Mexico (20) - Croatia (16) / Average 24.25
Group B Spain (1) - Chile (15) - Australia (59) - Netherlands (9) / Average 21
Group C Columbia (4) - Ivory Coast (17) -Japan (48)- Greece(12) / Average 20.25
Group D Uruguay (6) - Italy (7) - Costa Rica (31) - England (13) /Average 14.25
Group E Switzerland (8) - Ecuador (23) - Honduras (41) - France (19) / Average 22.75
Group F Argentina (3) - Nigeria (36) -Iran (45) -Bosnia (21) / Average 26.25
Group G Germany (2) - Ghana (24) - USA (14) -Portugal (5) / Average 11.25
Group H Belgium (11) - Algeria (26) - Korea (54) - Russia (22) / Average 28.25

GT_TDI_150

lahalane wrote: »

Ajax, Anderlecht, Chelsea, Galatasaray, Juventus, PSG, Benfica, Munich for Champions League and Germany for the World Cup. 5 quid pays 27,000. Money in the bank.

Have you seen how well anderlecht are doing :rolleyes:





Any way as a Belgian, delighted to get group H from a geographical pt of view and with the teams in the group we should be winning that group

roanoke

764dak wrote: »

The draw is disappointing. There are too many rematches from past World Cups.

Here's the previous finals meetings between all today's pairings. I haven't included the matches of former countries like 'Soviet Union' and 'Yugoslavia' etc in this list..

GROUP A
Brazil v Croatia = 1 (2006)
Mexico v Cameroon = never
Brazil v Mexico = 3 (1950 , 1954 , 1962)
Cameroon v Croatia = never
Cameroon v Brazil = 1 (1994)
Croatia v Mexico = 1 (2002)

GROUP B
Spain v Netherlands = 1 (2010)
Chile v Australia = 1 (1974)
Spain v Chile = 2 (1950 , 2010)
Australia v Netherlands = never
Australia v Spain = never
Netherlands v Chile = never

GROUP C
Colombia v Greece = never
Côte d'Ivoire v Japan = never
Colombia v Côte d'Ivoire = never
Japan v Greece = never
Japan v Colombia = never
Greece v Côte d'Ivoire = never

GROUP D
Uruguay v Costa Rica = never
England v Italy = 1 (1990)
Uruguay v England = 2 (1954 , 1966)
Italy v Costa Rica = never
Italy v Uruguay = 2 (1970 , 1990)
Costa Rica v England = never

GROUP E
Switzerland v Ecuador = never
France v Honduras = never
Switzerland v France = 1 (2006)
Honduras v Ecuador = never
Honduras v Switzerland = 1 (2010)
Ecuador v France = never

GROUP F
Argentina v Bosnia-Herzegovina = never
Iran v Nigeria = never
Argentina v Iran = never
Nigeria v Bosnia-Herzegovina = never
Nigeria v Argentina = 3 (1994 , 2002 , 2010)
Bosnia-Herzegovina v Iran = never

GROUP G
Germany v Portugal = 1 (2006)
Ghana v USA = 2 (2006 , 2010)
Germany v Ghana = 1 (2010)
USA v Portugal = 1 (2002)
USA v Germany = 2 (1998 , 2002)
Portugal v Ghana = never

GROUP H
Belgium v Algeria = never
Russia v Korea Republic = never
Belgium v Russia = 1 (2002)
Korea Republic v Algeria = never
Korea Republic v Belgium = 2 (1990 , 1998)
Algeria v Russia = never

lahalane

GT_TDI_150 wrote: »

Have you seen how well anderlecht are doing :rolleyes:

No honestly, it's in the bag. Don't worry about it. Galatasaray are 10 points away from top but they'll win too. When Lahm picks up the Jules Rimet trophy next July, I will finally be a ten-thousandaire.

Argentina and Germany could be good bets for top scorers too. I think Ill go for Muller.

Ulysses Gaze

Super-Rush wrote: »

Suarez to destroy England.

...and if he doesn't then Cavani probably will!

Andersonisgod

TheMilkyPirate wrote: »

What are you complaining for? Better odds for you!

Put your money where your mouth is

Needless to say I will be taking that bet. However my complaint is obviously not that it favours the punter, rather my complaint is that the bookies view Spain as the 4th favourites for the tournament, quite how they have reached that conclusion I am not sure given that this is a country that has won Euro 2008, World Cup 2010, Euro 2012 and boasts the best quality options to choose a squad from.

Mr.Micro

dfx- wrote: »

England's group would suit Hodgson I think, setting low expectations. He'd have much more difficulty trying to force the game in groups E etc.

It's anybody's IMO. Italy, not the force they used to be. Uruguay had to go to the playoffs. So England have a good chance, it all depends on how the teams handle the heat and humidity. A tough draw for all four teams.

The_Kew_Tour

English fans will think its tough, but same can be said for Uruguay and Italy.

I dont think either country were jumping for joy when they saw England come out either.

Hard to predict. Think England will get 2nd.

Corholio

This is a collection of translated tweets that was posted on a Twitter account 24 hours ago

The_Kew_Tour

?

Paully D

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

?

https://twitter.com/FraudeMundial14

Twitter account above rocked up last night and stated that the World Cup draw is rigged. They predicted Argentina's group, which turned out to be correct, and what pot Italy would be going into, which also turned out to be correct.

It was either one hell of a guessing-game, or.....

Smithwicks Man

Could have done so on several different accounts and predicted all potential permutations? Hard to know what the story is.

764dak

Andersonisgod wrote: »

Needless to say I will be taking that bet. However my complaint is obviously not that it favours the punter, rather my complaint is that the bookies view Spain as the 4th favourites for the tournament, quite how they have reached that conclusion I am not sure given that this is a country that has won Euro 2008, World Cup 2010, Euro 2012 and boasts the best quality options to choose a squad from.

They are not that good.

Smithwicks Man

764dak wrote: »

They are not that good.

:pac:

LuckyLloyd

Paully D wrote: »

https://twitter.com/FraudeMundial14

Twitter account above rocked up last night and stated that the World Cup draw is rigged. They predicted Argentina's group, which turned out to be correct, and what pot Italy would be going into, which also turned out to be correct.

It was either one hell of a guessing-game, or.....

Smithwicks Man wrote: »

Could have done so on several different accounts and predicted all potential permutations? Hard to know what the story is.

I really hope it's that. Would be dreadful to think the World Cup draw is rigged.

GTR63

LuckyLloyd wrote: »

I really hope it's that. Would be dreadful to think the World Cup draw is rigged.

Not hard to believe that something is rigged at a World Cup.

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

English fans will think its tough, but same can be said for Uruguay and Italy.

I dont think either country were jumping for joy when they saw England come out either.

Hard to predict. Think England will get 2nd.

The hardest part of that group will be the travelling and conditions. Italy will top that group imo.

Charisteas

Hard to understand why Manaus is one of the host cities when it's a million miles away from the other host cities.

Skylinehead

Charisteas wrote: »

Hard to understand why Manaus is one of the host cities when it's a million miles away from the other host cities.

Shock horror, Brazilian city gets games at Brazil World Cup.

ArmaniJeanss

Charisteas wrote: »

Hard to understand why Manaus is one of the host cities when it's a million miles away from the other host cities.

It's a very big city in Brazil, seems perfectly fine as a venue.

It'd be a fairly terrible developement if competitions in big countries had to limited to regions, an East USA World cup or whatever.

batistuta9

Paully D wrote: »

https://twitter.com/FraudeMundial14

Twitter account above rocked up last night and stated that the World Cup draw is rigged. They predicted Argentina's group, which turned out to be correct, and what pot Italy would be going into, which also turned out to be correct.

It was either one hell of a guessing-game, or.....

do you know anything more on it?

did they hack FIFA/personal accounts or what are they getting it from?

seligehgit

So it seems like all the games are on at crazy hours??Might need to book some holidays.

windy shepard henderson

seligehgit wrote: »

So it seems like all the games are on at crazy hours??Might need to book some holidays.

i cant imagine they are .... there is only a 3 hour time zone difference, it was no problem in the confederations cup earlier this year

ArmaniJeanss

seligehgit wrote: »

So it seems like all the games are on at crazy hours??Might need to book some holidays.

Games are basically perfect time for us, probably marginally better even than a Central or Eastern Europe based competition would be (as they usually have some 3pm/4pm kickoffs).

Brazil World Cup has (for our times)
24 matches at 5pm.
11 matches at 8pm.
18 matches at 9pm.
10 matches at 11pm.
1 match at 2am.

Paully D

seligehgit wrote: »

So it seems like all the games are on at crazy hours??Might need to book some holidays.

5pm, 8/9pm and 11pm our time for the majority of games. There's one on at 2am I think (Ivory Coast v Japan).

Perfect times for us really as the majority will be off work just as the first game is starting and can settle down for the night to watch.

seligehgit

That's super lads,should be a great month or so.

markc91

Paully D wrote: »

5pm, 8/9pm and 11pm our time for the majority of games. There's one on at 2am I think (Ivory Coast v Japan).

Perfect times for us really as the majority will be off work just as the first game is starting and can settle down for the night to watch.

England vs. Italy is the 2am k/o on a sat night/sun morning

scudzilla

markc91 wrote: »

England vs. Italy is the 2am k/o on a sat night/sun morning

Nope, that's been brought forward to 23:00BST due to media pressure :rolleyes: