got tonkaed wrote:a group with north korea is the group of death? fantastic work by the draw this time around if the group of death is a team who hasnt been in the world cup in a like 4 decades and a team that had to qualify in a playoff.
It's not. Some idiot in the media must have wrote a column calling it that and everyone else just latched on to it. Check out the ESPN panelist's responses (group of death) question #6 from this espn article:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/columns/story/_/id/5260119/ce/us/roundtable?cc=5901&ver=us6. Is the Group of Death overhyped?
Ubha: Yes. There's one weak team -- perhaps the weakest in the tournament -- in North Korea. In 2006, the Group of Death -- Argentina, the Netherlands, the Ivory Coast and Serbia and Montenegro -- was fully stacked. Brazil and Portugal advance, comfortably, even with Portugal's recent stumble against Cape Verde.
Martin: In a word, yes. Maybe we'll still get the battles royal between Brazil, Ivory Coast and Portugal. As of now, however, Portugal has seemingly forgotten how to score -- unless you count Ronaldo on holiday in Hollywood. With an anemic offense, Portugal isn't going to beat anyone except perhaps North Korea. It looks like it'll come down to Brazil and the Ivory Coast (assuming Drogba sees some action), unless Ronaldo can summon the ghosts of Eusebio, who scored nine goals in the 1966 World Cup to carry his team to third place.
Latham: Absolutely. An argument can be made that three or four groups are stronger from top to bottom. What gave this group its name was the assumption that three of the teams would be favored to advance from most other groups, but I'm not so sure that's the case given the injuries and form of Ivory Coast and Portugal. In the end North Korea may surprise by determining second place when it takes points from one of those teams.
Schaerlaeckens: A little. Traditionally, the Group of Death is defined as a group in which every team would be expected to advance if it were in any other group. So by that definition it's not quite a Group of Death. It certainly is the most interesting group we have, though.
Carlisle: That depends on your definition. If you're referring to Group G with Brazil, Ivory Coast and Portugal, in my opinion it's hard for any group containing North Korea to have that tag. I still say, top to bottom, that Group D -- with Germany, Ghana, Australia and Serbia -- is the toughest. Any two of those four teams could progress.
