Easy?

With the press reaction to England’s World Cup draw, you would have though that they were nailed on to be at least finalists (due to be played at the Soccer City Stadium Johannesburg, pictured) in next years tournament. Admittedly this is a kind draw for England, its not as hard as say group D (Germany, Australia, Serbia & Ghana) or Group G (Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast & Portugal), but an easy draw?

England’s first opponents will be the USA, who themselves will see this a a good group to escape from. The quality of American football has risen out of all recognition since they made their first finals appearance in Italia 90 for 40 years. It’s also only 8 years ago since they pushed Germany for a semi-finals place. They have familiar faces plying their trade here and in mainland Europe, Tim Howard at Everton, and closer to home DaMarcus Beasley and Maurice Edu at Rangers. The USA will probably end up vying for qualification with England, and as well as stories of their previous World Cup meeting being brought up, a 1-0 win for the US in the 1950 tournament, we will have the merry go round of Beckham facing some of his colleagues from LA Galaxy.

That’s not to say that the other two sides will be pushovers. Algeria were the standard bearers for African Football in the 1982 & 86 World Cups, this will be their first appearance since then. I would suspect that Algeria will be a tidy, technically good team, and a danger to anyone who wishes to underestimate them. In England’s favour, this will be the first in a pair of games played at sea level. A game England should win, with should being the operative word.

England’s last group game will be against Slovenia, who will be playing in their second World Cup (having lost all three games in 2002). Again England should beat Slovenia. But then again Slovenia is here by beating Russia on away goals, and by finishing ahead of the Czech Republic in the qualifying groups. They appear to be an archetypal “Banana-skin” team, a side England should beat if they approach the game properly.

Should England qualify from that group, they have been paired with Group D in the Second round. Should they finish top, they will face the runners up from Group D, seeded to be either Serbia (the country formerly known as Yugoslavia) or Ghana. Serbia bested France in Qualifying and have a tradition of producing technically gifted sides, while Ghana were the only African side to qualify for the knock out stages in Germany. They will be bolstered by having Inter Milan’s Muntari and Chelsea’s Essien in their midfield. If they get past them, England will be seeded to face a possible quarter final against France or Greece, with a possible semi final against the winners of the Netherlands/Brazil seeded quarter Final.

However if England finish second in their group, they will probably face the Germans in the Second Round. In the unlikely event of them getting past the Germans in a knock out game (England’s last victory over the Germans in a knock out match was, yep, that game), along comes another of England’s bogey teams Argentina. Should they get through that one (and yes, the last time England beat Argentina in a knock out game was during that tournament as well), England will be seeded to face either Italy or Spain.

Yes England have a kind draw, the problem is that other groups have not so kind draws so the path outlined above could easily change. To say that it’s an easy draw is still wide of the mark though.