06.10.06
World Cup Group of Death
It seems like some people don’t want to admit that, for this World Cup, the Group of Death includes the US. I know the title “Group of Death” is usually reserved for the Group that has the best national teams usually the best four that would individually get to the quarter finals except they were forced to get through this grueling opening round.
A good marker for the group of death would be to add up the current FIFA rankings for each of the teams. Whichever group has the lowest sum is the one with the highest-ranked teams. The Groups this year are set up as below:
| Group | Rank Sum |
|---|---|
| A | 111 |
| B | 107 |
| C | 85 |
| D | 96 |
| E | 69 |
| F | 82 |
| G | 132 |
| H | 106 |
The lowest, by far, is Group E: Ghana, Italy, Czech Republic… and the USA. I wish the announcers would accept the fact that the US has bought their way … er, joined the ranks of the stronger national teams.
Now if you weight things towards the best (squaring the rank before summing) you get a similar chart, though Group F (Brazil, Croatia, Australia, Japan: 2622 pts.) does come in just ahead of Group E (2673 pts.). That’s mostly because Brazil throws that ranking way off.
Stopping here, wrists are kiilling me.