Popular and feared, the World Cup’s “group of death” has died.
The draw held at the Kennedy Center, in Washington (USA), was about burying a tradition.
A specific, mathematically improbable combination would be needed for its survival.
Brazil, for example, being paired via pot 2 with Morocco (it was), via pot 3 with Norway (it seemed like it would be, but it wasn’t, it was Scotland) and via pot 4 with Italy (which is in the play-offs and may not even participate in the World Cup in North America) – the little ball came from the harmless Haiti.
The end of the “group of death” is essentially the fault of the expansion of the 2026 World Cup to 48 teams – previously there were 32 –, FIFA’s trick to give more countries the opportunity to participate in the sporting event with the largest audience in the world.
FIFA is cool, democratic, right?
But no: the reasons are primarily financial and political, which the entity tries to hide with talk of “inclusion” and “development”. Meanwhile, the technical level goes to hell.
Which is where the “death group” went.
The death certificate disappointed this journalist, who, when looking at the 12 groups to choose his own, saw that there were none.
Conceptualizing the “group of death”, it is one in which, having drawn four countries that will face each other in the first phase, strong and/or famous and/or traditional teams meet, with one of them not being able to go forward, being eliminated.
Easy example to remember: Italy, England and Uruguay, all world champions, in the same group at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. That time, early “death” came for not just one of them, but for two. The Italians and English succumbed, surprised by the Costa Rican zebra.
With the format of two places per group for the knockout stages, the risk, depending on the draw, became real for one favorite or the other.
That’s over. Now, more teams qualify for the knockout games (32 out of 48). The first two countries in each of the 12 groups and the eight best third-placed teams will advance to the next stage.
To stay out, a good team has to go bad overnight. It can, but it doesn’t usually happen.
The team that wins one of three games (or draws three) is very likely to go ahead in the World Cup. Maybe even with two draws and a defeat it will be possible to continue.
It’s the institutionalization of ease for the big guys in the group stage.
Or can you imagine that Messi’s Argentina, current world champion and second in the FIFA rankings (behind Spain), won’t beat Austria (24th), nor Algeria (35th), nor newcomer Jordan (66th)? One victory is enough.
There are those who try not to consider the dead dead. I read in another newspaper that “France, Senegal and Norway form a ‘group of death'”. They forgot the fourth element, which will be extremely fragile: Bolivia, Iraq or Suriname. One victory is enough.
Once the “group of death” has passed, the “groups of life” are established. All. On the one hand, finding something positive is even healthy, since the third and final round of each, from A to L, will offer a chance to the participants, without exception. No one will be eliminated. Alive. All.
Hope, which is “the last to die”, but which previously died for some before the third game, will die more than ever, from the first World Cup onwards, finally.
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