Can someone explain....

[twballgame9]

how they seed these World Cup teams?

How are #8 England and #14 USA the two best teams in one group, while #1 Brazil and #3 Portugal are the two best teams in another? Is there rhyme or reason? Is there a geographical element, such that the two top seeds have to be from different regions? I am perplexed.

[BCEagle74]

how they seed these World Cup teams?

How are #8 England and #14 USA the two best teams in one group, while #1 Brazil and #3 Portugal are the two best teams in another? Is there rhyme or reason? Is there a geographical element, such that the two top seeds have to be from different regions? I am perplexed.

You get locked in a room with hungry 3rd world mooks blowing vuvuzelas and you place them anywhere, just to finish and get the fuck out.

[cvilleagle]

how they seed these World Cup teams?

How are #8 England and #14 USA the two best teams in one group, while #1 Brazil and #3 Portugal are the two best teams in another? Is there rhyme or reason? Is there a geographical element, such that the two top seeds have to be from different regions? I am perplexed.

I watched the seeding show and it went something like this:

Top 7 teams in the world + host nation go in one bag, and they are drawn, first one drawn in group a, second in group b, etc. If the defending champions had not been in the top 7, it would have been top 6 plus defending champs plus host nation.

Then they have 3 other bags which have different regions associated with them. One is all European teams, one is North America/Central America/Asia/Australia/Islands, the other is South America/Africa. One team is selected from each bag for each group, randomly. Everything possible is done to avoid multiple teams from the same region in the same group. That's unavoidable with Europe, of course, because there are so many teams, but let's say Brazil is chosen for group B and then they pull Paraguay from the Africa/South America bag. Paraguay would instead be placed in group C and they would pull an African team.

So, they protect the top 7 in the world from facing each other, and then it's all random/geographical. This also explains why group A is a bunch of pussies.

Oh, and one final thing. They used the October 2009 rankings for this, so that's why some of the current top 7 are together.

[twballgame9]

The rankings are based on a year ago pretty much explains it.

[EagleDave]

If you watched Portugal play the Ivory Coast yesterday, you know they're not the #3 team in the world, so the rankings in some cases are out the window. Another example is that in no way shape or form is Brazil the #1 team in the world. Spain is far and away the most dominant team out there. They shouldn't have been bumped for that loss to the US. They've lost just once in 3 years!

[pick6pedro]

Spain is far and away the most dominant team out there. They shouldn't have been bumped for that loss to the US. They've lost just once in 3 years!

And Spain goes down 1-0 to the Swiss. Far from over, but the timing was funny.

[DuchesneEast]

Spain is far and away the most dominant team out there. They shouldn't have been bumped for that loss to the US. They've lost just once in 3 years!

And Spain goes down 1-0 to the Swiss. Far from over, but the timing was funny.

Spain getting knocked out would really clear the way for Brazil and Italy.


I dont get hung up on world rankings, many teams dont have all their players for all games. Sort of like the Olympics for US basketball, but EVERYONE is available for the World Cup.

[twballgame9]

If you watched Portugal play the Ivory Coast yesterday, you know they're not the #3 team in the world, so the rankings in some cases are out the window. Another example is that in no way shape or form is Brazil the #1 team in the world. Spain is far and away the most dominant team out there. They shouldn't have been bumped for that loss to the US. They've lost just once in 3 years!

Whoops

[branchinator]

If you watched Portugal play the Ivory Coast yesterday, you know they're not the #3 team in the world, so the rankings in some cases are out the window. Another example is that in no way shape or form is Brazil the #1 team in the world. Spain is far and away the most dominant team out there. They shouldn't have been bumped for that loss to the US. They've lost just once in 3 years!

Wasn't their armada supposed to kick everyone's ass too? Just sayin'...

Spain is a loser country full of gypsy purse snatchers.

[twballgame9]

If you watched Portugal play the Ivory Coast yesterday, you know they're not the #3 team in the world, so the rankings in some cases are out the window. Another example is that in no way shape or form is Brazil the #1 team in the world. Spain is far and away the most dominant team out there. They shouldn't have been bumped for that loss to the US. They've lost just once in 3 years!

Whoops

that's not spain's fault - david stern dictated that spain lose to try to draw more viewers

I am glad you are hear to appreciate the humor, TRE.

[twballgame9]

If you watched Portugal play the Ivory Coast yesterday, you know they're not the #3 team in the world, so the rankings in some cases are out the window. Another example is that in no way shape or form is Brazil the #1 team in the world. Spain is far and away the most dominant team out there. They shouldn't have been bumped for that loss to the US. They've lost just once in 3 years!

Whoops

that's not spain's fault - david stern dictated that spain lose to try to draw more viewers

I am glad you are hear to appreciate the humor, TRE.

i'm certainly not here to be intellectually stimulated...

Or to correct my spelling, evidently. Damn homonyms.

[b0mberMan]

Damn homonyms.

Whoa now. When 74 uses language like that, TRE gets all righteous and angry with him. Careful.