By Davidde Corran
November 21st 2009 @ 4:13am
The Socceroos World Cup draw could be scary
Australian player Vince Grella (right) during the Socceroos pre-match training session at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. AAP Image/Luis Enrique Ascui
Over the top calls to open a dangerous precedent aside, all 32 teams are locked in for South Africa 2010. That means we can now start to ponder what opponents the Socceroos will face in South Africa.
The draw will be made in Cape Town on the 4th of December, but with Tim Curry-esque anticipation, I’ve been racking my brain over the possible permutations and who I would and wouldn’t like Australia to face.
It’s as much fun as Fantasy Football.
So here are the likely four pots:
Pot A (Seeded): South Africa, Italy, Brasil, Argentina, Spain, France, Germany, England
Pot B (Europe): Holland, Slovakia, Portugal, Switzerland, Serbia, Denmark, Greece, Slovenia
Pot C (South America and Africa): Ivory Coast, Paraguay, Cameroon, Chile, Ghana, Uruguay, Nigeria, Algeria
Pot D (North America, Asia and Oceania): USA, Australia, Mexico, North Korea, Japan, Honduras, South Korea, New Zealand
On the surface, it doesn’t seem like such a bad set up for Australia, but when you look closer the possibilities are worrying.
Naturally, the seeded pot has the most quality.
Despite France’s poor playoff performance against Republic of Ireland last week, I still wouldn’t want the Socceroos to come up against Les Bleus.
This is mainly down to Australian coach Pim Verbeek’s cautious methods.
Attack the French and you can expose their lack of unity, but a defensive approach gives their creativity a chance to find a way through to goal.
There is no way I want Spain or Brazil to end up in our group.
With the Spanish in particular, the only benefit would be that Australia could claim to have been involved in a perfect 90 minutes of football. Unfortunately, it’d all have been played by the opposition.
Germany, Italy and England worry me though on a good day I think we could draw blood from the English.
Only a fixture against the tournaments hosts and maybe Diego Maradona’s troops inspires any hope.
However, forget about the seeded group. It’s Pot B that could kill Australian dreams in South Africa. The thought of getting stuck with Holland or Portugal as un-seeded teams is awful.
Serbia and Denmark should be confident against Australia.
Despite having a pretty ordinary squad, the tactical and motivational ability of Slovenia boss Matjaz Kek frightens me.
The inexperience of debutants Slovakia might count for something but it’s Greece and Switzerland that I hold out hope for. If Australia can’t beat either of those two sides, then we don’t deserve to get through the group stage anyway.
Lastly, that brings us to Pot C.
There are high expectations on Africa to shine at this tournament. Ghana will draw inspiration from the success of their Under-20’s side in Egypt earlier this year and Ivory Coast promise a lot.
A number of African football journalists have told me that Nigeria and Cameroon may flatter to deceive but I think Algeria are the exact kind of side that Australia hates. Fast and good with the ball at their feet they have a great high pressing game.
The Algerians also aren’t afraid of stretching the concept of time wasting for all it is worth (I’ve never seen a goalkeeper take as long a run up for a goal kick as Algeria’s Lounès Gaouaoui did late in the game on Wednesday night).
They could frustrate the hell out of Australia.
So, the point of all is that there isn’t going to be an easy draw for Australia no matter what happens. Even a good draw for the Socceroos will leave them in a situation where all four sides could make it out of the group.
Lets not forget the nightmare scenario of playing Spain, Holland and the Ivory Coast. There is just no way Australia gets through that group.
The more I think about it, the more I worry.
At the very least we’ll get to see our boys go up against some of the World’s best nations. Let’s just hope we’re not using that thought as solace on the first flight home from South Africa in June.
My “best chance of qualifying” group? South Africa, Greece, Nigeria (if they don’t take on a European coach) and Australia
My “I’d love to see how we’d stack up” group?
Spain, Portugal, Ivory Coast.
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(14)
Tifosi said | November 21st 2009 @ 7:02am | Report comment
FIFA have said they will determine seedings 2 days prior to the draw.
So relax, wait till they announce the pots and then speculate like mad what could happen !!
dasilva said | November 21st 2009 @ 8:08am | Report comment
Davidde was just using the speculated pot assuming that FIFA keeps the same system of seeding last World Cup which is a reasonable assumption to make.
I see no reason why FIFA should try and change their seeding system for this world cup.
tony yeboah said | November 21st 2009 @ 8:44am | Report comment
i disagree Davidde, i think that it is better to be drawn in a group with Spain or Brazil, just like the last world cup. That way more than likely that team will win all three of there games leaving less points available for the other teams, meaning that the second place team can get through to the second round with a likely only 4 points, just like Australia did in Germany. If the group is too even, say like the South Africa, Greece, Nigeria and Australia group you suggest, everyone could beat anyone and that is dicing with death.
Of course we don’t want to be in the group of death, but having one powerhouse in the group would be good, both to see how we stack up, and so they can take all the points.
David said | November 21st 2009 @ 9:14am | Report comment
TO be honest the only teams i would say we would have a ‘good’ chanc of winning or at least gettin a draw would be against: South Africa,Denmark, Greece, Slovenia, Switzerland, Slovakia,Chile, Ghana, Uruguay, Nigeria, Algeria and anyone in pot 4.
If you think we are better then Serbia please note the serbia beat france and convincingly out played them they also have bout 5 players who play in super clubs across europe. The only African nations to fear or Ivory and Camma because tha got Drogba or Eto prob 2 of the worlds top ten strikers there speed will leave Moor and Neill for dust we would prob get done like 6-0. This is the sad thing the main teams i think Australia wuld beat are all in our pot but i dont think its going to be exactly like that way u made it. If we draw something like holland and spain in our group we might as well not turn up to the world cup.
albatross said | November 21st 2009 @ 9:15am | Report comment
>>I see no reason why FIFA should try and change their seeding system for this world cup.
Well only if they need to give a “helping hand” to France.
Ian Whitchurch said | November 21st 2009 @ 9:51am | Report comment
Mate,
Dont only worry about the opposition. Remember, the opposition also has to worry about us … Australia from pool D – thats nasty. Dont want to be in that Group of Death.
Roger Rational said | November 22nd 2009 @ 7:25pm | Report comment
They’ll be trembling with fear in Sao Paulo, no doubt about it.
Fisher Price said | November 21st 2009 @ 10:34am | Report comment
With Verbeek in charge it won’t matter who is in the group. A quick exit beckons.
Ben of Phnom Penh said | November 21st 2009 @ 10:45am | Report comment
Oh the speculation, Davidde, you’re going to do your head in.
I disagree re: France though. Like Argentina they have the cattle however they have looked a shadow of their former selves when it came to qualification due to some very poor coaching. If Maradonna is still coach in June then I think Argentina is going to have a difficult time in South Africa as will France.
ABCDEFG said | November 21st 2009 @ 10:45am | Report comment
Only thing I think should change is that we should get pooled with Africa, we should get a chance to play a team from North America. But anyways I wouldn’t be scared of getting grouped with any particular group, whether it’s Brazil or a Spain, Portugal or a Holland or a Ghana or Ivory Coast. Maybe it’s because I’m Aussie, but I believe we can get out of even the toughest of groups.
Joe FC said | November 21st 2009 @ 1:25pm | Report comment
Davidde
If we start ‘fearing’ our prospective opponents then we may as well stay home.
Jim said | November 22nd 2009 @ 1:19am | Report comment
I saw England ranking drop to 9 recently and the Dutch up inside the 8. So maybe they’ll swap.
dasilva said | November 22nd 2009 @ 2:53am | Report comment
Dutch didn’t qualify to the world cup in 2002. Knocked out round of 16 in 2006
England were quarter finalist twice plus a decent ranking.
Holland will not be seeded if they keep the same seeding system which is 50% FIFA world ranking and 50% performance in the last two world cup.
greenngold2010 said | November 29th 2009 @ 11:41pm | Report comment
Hows this:
Holland, England, Greece, Socceroos
Nb group of chokers (minus the last lol)