World Cup Group of Death?

This one is going to be a little off of the normal topics because this isn't going to be about one of the four major American sports. This article has to do with a major international sport: soccer. Americans can talk all they want about how soccer isn't a real man's game and how only wimps play soccer (these are people who have obviously never played in or seen a soccer game), but the fact is that the ones that think this way are in the vast international minority.

As such, the greatest sporting event in the world is taking place not but six months from now. No, I'm not talking about the Olympics, as those seem more like feel-good stories as opposed to real sporting events. I'm talking about the World Cup.

As was the case back in 2002 in Japan/South Korea, there is a group in this World Cup that is dubbed as the "Group of Death." Three and a half years ago, it was a group that included group-winner Sweden, England, pre-Cup favorite Argentina, and perennial African power Nigeria.

Not more than two hours after the final draw last Friday, American journalists and soccer buffs were quick to dub the group the Americans were in this Cup's Group of Death, which is most likely true. Each of the groups except for Group E has a clear favorite: Germany-Group A, England-Group B, Argentina-Group C, Mexico-Group D, Brazil-Group F, France-Group G, Spain-Group H. Some of the groups even have favorites as to who is going to advance in the top two, adding Sweden in Group B, Holland in Group C, and Portugal in D.

Group E, the group that currently is home to the USA, has Italy, the Czech Republic, and Ghana, as well. Anyone that knows a little bit about soccer, but not much more, would say that the U.S. would seem to have an easy time advancing if the top two teams advance because the only good team is Italy. Well, that would be why the casual fan is hence dubbed casual, because the Czech Republic will be fielding one of the best squads in the world (FIFA has them ranked second). In this group, all four teams are more than capable to advance to the knock-out stage and move pretty deep once they're there, which is why it's called the Group of Death.

Then, about an hour (if that) after the journalists and soccer buffs declared the Group of Death, American soccer heads started complaining left and right about seeding. SI.com's Gabriele Marcotti started complaining about how the draw is flawed and unfair since the U.S. got a bad beat. Interestingly, though, he says that he doesn't think that the U.S.'s group is the worst one — he said that honor belongs to Group C (Argentina, Holland, Serbia, Ivory Coast).

He thinks the draw is unfair for two reasons. The first reason being that the seeding was determined on how teams have done in the past three World Cups, as well as some other things, and he doesn't think that it's fair since the quality of play today wasn't effected one bit by how teams did in the US in '94. That part I can agree with him a little bit. I think maybe that the play in previous World Cups should be reduced to the past two to help determine the seeding, because if you remember, Ronaldo did help Brazil make the final in '98 and he's only 29 on this year's Cup team.

His second reason that he thinks the draw was unfair was because the Germans had the easiest road of all teams. Wow, I can't believe that the governing body would give the host nation of one of the highest grossing sporting events in the world an easier road than anyone else. Think about it this way, if the Germans were put into a group with the Czech Republic, Croatia, and the Netherlands, for example, it is fairly feasible to say that they would not advance past the group stage of the Cup. The play of the Germans has dropped recently, even though they still have the likes of Michael Ballack, Miroslav Klose, and Oliver Kahn representing again, so if they faced three solid teams like the ones listed above, then there's a good chance that they would not advance, let alone not win a match.

If you were a director in charge of the Cup, and you had marketing people and advertisers to answer to, how do you explain the host country of this high-profit event being knocked out within the first week and a half? It's just bad business to give the Germans a tough road, just like trying to have a bowl game without Notre Dame. Nobody trying to make any money whatsoever would turn down the opportunity.

In conclusion, people that are unhappy with the draw need to stop complaining about it and just get ready to enjoy it. The United States does not have a team that will come close to competing for the Cup this year, so it doesn't matter which group they're in. They might advance out of the group stage, but unless they win their group (which they won't), then they'd have to face Brazil in the second round and that would end any world championship chances for the Americans.

The World Cup usually works out so that the better teams in the world at that time advance when they need to, and it doesn't matter who they play in the group stages because if they're going to have any hope of winning, then they'll need to beat the best the world has to offer. Unfortunately for Marcotti, that short list does not yet include our national team.

Notes

* On Saturday, the Duke Blue Devils cemented themselves as the best in college basketball for the time being after winning a game by 31 points over a team that nine voters had as number one in the land in the Texas Longhorns. Whether you like Duke or hate them, it's hard to deny that they're the best right now.

* If Roger Clemens goes back to the Red Sox, then much of the baseball world will lose respect for him considering he came "out of retirement" to play in Houston to be with his family and not have to go to the ballpark some days to watch his kids play. If he goes back to Boston (which is not even close to Houston for you non-geography buffs), then it completely contradicts what he was doing before