FIFA World Cup 2014: Group of Death - An analysis

The one thing everyone looks forward to when a draw for any football tournament is made is to note down a Group of Death. A group that usually consists of two or more heavyweights of world football, with one big team guaranteed to get eliminated.

The draw for the 2014 FIFA World Cup, held in Brazil last night, drew up some very interesting groups and some pretty dull ones. Here we have a look at a couple of parameters to determine which really will be the strongest group in the tournament:

FIFA Rankings

From the table, the strongest group seems to be Group G, but a couple of questions rise here. Are Portugal really the 5th strongest team in the world? They had to go through a two-legged playoff to get the tournament. Incidentally, the team that finished above them in their qualifying group – Russia – are 17 places behind them in the ranking.

Even when you compare Group B and Group D, there is a huge difference between the total rankings of the groups. That’s the case mainly because Australia are the lowest ranked team in the competition. Costa Rica are ranked 28 places above the Socceroos, is there really so much difference between the two teams? I doubt it.

It’s no surprise that Group F and Group H rank the lowest.

World Cup experience

The above table indicates the number of times a country has participated at a World Cup.

Group D have the highest pedigree here. Italy, Uruguay and England – between the three of them – have 44 appearances at the World Cup and have won 7 World Cups.

Group A come close behind but Mexico, despite 2014 being their 15th appearance at football’s biggest event have not done much at previous tournaments. Croatia have only four appearances to their name, but previously were part of Yugoslavia who participated in 8 World Cups from 1930 to 1990.

Group C have very little World Cup experience between them but they have four very good teams. Colombia are the tournament’s dark horses, with the event in Brazil expected to be Ivory Coast and Japan’s breakout tournament.

Conclusion

In both the criteria we’ve looked at, Group B haven’t looked the strongest but practically speaking based on recent form, it’s tough to not call it the “Group of Death”.

Spain and Netherlands competed in the last World Cup final and Chile have been one of the most impressive teams. Chile – the third best team in the group – finished above Uruguay in the South American qualifiers and beat England comfortably at Wembley, less than a month ago.

Group G is also very strong with two heavyweights Germany and Portugal pitted against USA and Ghana. Ghana reached the quarter-finals at the last World Cup and only a Luis Suarez handball stopped them from progressing further. Cristiano Ronaldo might just need to be his best if Portugal are to reach the Round of 16 this time around.