World Cup draw

[Johnboy]

I've got nothing against the England players and have always had a lot of respect for Capello.

If it wasn't for the entire English media I would be quite happy to see them win it.

Knowing how these c*nnts would react if that happened, I'll be quite happy to see them lose all their Round 1 games and be the first team to fly out of SA.

I'll even buy the Sun if that happens.... :011:

[The Mantis]

I refuse to take the bait with 6 months or so to go before it all kicks off. I'm sure by the time it does I will have had lots of "discussions" with you and the other Algeria/Slovenia/America supporters. :P

Never mind 6 months - you'll have it won by xmas anyway :023:

[Heilandee]

Oz. eh dinnae want ya thinkin abodies pickin on ya ,but,thon commentator wi 3 ba's oot the draw comes oot wi " that means we cant meet Argentina till the final" FFS, is it any wonder abody goes against they chunts :023:

[Scotty]

I am torn ...... after 3 years of watching MLS, I really do not want any team with Landon Donovan in it to win ANY games.

http://members.lycos.co.uk/jamiethehut2/landon_donovan.html

[RiG]

Groups E and G are the only relatively interesting ones. The rest are all rubbish.

[Dmacca]

Im bored of this already, especially from the England point of view!!

[Oz647]

Oz. eh dinnae want ya thinkin abodies pickin on ya ,but,thon commentator wi 3 ba's oot the draw comes oot wi " that means we cant meet Argentina till the final" FFS, is it any wonder abody goes against they chunts :P

It's called optimism, I know this is an unknown entity in Scottish football but in Engerland it is quite normal. I must admit though they do go a bit over the top but hey why not. Why should they be filled with doom and gloom about the prospect of England doing well. To be honest if England are on their best form with all players fit they could do well. It all depends which England turns up at the tournament. They have a reasonable group to contend with and should progress to the next stage without too much bother. (Will I live to regret those words?) What you lot seem to forget is it's not the team or fans creating all this hysteria, it's the media. The fans know that at some stage it will all fall apart. We have a great tradition of building it all up and then knocking it all down again.

Why am I letting myself be dragged into this with 6mths to go? God, it's going to be a long winter. :023:

[Heilandee]

Optimism an unknown entity in Scottish fitba!!! :023: It's actually about the only trait left! blind optimism bordering on stupidity right enough, but optimism none the less.What the Engurlish meeja have is not optimism, but arrogance, which is what rankles and we are aware (honest) that it's the meeja and not the normal Nigels that engender this.

[The Mantis]

Oh well, you have to say hats off to Gary Lineker for making a joke on MOTD about the group being so easy they've won the cup already....

Edited December 6, 2009 by The Mantis

[+DoofersDad]

What a lot of rubbish has already been said about the World Cup draw! It is to be expected that the Scots have a moan about how lucky the English have been with the draw, but the surprising thing is that the English seem to think that just because they avoided France and Portugal, they've got an easy draw. They haven't. Now that all the initial knee jerk reactions have been made, it is maybe time to comment on the draw based on the facts

The facts are that England are in a tough group and they are statistically more vulnerable than any other top ranked side. Two go through from each group so it doean't really matter how strong the second strongest team is. A strong 2nd team will have a bearing on the likelihood of winning the group but it is how strong all the teams are that matters in terms of how easy it will be to qualify. It is qualifying rather than winning the group which is the most important thing.

The average FIFA ranking of all the teams in the draw is 25.125. In England's group the average is 21 with only group H (Spain) at 18.5 and E (Holland) at 20.75 being tougher. So it is not any easy group.

In addition, England (at 9) are the lowest ranked side of all the highest ranked teams in the groups. If you look at the difference between the ranking of the top ranked team in the each group and the average ranking of the other 3 teams the average difference is 26.8 but in England's group the difference is only 16 making their group the tightest of the 8 groups. Of all the teams that are the lowest ranking sides in their groups, Slovenia, at 33, are the highest ranked side.

The other sides in England's group may have no great international pedigree but, based on current rankings, will all provide a stern test for England. It is Italy who have the easiest group and it is worth noting that all the other sides in England's group have a higher FIFA ranking than all the 3 other sides in Italy's group.

Based on the facts, perhaps the anti English sentiment could change from moaning about England being lucky to looking forward to England's early exit due to them being in tough group.

[caleykid1994]

Who are they kidding??? England WILL struggle to get out of this group. The Yanks should and probably will get through as group winners(after humiliating England in the process)