On December 4th was an exciting day in sports for most of the world. This would be the day that they picked the groupings for the first round of the World Cup. The world cup will be held in South Africa this year. The first match will be held on June 12th, 2010.
What I thought was the most interesting about watching the draw was how they pick whom will be in what league. They made it so that it was random and no biases put in the seeding. They first divided the top seeds and place them in a bucket. These are the seeds that won the bid of number one seed during the qualifying matches. The host country also receives the number one seed. A1 is where the host country goes after that they then pick from the bucket for which country will get B1-H1. After finding the number one seed they then divide the rest of the countries in 3 different groups by their geographical area. After picking which country gets which group A-H, they are also picked for a seed 2-4. Watching this was really interesting, I really enjoyed how they picked and it left a since of anticipation for the viewers. I also think separating the countries by geographical area was interesting and feel they do that so there is no hostility between close countries.
The only reason I really watched this was to see where the US was going to be seeded. Many people and I too feel that the USA got off with an easy grouping. Which will give the US a great chance to move onto the second round. We are grouped with England, Slovenia and Algeria. There is always the ‘death group’ which is a group no one wants to be in. This year that group probably is Group G which has Brazil, Portugal, Ivory Coast and North Korea. Each team are the more stronger and dominant teams in their geographical areas. On top of that Brazil is considered the best team in the world and Portugal has the best player in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo.
I can’t wait 6 months for the World Cup to start! I really wish that the United States got as excited as the rest of the world did but luckily I have a close set of friends who are soccer lovers and we will be enjoying the festivities of World Cup 2010.
If you would like to learn more about the World Cup 2010 visit
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/index.html
U-S-A!
-Megan Meade
I also can't wait for the World Cup. I'm not really a big soccer fan, but I get excited come World Cup time and after being in Europe all summer, I've become more of a soccer fan. Also, one of my real good friends from high school went to the World Cup back in 2006 in Germany, and that's when I first started getting into it. I happened to turn on the tv right when the began drawing and became interested in the process and the seedings/pairings. I did like how the drawing is conducted and that there really is no chance for biases or anything towards the seedings. I do think that the U.S. got a relatively good group. Although England is good, the other two teams don't seem to pose a huge threat and two teams advance from each group. I think it's critical for the U.S. to win their group. The teams that advance from Group C (U.S. Group) will face the teams from Group D, which contains Germany, who one expert picked to win the whole tournament. So, facing Germany in the second round could be crucial to the advancement of the U.S.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the link about the World Cup. I saw parts of the draw that you described, and I agree it was intriguing to watch, and to anticipate how the U.S. might fare. The last time the World Cup was played, I watched the finals at the theatre in the Union. It was fun to be there with a lot of "real" soccer fans.
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