World Cup 2006, Which group is the hardest? Options

[jonathan83]

I'm surprised there aren't any threads yet on the World Cup. Anyway, the question speaks for itself. I say F is the hardest, followed closely by E. We're in a pretty tough group with Italy and the Czech Rep. Here are the groups:

Group A:
Costa Rica
Ecuador
Germany
Poland

Group B:
England
Paraguay
Sweden
Trinibad & Tobago

Group C:
Argentina
Ivory Coast
Netherlands
Serbia & Montenegro

Group D:
Angola
Iran
Mexico
Portugal

Group E:
Czech Republic
Ghana
Italy
United States

Group F:
Australia
Brazil
Croatia
Japan

Group G:
France
South Korea
Switzerland
Togo

Group H:
Saudi Arabia
Spain
Tunisia
Ukraine

Also, who do you think or want to win each group?

I'd like: Germany, England, Argentina, Mexico, USA, Brazil, South Korea, Spain

but think this will happen: Poland, England, Argentina, Mexico, Italy, Brazil, France, Spain.

championship prediction: Brazil, of course. Runner-up: Italy

This post has been edited by jonathan83: Jun 1 2006, 10:42 AM

[moebary]

Acknowledged, Portugal hasn't had alot of success at the World Cup, but there's more to it than that. Only one of those Portugal teams - 2002 - has ANY bearing on the current squad (same personnel, generation etc).

Portugal started miserably (3-0 down after 30 minutes) against the USA but won the last 2/3 of the match 2-0. Then they massacred Poland (5-0 i think), and then lost to the (lucky?) hosts South Korea. Obviously not a good showing, but not as bad as simply saying "out in the first round" usually implies.
They made the semis at Euro 2000 (win vs Germany, win vs England, win vs Turkey before losing to eventual champs France) ... they also got to the finals of Euro 2004 (win vs Spain, win vs England and win vs Holland).

Bottom line, in the last 6 years, Portugal has played 30 minutes of truly awful soccer. They've got Luis Figo, Pedro Pauleta, Luis Boa Morte, Cristiano Ronaldo and Nuno Gomes, which (potentially) makes Portugal as good as anybody going forward, and that's good enough for me.

Portugal still hasn't done anything to show that they're better than Mexico yet. Just off of the 2002 world cup, Mexico had a lot better showing than Portugal.