Dream Cup draws and cheating French
By SAM BUCKLEFirst of all, Brazil can get lost. We are not going to the World Cup to ogle superstars, chase autographs and squabble over Ronaldinho’s shirt. We are damn well going there to scrap, fight and try to nick points off teams.
Against most teams, that is a difficult but realistic outside chance. Against Brazil (or Spain and a couple of others for that matter) it is not. Sorry, we are going to South Africa to hope for the highly improbable, not the nigh impossible. So, I have to disagree altogether with NZ Football chief executive Michael Glading that drawing Brazil would be “perfect”.
It is, however, time to start fantasising about who we would like to play in South Africa. Today was a huge day in World Cup qualifying with the final berths being decided in typically tight and dramatic playoff fashion. Congratulations to Algeria, Slovenia, Greece, Portugal, Uruguay and – with great reservation - France.
My heart goes out to the Irish, who battled with quality and wonderful bravery in Paris this morning and were only denied a penalty shootout that could have taken them to South Africa by an incredibly blatant Thierry Henry handball and moment of appalling incompetence from the match officials (the more I watch it, the angrier I get at the injustice). In a game of such magnitude that has to be absolutely shattering for Irish football fans. And Ireland is a benchmark for small countries like our own. Despite limited population and player numbers, despite the presence and strength of other traditional sports, Ireland has forged a consistently resilient and competitive international football side. They make the most of their resources. I respect that enormously.
The World Cup draw is scheduled for December 5 (NZ Time) and even the prospect of some brown-suited Fifa official drawing New Zealand’s name out of a plastic barrel has me aflutter. Based on the research of Yellow Fever’s resident World Cup trainspotters (I hope they're right), this is my understanding as to how the draw works …
The 32 qualifying teams are divided into four separate pots of eight. Each World Cup group will consist of a team from each of those pots (it’s designed to mix teams up by rankings and geography).
Pot A includes the top 7 ranked sides, plus South Africa as hosts.
Pot B includes the rest of the European qualifiers.
Pot C includes Asian sides, North/Central American sides and the All Whites
Pot D includes African and South American sides
(This means, unfortunately, we won’t meet Australia until the second round at the earliest. Bring on a pre-World Cup match. No excuses now.)
Based on that system, my dream group would be:
1. South Africa, ranked 85th (they beat us comfortably at the Confederations Cup, but they are only seeded as hosts, have not been in good form recently and shouldn’t be feared – even at home).
2. Slovakia, ranked 33rd (I don’t know much about Slovakia, but surely they can’t be that flash. Slovenia is ranked below them right now, but following their win over Russia they may jump ahead of the Slovaks).
3. New Zealand, ranked 83rd (we are likely to move into the 60s when new rankings are released tomorrow).
4. Chile, ranked 17th (nobody from South America is ideal and Chile had a very good qualifying campaign, but I really don’t want to play an African side in Africa, plus I suspect Chile could be more vulnerable to our direct, physical approach than Paraguay or Uruguay).
It is not unfeasible that we could pick up points against each of those sides. And that has to be the goal. We have to believe we are going to South Africa to qualify for the second round and to progress, not to enjoy the spectacle and experience. Believe and dream.
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We've played Chile twice (lost 1-0 and 4-1 respectively) but that was with very depleted sides (both teams). I think we could give them a real run for it.
Henry's handball was shocking. See what moving to Barca does to someones standards and principals? I've loved Henry for years, he's a superb footballer, although past his prime still right up there amongst the best but that handball angers me. I love the French team (due in part, I admit, to the lack of ethnic Frenchmen in the team) but I also love Ireland being Irish, so this match really tore me.
Don, what's this FIFA corruption that led to Ireland playing France?
i've always seen henry as the cool honest guy. seems i was very wrong. better have another guiness...
According to ESPN the draw process won't be decided until the qualifiers have been found (done today) and the latest rankings are out (tomorrow) but if it is the saem as last year that will be about right. Because it also depends on how many Euro teams are in the top 7 tomorrow
What about a hot and cold african team rather than chile
Every single word spot on, I am over just going to say we played big teams, we've played Italy, Spain and Brazil in last 4 years, I want success, That group would be amazing. Fingers crossed.
Chile are one of the world's form teams at the moment and would be far too fluid for the AWs to combat with Bielsa's unique 3-3-1-3 formation. I think the AWs would fare better against Algeria TBH and could nick a point off Slovenia, Denmark, Switzerland and even the ultra-defensive Greeks. Bring on a warm-up with the Socceroos!
I am surprised you picked Chile. I would rather have Algeria as they are probably the weakest team in pot D. Chile qualified comfortably out of South America, would be tough if we drew them.
Bullion, good point. I tossed up Algeria and Chile - maybe you're right - but I just have a feeling about Chile somehow not performing away from their home continent - and us beating up on them (if we can get the ball!)
I'm with you and Ryan Nelsen regarding the draw... I too want the weakest teams possible. Any chance to win a game and progress would be welcomed. Even a draw will be treated as a victory here!
As for the cheating-scum-French team... I don't think I've ever seen such a terrible piece of cheating (the Hand-of-God incident aside) and poor refereeing - and I don't accept Henry's argument that it was up to the referee to pick him up for it. Intent is always major consideration when determining any punishment for an infringement and that post-match comment by Henry warrants a suspension for him from the entire World Cup. To top it off, Henry's blatent handball and attitude afterwards clearly bring the game into disrepute, which is also of primary concern to FIFA. But I doubt we'll hear a peep from FIFA on this... Platini has a lot of influence. Truly a dark moment in the history of the World Cup.
Unfortunately none of this helps the poor Irish, who wanted the victory so much more than the French and completely outplayed them on the night. They didn't deserve this.
Bullion, we can't have both South Africa and Algeria in our group. If we get South Africa, then we'd have to get the South American team from that pot as there can't be two African sides in the same group.
Chile is fair call by Sam in my opinion.
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I haven't been so incensed at a refereeing decision for as long as I can remember. I am STEAMING at the ref and the cheating scab Henry who admitted that he cheated after the match. He came out and said it was a deliberate handball but that it was up to the ref to pull him up for it. That puts him even farther ahead of Diving Drogba in my book. I used to respect Henry, but now I wouldn't spit on him if he was on fire. Unless I was spitting petrol. And don't get me started on teh FIFA corruption that led to Ireland drawing France in the first place...this is the triumph of marketing over matter and the WC will be the poorer for it for me. I have the AWs to cheer for now, so that's some consolation. But I would even cheer for England against the perfidious cheese-eating handball monkeys, and that's saying something.