Pot 1: Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Belgium, Uruguay, Switzerland Pot 2: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chile, Ecuador (7 teams) Pot 3: Japan, Iran, South Korea, Australia, United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras Pot 4: Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia, England, Greece, Italy, Netherlands Portugal, Russia, France (9 teams) Sides are split into four pots - one seeded, the other three based on geography:
@SunSportNow: In the final World Cup practice draw, England were drawn in Group E with Belgium, Cameroon, Costa Rica. #WorldCupDraw I would have been happy with that
That'd have been a good group. Would easily have qualified and could have had a chance of winning it despite not being seeded.
We got Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica. Tough group I fancy Uruguay to win it with us and Italy going for 2nd
I'd actually put us and Italy as favourites. Uruguay are a bit **** when you look past Cavani and Suarez.
They are used to the climates which is a very big factor you need to consider England and Italy have too many older players and havent freshened the team up over the years
This has worked out well, as only the Italy game will be an issue for humidity near to the Amazon Rain Forest and so facing another European team in these conditions will be better. Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte will have little to no humidity and not crazy hot temperatures either. As for Uruguay, I dont think they are anything special. Remember they didnt even qualify automatically, they had to go through a play off against mighty Jordan! But as we all know, there is NO easy game in the World Cup Finals. Just happy to be there. Enjoy.
Uruguay are nothing special but neither are England or Italy I think the difference with this world cup and others is this time we no longer have the players to win the world cup Rooney is too inconsistent Gerrard still offers alot but he is past his best Lampard same as Gerrard but you can only play 1 of them Cole no longer our best left back IMO Then the rest are either young players still learning or just bang average Walcott is a sprinter trying to play football Ashley Young just "falls over" Cahill and Jagielka are very good prem players but not on the world stage Neither Johnson or Walker have made their mark yet James Milner and Tom Cleverley the less said the better Sturridge gives us something different and I think he could be crucial for us If I was manager I would be looking to develop players at the world cup to give us the best chances in the future rather then deludedly try and win it People like Jack Wilshere, Ross Barkley, Ravel Morrison, Steven Caulker and Luke Shaw should get a chance and lets develop a team that gives us a chance in 2018, 2022 and at the Euros
Who gives a toss. If they don´t ****ing hurry up with the building there won´t be a WC & if they do finish them will they be safe ? & as for not enough hotels & infrastructure etc... it´s a joke. All that´s going to happen is armed gangs are going to go around robbing supporters & as for England, even if they do get through the groups stages they´ll only get K.O´ed in the QTR´s so no point getting all hyped about it imo. I´ll still be watching it as it´s football, I just hope Germany doesn´t win it.
... you are correct about the climate (although keep in mind that the majority of South Americans taking part ply their trade in Europe so will have the same climatisation issues as the Europeans to a great extent)... the point you make abut older players though, is even more true of Uruguay, this will be the last major tournament for many of them... they will certainly be heavily reliant on their forwards ...
