To Hell, c/o Heidi
A week ago, the teams who qualified for the FIFA World Cup were sorted into their first round groups. As usual there are easier groups and more difficult groups, though any coach and player will say their opponents are great teams and are not to be underestimated.
Others are not afraid to exclaim their displeasure with the group drawing. For instance, the Belgrade newspaper Blic recently ran a humorous (I hope) headline “‘Heidi Klum has sent us to hell’“. They’re playing Argentina, Côte d’Ivoire and the Netherlands in the first round. Ouch!
Poland’s in Group A with host Germany, Costa Rica and Ecuador. I wonder if they’ll be able to make it out of the group stages this year. Group E looks very interesting as well with Italy, Ghana, the United States and the Czech Republic battling it out. You never know with these African teams (Senegal in 2002) and the States have been improving, while the Czechs have a proven good squad. No doubt the other groups will have their share of interesting stories.
Will Brazil take it this year? This would be their sixth victory. Will Serbia and Montenegro make it out of hell? Now that we know the schedule for the first round, all we need to do is wait until June 9, 2006 when the finals finally kick off!
(Yes, puns intended.)
