Great outcome for Italy to get group B, if they qualify. Their presence in pot 4 did open the door for a tough group. But like Denmark, they'll back themselves to win their group if they qualify.
TBH my main gripe about this World Cup isn't Trump, or the amount of teams, or cringeworthy speeches or other nonsense. It's the price of tickets. There are very, very few available that I would consider a reasonable price. It's nothing less than extortion.
Yanks pay outrageous amounts to watch sports, writing was on the wall the instant they were awarded the World Cup.
USA get a 3rd place team when they win their group. Looking very good for them. And then Winner of Group G: Belgium, who are past it these days.
There were only two groups where play-off winner 2 could have gone into - groups I and L. Every other group already had either a North American, South American, or Asian team. So if Uzbekistan had gone into group I, that would have taken that group away as an option too - leaving group L as the only option for the play-off two winner 2. And that option would then have been taken away by Panama going into group L (which had to happen once Panama and Norway were the last two left). So they had to keep group I open as a viable option for the play-off winner 2, by not putting Uzbekistan into it.
I'd prefer to have the confederation rules relaxed if not removed altogether tbh but it's easy to say that as a side who almost always gets through and I can see why it wouldn't be appealing for smaller nations.
I was hoping something like that might happen. Just for the drama when they realised the whole thing was void and needed restarting or at best reallocating all the teams But alas one of Rio Ferdinand or the FIFA supercomputer were on top of it.
Even though the quality is diluted a bit, Group I looks a genuine group of death, although best 3rd place might save someone there. Scotland's group is all around quite interesting too. Quite a few of 'those' games as well where they don't look fantastic on paper but I still fancy watching for entertainment or curiosity value; Canada v Italy (maybe), USA v Australia, Germany v Curacao, Spain v Cape Verde, Uruguay v Cape Verde to name a few.
Damn, I forgot some 3rd place teams go through. Some of the groups not as hard as I thought then, although if a pot one team doesn't finish top it does leave them open to a tough knockout game.
Hilarious that Wales are getting so much air time given their upcoming playoffs. Boring draw generally and particularly for England.
Scotland playing Brazil third is a bonus for them. Brazil will likely have 6 points and put out a weakened team.
Just seen our first two games will be played in Canada, and not the US. Nice!! Edit: Oh wait. Not confirmed. Toronto or Texas/Massachussets
The west side would be nicer definitely but I think the Texas stadiums might be air conditioned at least? As I said earlier it might do us good to acclimatise early in the tournament too.
Yeah was more just thinking about the slim chance of heading over for one of the games. Got a lot of mates in Toronto, and Canadians are just a quality bunch of folk. I bet the pre-game drinking there will be a lot of fun for the travelling England fans. Plus would rather spend my hard-earned money north of the border than south of it.
