21. The Real Group of Death
"This time it's not a joke! Raven's Beak Bailey predicts that the Chinese team can enter the semifinals of the World Cup! β
The domestic Internet immediately mourned: because everyone knew that Pele's predictions would be diametrically opposed to the truth without exception, and if he was optimistic about the Chinese team, the Chinese team would probably not even be able to qualify from the group......
After the FIFA Awards ceremony, the draw for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil took place on the Shoippi beach in the Brazilian state of Bahia. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ο½ο½ο½Uο½Eγ ο½ο½ο½ο½
Due to the strong entry of the Chinese team, a large number of interviews and reports have been conducted in China for the draw ceremony, and various media and platforms have introduced the grouping rules in sufficient detail.
According to the regulations, the host country Brazil and the top 7 teams in the FIFA world rankings will form 8 seeded teams, according to the FIFA world ranking on October 17, the 8 seeded teams are Brazil (11), Spain (1), Germany (2), Argentina (3), Colombia (4), Belgium (5) and Switzerland (7).
The division of brackets 2 to 4 is based on geographical location, so there is nothing to explain.
Pot 2 is from Africa and South America, with five from Africa: CΓ΄te d'Ivoire (17), Ghana (23), Algeria (32), Nigeria (33), Cameroon (59); 2 South American teams: Chile (12), Ecuador (22), in addition to France, the last place in the European zone (21), is also placed in Pot 3.
Pot 3 teams from Asia, Oceania and CONCACAF are China (20), Japan (44), Iran (49), Australia (57), the United States (13), Mexico (24), Costa Rica (31) and Honduras (34th).
Pot 4 is European: Netherlands (8), Italy (9, Italy was selected in Pot X at the draw to avoid three European teams in the same group, becoming Pot 2), England (10), Portugal (14), Greece (15), Bosnia and Herzegovina (16), Croatia (18) and Russia (19).
Under the hands of the lottery guests, the fate of the 32 teams was decided.
Hosts Brazil are in Group A with Croatia, Mexico and Cameroon, three less strong opponents.
Group C is the weakest group on average, with all four teams likely to qualify, so the competition must be fierce, but I'm afraid not many will be watching: Colombia, Chile, Japan, Greece.
Group D is a true Group of Death, with three former World Cup-winning teams meeting in a narrow line: Uruguay, England, Italy and Costa Rica, where two European teams, Italy and England, had to meet early due to the rules.
The situation in Group E seems to be very clear, with two European teams clearly slightly superior: Switzerland, Ecuador, France and Honduras.
Group F is almost dominated by Argentina, with the other three competing for second place: Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran and Nigeria.
Group G is the competition between Germany and Portugal: Germany, Portugal, Ghana, USA.
Of the four teams in Group H, the European Red Devils Belgium are in the limelight right now, and their young talents probably don't have the other opponents in their eyes at all: Belgium, Russia, Algeria and Australia.
Then the last group remains...... Group B:
The defending World Cup champion, the winner of two consecutive European Championships, the Matadors, and the world hegemon who dominated football for 8 years - Spain.
The 2010 World Cup runner-ups, the Orange Shirt with Robin van Persie, Sneijder, Robben, Van der Vaart, Huntelaar, Van der Wiel, De Jong and Kuyt.
Ivory Coast, known as the "Elephant of Africa", is the strongest team in Africa with new and old players such as Drogba, Yaya Toure, Jokora, Gervinho, Boni, Kolo Toure and Kalou.
And...... China.
When he saw the group situation, even Duan Yixuan, who had always liked to play haha, couldn't laugh.
And Zhang Lu is no longer in the mood to save character for his idol.
Only He Wei took a long breath: "A few years ago, there was a joke in China that no matter which group the Chinese team is into, for us who are weak, it is equivalent to entering the group of death, even in the Asian Cup." But this year, our world ranking has risen to 20th, and we have five foreign players who have played in major European leagues, and we have a supercore who has dominated world football for two consecutive years, but ...... It didn't seem like luck was on our side, and we got into the real group of death. β
"12 years of waiting and anticipation, but in exchange for what a cruel result, sad, painful!" His negativity was out of control.
And such a result completely frightened the domestic network in an instant, and they have turned out all kinds of history and data to prove how terrible this group of deaths is.
"The World Cup is not a Confederations Cup! Spain will definitely seek revenge on us! β
"The Dutchman, who hated the final four years ago, will have to vent his anger this time, with Robin van Persie and Arjen Robben both being superstars in the top 10 of last year's Ballon d'Or! Who in the Chinese team can stop them?! β
"Look at the configuration of Ivory Coast, which of our defenders can do it better than Andy Lau (Drogba)?"
"Win less when you lose, and try not to set a worse record for conceding goals......"
"Stay from the beginning, clean up the old rivers and mountains...... See you in four years! β
"The Chinese team should seize the time to cultivate youth training and prepare for 2018!"
"The Mathematics Emperor tells you that the probability of the Chinese team qualifying from the group is 0.1234567%! The probability of the Chinese team winning the championship is 0.0000000000001%! β
"The latest handicap of major companies shows that the odds for the Chinese team with Mr. Golden Ball to win the championship are ...... 2500 to 1! β
"Maybe the only thing we can hope for...... It was Qin Gude who kicked the Chinese team to score a goal in the World Cup. β
In fact, the reaction of these media and netizens is not too extreme, after all...... Such a grouping situation is indeed enough to cause despair.
A person with a normal IQ has the most positive thoughts at this time that are "less loss to win", "focus on participation", "friendship first, competition second......
Even the head coach of the Chinese national team, Lippi, was much more cautious in interviews with domestic media.
"Spain and the Netherlands were the champions and runners-up of the last World Cup, and their quality is unquestionable and they are still at their peak; Ivory Coast has a lot of talented players with very good physical qualities, and most of their players play for European clubs, so the overall strength is quite strong. Compared to the three opponents in the group, we are really the weakest one......"
"Reaching the quarterfinals and semi-finals? Oh no, it's too hard," the Italian Silver Fox shook his head with difficulty, his brow furrowed into a lump, "we can only prepare for the fight with all our strength now and try not to make mistakes in the game......"
At this time, he finally sighed:
The position of the head coach of the Chinese team...... It's really not something that ordinary people can sit casually!
Why doesn't FIFA take care of the Chinese team?
Don't they know...... The Chinese population is the largest in the world, so the audience watching the game is also the first in the world?
-- By the way, why did India, the second in the world, Indonesia, the fourth country, Pakistan, and the seventh Bangladesh not participate in the World Cup? Why doesn't FIFA consider developing their market and economic benefits?
Just when domestic fans were almost about to lose all confidence in the World Cup, a Weibo suddenly went viral.
It is one of the largest Weibo accounts in China.
Qin Good, who has a huge fan base of nearly 80 million on Tencent's Weibo, updated his status as soon as he learned the news of the group.
"For the two goals of the World Cup: first, to get a medal with my teammates; Second, I personally won the Golden Boot. If I can't do any of that, I'll never be in the national team for the rest of my life. β
The draw was actually held in December 2013 and was placed here in January 2014. (To be continued.) )