2007-10-24 - 2010 World Cup Qualifying Draw - Europe
(modified 25 October, see below in red)
Well, the FIFA rankings for October just came out. The changes in the top teams are as expected with England, Germany and Netherlands all moving down slightly. Italy's slide is slightly more unexpected, but without looking into the details I guess they're losing some important points from last year... The Czech Republic, Greece, Romania and Russia are moving in the right direction but as the rankings from next month are likely to decide the seeding groups for the World Cup Qualifying draw, it looks like their movements are to late to get them into the top seeding groups. If the draw were made from this ranking, the teams would be seeded as follows (in order of their FIFA ranking):
- Italy
- France
- Germany
- Spain
- Netherlands
- Portugal
- Czech Republic
- Croatia
- England
- Romania
- Scotland
- Greece
- Russia
- Poland
- Norway
- Ukraine
- Sweden
- Serbia
- Turkey
- Denmark
- Ireland
- Bulgaria
- Northern Ireland
- Israel
- Switzerland
- Finland
- Hungary
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Slovakia
- Belgium
- Cyprus
- Wales
- Moldova
- Albania
- Georgia
- Macedonia
I must say that if the 2008 European Championship Qualification campaign is anything to go by, the teams in the top seeding group are not going to find qualification easy. Teams like Romania, Scotland, Greece, Russia and Sweden in the second group are going to prove difficult to beat, let alone teams like Turkey, Denmark, Ireland, Switzerland and Finland from the third seeding group and Slovakia and Cyprus from the fourth seeding group who have caused more than a stir to date.
For the top seeds mentioned above, I think only England and Croatia have to worry about Romania or Scotland forcing them down a group. It's all the more interesting as England play Croatia on 21 November just four days before the qualifying draw is held. The end of November is going to be an exciting time, with the final qualification matches for the European Championship, the new FIFA rankings, the 2010 World Cup draw, and just a week later the draw for the finals of the 2008 European Championship.
(addition 25 October)
Hmmmmmmmmm, what if we did the draw completely fairly by giving everyone a seeding number and drawing like they do at Wimbledon by keeping seeds apart so that 1 meets 2 in the final, and 1 plays 4 and 2 plays 3 in the semi finals. Then we'd get this amazing draw without any groups of death! Will it happen? I think not. Not only will FIFA not have a 'marketing' draw, but if no randomness is added to the draw we'll get the situation where teams could know what group they will be in when they achieve a certain result near the end of the campaign... It's a real shame, because these groups are the most fair I've ever seen!!!
Italy (top seed group 1)
Serbia (bottom seed group 2)
Turkey (top seed group 3)
Macedonia (bottom seed group 4)
Slovenia (top seed group 5)
France (second seed group 1)
Sweden (penultimate seed group 2)
Denmark (second seed group 3)
Georgia (penultimate seed group 4)
Iceland (second seed group 5)
San Marino (penultimate seed group 6)
Germany (...)
Ukraine (...)
Ireland (...)
Albania
Armenia
Faroe Islands
Spain
Norway
Bulgaria
Moldova
Latvia
Andorra
Netherlands
Poland
Northern Ireland
Wales
Austria
Montenegro
Portugal
Russia
Israel
Cyprus
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Czech Republic
Greece
Switzerland
Belgium
Belarus
Malta
Croatia
Scotland
Finland
Slovakia
Azerbaijan
Estonia
England
Romania
Hungary
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Liechtenstein
Kazakhstan
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Post A Comment!
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2007-10-24 - Untitled Comment |
| Posted by Petrograd |
I'm a little worried about Sweden, we're only 50 points ahead of Turkey, would be rough if we lost away to Spain (a likely scenario) and they won or drew away against Norway.
Being in third seeding group would be rough to say the least :| |
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2007-10-26 - Romania in Pot 1 with 2 wins |
| Posted by Edgar |
Romania will be in Pot 1 for the WCQ draw with 2 wins: Bulgaria (away) and Albania (at home).
With England and Croatia (both above Romania) meeting in November, Romania will overtake at least one of them (both if they draw).
A more detailed analysis (in Romanian though) -> http://lucrurineinteresante.blogspot.com/2007/10/drumul-spre-prima-urna-trece-prin-sofia.html |
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2007-10-26 - i hope Romania make it into the first seeds |
| Posted by Adrian |
we would avoid almost all of the big guns... and thus probably avoiding a rather horrifying play-off where anything can happen
as for the seeding method presented , it has mixed the groups remarkably well |
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2007-10-26 - tennis draw |
| Posted by SwedeinFrance |
Well, I agree that they look very even, but I suspect those groups would make you particularly happy if you're dutch.
If you look at the ELO ratings (in my opinion a better measure of strength than the FIFA rankings) Poland are ranked 21st and Northern Ireland 34th... If this were the basis for the seeding they would be in pot 3 & 4 respectively. Seems like a very easy group.
But then again... If Northern Ireland are so easy, why didn't we get more than 1 point out of the two games in this qualifying campaign? (answer: Sweden definately do not deserve to be seeded in pot 1 as they were in the old system...)
And as much as I like to speculate I think we will se a lot of movement in the next months ranking anyways since FIFAs beverage-ranking is so volatile. |
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2007-11-25 - Germany... simply de best |
| Posted by A True born German Fan |
| 4 England i certainly think o'neil,h.rednapp,shearer,S.Pearce..etc all RUBISH....4 get british coaches for a moment and try for success bring in a MAGICIAN like...Mourinho..Capello..Wenger..Klinsman..Benitez ....i would then put S.Pearce as an assistant coach..if England have that then they are World Class |
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