Opinion – Sandro Macedo: In the World Cup, the group of death is close by

Now go. In the early afternoon of this Friday (1st), also known as April Fool’s Day (coincidence?), the groups of the Qatar World Cup will be drawn at the end of the year.

And the first topic for debate, of course, will be the death group. We love a death squad almost as much as a good horror movie. It’s almost like “The Call”, with some evil spirit looking at the table and calling the coach to warn him: “Seven days”, and then it hangs up – although between the first game and the third it should happen about ten days.

To earn the nickname “death”, the group must have the elements to eliminate a favorite, or seed, right off the bat.

In 2018, when FIFA was friends with Russia, there wasn’t a group that jumped out after the draw.

The dear PVC column encyclopedic oracle next door decreed after that year’s draw that there was no death group. In practice, who died early was Germany, eliminated in the group that classified Sweden and Mexico.

In the World Cup played in Brazil there was a beautiful group of death, with Italy, England and Uruguay. And who ranked first? Costa Rica, with the Uruguayans in second. The match between Italy and Uruguay, by the way, was the last of the Italians in World Cups. They were cursed with Suárez’s bite. Ten days.

After defining the seeds, I entered a website this Thursday (31) that allowed simulations of the World Cup groups. I made about seven attempts, then I got tired. In all of them I wanted to see a Brazil vs Germany.

But the simulator insisted on almost always putting Germany in the Belgium group — the simulator must not like the Germans… or the Belgians. For Brazil, Croatia or the United States always appeared. There was only one time there was a Netherlands.

A group of death in 2022 necessarily goes through Germany or Holland, first-class selections in a second-class pot. In turn, Germans and Dutch are eager to be drawn into the Qatari group, home owners and extras in pot 1.

With the Senegalese heat that must be in Qatar, Senegal could have the upper hand. Therefore, it would be good to avoid the selection that is champion of Africa and that is in pot 3. In this pot there is also Poland of Lewandowski and Paulo Sousa — oops, just Lewa. Paulo is not going to the Cup, he went to Gávea.

And there’s still the treacherous selection of Ghana in pot 4. I suspect that the 2022 Cup can have several surprises.

Brazil can face two Europeans in its group. Thus, it could fall into a death row with Germany, Poland and Ghana. Or a Netherlands, Senegal and Canada… or Costa Rica. The last time Brazil fell into a death row was in 2010, with Portugal and Drogba’s dreaded Ivory Coast. Brazilians and Portuguese passed. Drogba answered the phone: “Ten days.”

Paulistinha

There are great ex-players commentators/analysts on TV, there are reasonable ones, there are bad ones. And there is Muller, who is on Record. But Paulistinha is ending, amen.