Kochi: The 2014 World Cup draw is both imbalanced and lop-sided.
The greatest sports show on earth can get marred if too many popular teams get eliminated in the league phase or prequarter final knock out phase. It can be a World Cup of massive upsets.
The biggest upset could come on June 28, at Belo Horizonte, when Brazil, anticipated Group A winners, take on the Group B runners up, either holders Spain or runners up Holland. The dream final Brazil vs Spain could thus be a second round match and the quality of football on offer better than the final itself on July 13.
The other scenario could be Holland vs Brazil.
In the 2010 World Cup quarter finals, Holland eliminated Brazil 2-1, so an upset is possible. A World Cup in Brazil with the hosts and favourites eliminated in the first knock out round would be disastrous. Brazil could prevail but it will be at the expense of either the holders Spain or resurgent Holland both of whom are potential finalists.
Normally in every World Cup there is one group of death. In next year’s World Cup there are three groups of death. They are Group B (Spain, the Netherlands, a much improved Chile and Australia), Group D (Uruguay, Costa Rica, England and Italy) and Group G (Germany, Portugal, Ghana and USA).
To have the holders and runners up of the last World Cup in the same group is ridiculous and unfair. Also both Spain and Netherlands play the opening match of their group on June 13 at Salvador. It will most likely be a grim draw as both will be cautious and want to avoid defeat.
In Group D, both popular England and Italy are notoriously slow starters and so one of them could be eliminated early. If both the European teams progress it will be at the expense of Uruguay, whose excellent strikers Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani will not be seen after three matches.
England and Italy play their opening fixture on June 15 at hot and humid Manaus.
So a potential thrilling match could again be a tame draw.
Similarly in Group G, Germany kick off against Portugal on June 16.
Germany have a host of talented, attacking players and Portugal with Cristiano Ronaldo in full cry are always exciting to watch. All these potentially thrilling matches could turn out to be damp squibs.
Fifa is partially to blame for such lopsided groups.
The eight teams in Pot 1 were hosts Brazil and the top seven seeds according to the Fifa rankings in November 2013. Due to the complications of Fifa’s rankings system, where the importance of the match and strength of the opposition and confederation are all gauged, Holland, Italy and England were not in the top seven.
Both Switzerland and Columbia with some recent good results had sneaked into the top seven. The luck of the draw enabled them to get easy groups. Columbia have Greece, Ivory Coast and Japan in their group and the quartet in Group E is Switzerland, Ecuador, France and Honduras.
