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Friday, December 8, 2017

2018 World Cup draw: What I would have liked to see

I think I've mentioned this before, but I'm getting old and I'm allowed to say things over and over. Getting plenty of practice with my kids :)

Long time ago - about 8 or 9 years ago perhaps - my blog didn't have a custom domain and its name was "Uninteresting things" (of course, in Romanian). This is one of those posts, so feel free to skip it.



"Snake draw" based on Elo ratings. Best team from first pot get the weakest team from the second pot, the strongest from the third and the weakest from the bottom pot. Some shuffling was needed to have the required geographical separation.

Group A: Russia, Spain, Tunisia, Japan
Group B: Poland, England, Egypt, Australia
Group C: Belgium, Colombia, Costa Rica, Serbia
Group D: Argentina, Switzerland, Senegal, Korea Republic
Group E: France, Peru, Iceland, Nigeria
Group F: Portugal, Uruguay, Sweden, Morocco
Group G: Germany, Croatia, Iran, Panama
Group H: Brazil, Mexico, Denmark, Saudi Arabia

I like to see new match-ups at the World Cup and instead I got Iceland - Croatia (they met in the qualifiers). Of course, some people like to see such repetitive meetings for rivalries and the like.

Here's a draw with no competitive matches in the last 13 years.

Group A: Russia, Peru, Denmark, Nigeria
Group B: Germany, Switzerland, Egypt, Panama
Group C: Brazil, England, Iran, Serbia
Group D: Portugal, Colombia, Tunisia, Korea Republic
Group E: Argentina, Spain, Senegal, Japan
Group F: Belgium, Mexico, Iceland, Australia
Group G: Poland, Uruguay, Sweden, Morocco
Group H: France, Croatia, Costa Rica, Saudi Arabia

About me:

Christian, husband, father x 3, programmer, Romanian. Started the blog in March 2007. Quit in April 2018. You can find me on LinkedIn.

1 comment:

  1. That's interesting stuff, thank you. Although, whether by accident or design, the actual draw is fairly balanced.
    Okay, Groups D & E are fairly deep in strength due to the presence of Nigeria & Serbia from Pot 4, while Groups A & G look relatively weak - but there is nothing you could truly call a "Group Of Death" this time around.

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