Board 8 > The World Cup draw just happened.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Real tough groups for Italy and the United States.
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no opponents = they can't lose!
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America, fuck where?
Too shit to play in the motherfucking cup yeah.

America, fuck where?
Goals all go the other way, yeah!

Terrorists, you're going through,
Cause the states are playing you!

America, fuck where?
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lol Belgium and England, one of them gonna choke in that cakewalk division

hopefully Mexico can pull through their group. Spain should be good, that's a group of defense right there
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Of course Portugal would get Spain. I'm just glad that they aren't in the group of death for like the third time in a row.

In general, the groups seem balanced overall.
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GROUP A: Russia, Uruguay, Egypt, Saudi Arabia
GROUP B: Portugal, Spain, Iran, Morocco
GROUP C: France, Peru, Denmark, Australia
GROUP D: Argentina, Croatia, Iceland, Nigeria
GROUP E: Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica, Serbia
GROUP F: Germany, Mexico, Sweden, South Korea
GROUP G: Belgium, England, Tunisia, Panama
GROUP H: Poland, Colombia, Senegal, Japan

Russia was gifted some very beatable opponents, and Group F looks like a dogfight for second place.
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meh

when is the women's cup gonna be
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France can't possibly fuck that group up.

They can't possibly.
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Oh yeah go my Costa Rica
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England get a very manageable group coupled with an extremely favorable second round match if they make it through. I fully expect us to fuck this up

Just for fun, I averaged the current FIFA rankings for each group:

A - 45.00
B - 20.25
C - 17.75
D - 23.25
E - 18.25
F - 23.50
G - 25.75
H - 24.50

Based on this silly metric alone, it seems like Group C is the strongest (as France, Peru, and Denmark are all ranked in the top 12). Group A is the far n away joke.
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I mean, I would expect that to always be the case, because the Host normally always has the worst Pot 1 seed by far.
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Yeah at first glance C and E seem really tough

F has most of the teams I generally root for though
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Yeah Group A has the two lowest ranked teams in them, Egypt must be quite happy (not that they're guaranteed to finish second).

Portugal/Spain will be a fun match, but the two should advance

Group C is technically the group of death in terms of rankings I can see all four progressing

Go Iceland

Go Costa Rica

Mexico is unfortunate again, Sweden is a good team

England/Belgium should progress

I feel Poland will choke this group somehow.
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Yeah I can see H going to Colombia/Senegal. Seems like the most Polish outcome.
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Japan will win H

I believe
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CaptainOfCrush posted...

FIFA rankings

i just looked this up because it's the first time i've had reason to and lmao what

how long has this thing been called the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking
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I want to say since 2010, I know it was there before the 2014 World Cup.
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Let's go France
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Who's ready to see Argentina/Nigeria part 24?
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davidponte posted...

Who's ready to see Argentina/Nigeria part 24?

not me, I am so done with meeting those dudes every single fuckin world cup

it's always a chore to face them, uuuugh

On the plus side our division looks like a total softball so we SHOULD make it out. No excuses!
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Uh, what? Iceland and Nigeria are almost assuredly the best teams in Pot 3 and 4, respectively.....
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Watch as England goes 0-0 with Panama and bombs out again

Central American teams are pretty good at getting draws against stronger opponents so that is something that can happen.
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MrSmartGuy posted...

Uh, what? Iceland and Nigeria are almost assuredly the best teams in Pot 3 and 4, respectively.....

Yes, and if we get our shit together they still should be beaten cleanly. The third and fourth pots were oddly mediocre this year...it doesn't feel like a lot of teams are in top form.
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KanzarisKelshen posted...

MrSmartGuy posted...

Uh, what? Iceland and Nigeria are almost assuredly the best teams in Pot 3 and 4, respectively.....

Yes, and if we get our shit together they still should be beaten cleanly. The third and fourth pots were oddly mediocre this year...it doesn't feel like a lot of teams are in top form.

They changed the pots this year so that it is by ranking and not geographical. This makes it so good non-Europe/South American teams don't get shafted.

Of course this is a weaker group relative to 2014 where 23/24 top ranked teams (as of Oct. 2013) made the cup (20th ranked Ukraine missed out) while for 2018 we are missing Chile (9), Wales (14), Italy (15), Netherlands (20), Northern Ireland (23) and Slovakia (24) and regional powerhouse United States also failed to qualify leaving a much weaker CONCACAF group.
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