World Cup 2014 draw is out.

[DanTex]

Last edited Fri Dec 6, 2013, 02:24 PM - Edit history (2)

Group A Brazil(3/1) Croatia(150/1) Mexico(125/1) Cameroon(300/1)

Group B Spain(7/1) Holland(25/1) Chile(40/1) Australia(500/1)

Group C Colombia(14/1) Greece(250/1) Cote d'Ivoire(125/1) Japan(125/1)

Group D Uruguay(25/1) Costa Rica(2500/1) England(28/1) Italy(25/1)

Group E Switzerland(100/1) Ecuador(125/1) France(20/1) Honduras(2500/1)

Group F Argentina(5/1) Bosnia-Herzegovina(150/1) Iran(2500/1) Nigeria(250/1)

Group G Germany(11/2) Portugal(33/1) Ghana(150/1) USA(150/1)

Group H Belgium(14/1) Algeria(1000/1) Russia(66/1) Korea Republic(250/1)

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/final-draw/live-blog.html

Not looking too great for the US.

Updated to add the odds from betfair.com. If the odds are accurate it looks like the toughest groups are B, D, and G, and the easiest is probably F.

[JCMach1]

1. USA in a group of death... yikes!

[Blue_Tires]

2. England got royally screwed

USA will get crushed
Brasil will coast
Argentina has the weakest draw by far
Belgium is the hipster's darkhorse to make a lot of noise, and that grouping is a big advantage to them
Uruguay is the other popular darkhorse...
I have no idea what group 'C' is supposed to be about...

[geek tragedy]

8. I'd say Group E is a tin full of cupcakes. France got lucky, if one believes

in coincidences.

[Blue_Tires]

11. Ecuador and Switzerland are probably better than you're thinking...

And I'm not as high on this France team as I have been for ones in the past...

Still, whoever survives this group will be easy outs against the higher seeds in the elimination round....

[geek tragedy]

12. Maybe, I'm skeptical of both.

Spain-Netherlands in an opening group stage is pretty nuts.

[BlueCaliDem]

13. Well, Spain was last World Champion, and Holland came in 2nd

so it stands to reason they would play against each other this time around. I predict Spain will win although I'm rooting (since I'm Dutch, too) for Holland.

Family and friends will be taking lots of time off to follow their team to Spain. Good thing it's being held there. It's so close to Holland and less expensive to be there to support.

On Edit: Brazil is hosting WC Soccer in 2014. My bad. Looks like friends and family will have to travel a little farther after all.

[muriel_volestrangler]

21. Ecuador does well in South American qualifying by playing at altitude at home

(as does Bolivia) - it's players are used to it, and it can make a difference for 90 minutes - "on average, all outfield players are required to run between 9 and 13 kilometres".

It's quite a small country (16 million population), so it doesn't have a large pool of talent to draw from. Without home games, it's likely to struggle.

[zappaman]

3. USA is going nowhere.

Ouch.

[Codeine]

28. Portugal is more vulnerable than they appear.

Ghana is due for a beatdown. I give us about an even chance to advance.

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. That is one tough group

The same for Mexico.

At least we will not be rooting for two teams in the same game!

[Common Sense Party]

6. Mexico is darn lucky to even be there.

They should count their blessings.

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. Oh trust me, the green mice will not fail to disappoint

As usual.

It's a curse I tell ya.

I mostly follow the Mexican press for well, news, but the trials and tribulations of the TRI are a tour d'force. It almost makes following sports fun!

[Common Sense Party]

17. I was surprised how poorly they were playing earlier this year. Ouch.

I am planning on being overly optimistic and ultimately disappointed by the Pulga and the rest of the Argentine squad.

[SoCalDem]

5. Our youngest son will be there rooting for us

He loves going to World Cup. He's played the game since he was 4 yrs old, and has been to most of the recent World Cups., except for Africa.. He chose that year to get married and his wife reneged on her promise that he could go

He went to US (94)...France (98)..,Germany (06)
He was too broke to go to Korea in 02, and was on his honeymoon on a Greek cruise/trip to Italy/Croatia when they were going on in South Africa. He so wanted the wedding to happen earlier in the year, but she insisted on late May..

I think their 4 week honeymoon was pretty okay with them both

[geek tragedy]

7. New FIFA President is French, and lo and behold

France gets the easiest draw of the entire tournament and the US/UK get screwed.

[loli phabay]

31. not he uk, just england. dark horse could be croatia, depends what team turns up

Same with germany they are either unplayable or average.

[LittleBlue]

9. We're completely f***ed

No way do we advance from that group. Germany among the top 3 best in the world, Portugal loaded with talent, and Ghana no pushover.

Oh well we weren't going to win it anyway.

[musiclawyer]

14. Na

Nate silver places USA chances of advancing basically the same as Portugal :
Germany wins all games but will put more of a hurt on Portugal than USA ....this is where Klinsmann comes in;

If we beat Ghana, who is not as good as four years ago and we are better than four years ago, we just need to tie Portugal to go through

[DanTex]

15. Nate Silver really said that?

I like the optimism, but I gotta put Portugal's chances well ahead of ours.

[TransitJohn]

25. Don't think so. All they have really is an aging Ronaldo

that's a lot, but we've got weapons, too.

[Codeine]

29. Portugal isn't the powerhouse some people think.

Honestly, if Ronaldo goes on a goal rampage then all bets are off, but everything they do is so totally dependent on his performance that if he has an off day things can go pear-shaped for the Portuguese very quickly.

[Upton]

18. Nate is nowhere near as good at predicting sports as he is with politics

For instance, he predicted last year's Super Bowl would feature the Patriots and Seahawks. Then, when that didn't work out he went with the 49ers to beat the Ravens..

[brentspeak]

24. We were supposedly better four years ago than four years before then

When Ghana beat us the first time (in 2006).

I'm really sick of Ghana.

[nevergiveup]

16. "Bring em on"

"If you want to be somebody, you gotta beat somebody and we will be up against 3 somebodies". This will be a great opportunity for the U.S.A. Will we advance? Probably not, but on the national stage the U.S. Men's Soccer Team is know for it surprises. Never say never. GO U.S.A !!!!!

[KamaAina]

19. I call for an end to Groups of Death

Why not seed the teams according to their FIFA rankings? The highest-ranked qualifier is seeded first, and so on.

Then pair them up like the NCAA tournament does.

Group A: 1, 16, 17, 32
Group B: 2, 15, 18, 31

and so on.

[dembotoz]

20. because there are no tear in baseball or logic in soccer

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. Because they work to spread continents around the groups

They had a very complicated draw to make sure no group had 3 European sides, and no group had 2 South American (or other) teams. They try to avoid matches that happen often in qualifying, or in continental tournaments.

Does the NCAA tournament have a group stage like this? Because that method still produces 'groups of death', as far as some are concerned - the #16 team find itself competing, most likely, for the runner-up spot with the #17 team (with one team most likely to beat both, and one team most likely to lose to both - so it probably hangs on the result of one match). #15 v. #18 is also pretty close, and so on. Meanwhile, you know you'll get a group of 8,9,24 and 25 - almost certainly 8 and 9 will go through, so it's just a matter of which gets the winner spot for a hopefully easier match against a runner-up in the next round.

For fun, what your system would produce, from the Nov 28 rankings, is (ignoring any home advantage for Brazil):
Spain Croatia Côte d'Ivoire Australia
Germany Chile France Korea Republic
Argentina USA Mexico Cameroon
Colombia England Bosnia-Herzegovina Japan
Portugal Greece Russia Iran
Uruguay Belgium Ecuador Honduras
Italy Brazil Ghana Nigeria
Switzerland Netherlands Algeria Costa Rica

http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/rankingtable/

However, it's notable that the FIFA rankings are a bit dodgy - if you look at how much they've moved since the previous month (and the 7 seeds to head each group, along with Brazil, were based on the October rankings for some reason), you see Portugal climbed 9 places, and Belgium dropped 6; Mexico climbed 4, Bosnia dropped 5, and so on. With that much variation in a month, there may not be much point in putting too much faith in it (I think it's been criticised for not taking the strength of opposition enough into account). Just draw at random, and you may as well try to mix up continents to get matches you don't often get, just for interest.

[KamaAina]

35. In other words, they work hard to screw us because we're on a shitty continent

Now I'm beginning to understand. It's not bad luck, it's by design.

[KamaAina]

36. Nicely done!

I am especially loving the USA-Mexico matchup!

[brentspeak]

23. Team USA will also be forced to travel 9,000 miles

between opening group (of death) venues. FIFA sucks in all regards.

Worst possible draw we could get ):

[Codeine]

30. They're international footballers, and one of the fittest teams on Earth.

A bit of luxury air travel shouldn't be that serious a concern for a group of men who already travel all over for a living.

Frankly, as a talking point the "travel between venues" issue seems a bit weak to me.

And yeah, it was a sucky draw, but somebody had to get it. I think it gives us a chance to actually shine on the international stage. If the team can advance from this group then they'll gain another notch of respect. If not -- built-in excuse!

[loli phabay]

32. confused, where you getting nine thousand miles of travel from.

[brentspeak]

33. 9178 miles, to be more accurate

Round-trip:

http://espnfc.com/news/story/_/id/1641802/us-play-ghana-portugal-germany-world-cup?cc=5901

After having the shortest group-play travel in South Africa, the U.S. will have the longest in Brazil. The Americans will be based in Sao Paulo and face trips of 1,436 miles to Natal, 1,832 miles to Manaus and 1,321 miles to Recife. They also will play all three matches in the tropics, with the second and third matches in the afternoon.

The sweltering heat of Manaus is the real killer.

[loli phabay]

34. okay thanks, long distances as long as tbey dont go by coach they will be fine.

[madrchsod]

26. usa is screwed

group A looks like brazil should win.

[Retrograde]

27. Go Indomitable Lions!

I have a soft spot for the Cameroon team because I sat next to their fan at one of the '94 prelim games. They'll get creamed by Brazil, of course.

[KamaAina]

37. You're rooting against the USA

That is not cool.

[muriel_volestrangler]

40. With Cameroon in Group A, and USA Group G, they can't meet before a semi-final

And the chances of both teams getting that far are minute. I think you can allow someone to root for an underdog from as far away in the draw as possible.

[KamaAina]

41. D'oh! I thought Ghana were the Indomitable Lions.

I'm thoroughly sick of them after these last two Cups.

[brentspeak]

42. Ghana are the Black Stars

And yes, they really have been a pain in Team USA's arse.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

38. Don't count the USA out from advancing out of pool

Only Germany is a true juggernaut so leaves a spot US could in probability take.

[Aquavit]

39. I'm not counting

on USA even getting a point in the group stage. Ghana finished 5th last time, Germany finished 3rd, and Portugal should have little trouble against them as well.

Germany will win the group on maximum points, Ghana will finish second, and Portugal will finish a close third.

[Ron Obvious]

43. Second Round...

I just noticed that after treating us to Spain - Netherlands in the opening round, this WC is very likely to see Brazil - Spain or Brazil - Netherlands in the first elimination round.

Group B is going to be hard enough, now it looks imperative to win it as well.

With that in mind, Spain vs Netherlands is probably going to be much-harder fought than I initially assumed.

USA have the advantage of playing Ghana first and Germany (likely already qualified by then) last. Still pretty slim odds.