Group G, projected order of finish (top two, in bold, to advance):
Brazil, C’ote d’Ivoire, Portugal, North Korea.
Comments:
Brazil moves on, of course. As in just about everyplace else in the world, Brazil, is the second favorite international team of most South African soccer fans. This World Cup might mark and exception as fans will rally behind the African teams as de facto locals, but Brazil will still have tremendous support among South Afrricans who love the Brazilian style of play and, more to the point, love their winning ways. Brazil comes into the tournament the favorites (some pick Spain) largely because Brazil is the default favorite of every tournament they enter.
Every four years the Group of Death, which is this group in 2010, makes me wonder if the World Cup shouldn’t consider adjusting the way they seed the knockout round. I wish football were more like track, which pushes people to the later rounds by a combination of places and times/distances. This allows for compensation for a particularly onerous group. One of Portugal or C’ote d’Ivoire is going home after the group stages, and I have a really hard time believing that they are not both among the top 16 teams in South Africa.
Making matters worse for Portugal and Les Elephants is that both teams have a history of disappointing their fans with underachieving performances. One is going to keep that run going in the next two weeks. I have been teetering back and forth between these two teams. Portugal has immense talent and one of the three best players in the world in Cristiano Ronaldo. But while I l;ove their style I hate their softness. Like most Americans, the one thing I loathe more than anything about football is the diving. Of course the Ivorians are occasionally as bad — Didier Drogba is an alite player as well, but he too knows how to wring the most out of phantom contact.
I’ve rolled with African teams thus far, and I think that if Les Elephants advance they have a legitimate chance to make noise beyond the round of 16. Drogba’s broken arm alarms me, but there is more than the Chelsea stalwart to the Ivory Coast team and I really do think they squeak though by a razor thin margin. Oddly Cote d’Ivoire has never played any of the teams in their group before. I have no idea what that means.
No disrespect intended to the North Koreans. But they had better hope that their murderous head of state Kim Jong-Il does not have high expectations for this team that is, by and large, a nonentity in global football terms. They are overmatched in this group. Place your bets ow as to which team has a worse result over the next fortnight or so: North Korea or New Zealand.
