Finally and after weeks of waiting, the World Cup draw and groups were announced this week to put football fans all over the world in the mood for this much anticipated tournament. The draw had some surprises for some big nations and some other kinds of surprises for the less profile teams. First, Group A included one of our African teams in the form of Cameroon alongside the hosts and one of the hot favourites Brazil. Croatia and Mexico are the other two teams that complete the group. The first place in this group is expected to easily be sealed by Neymar and co given their superiority in addition to having their extremely passionate fans behind them. As for the second place of the group, all three teams will enter the tournament with hopes of following Brazil to round 16 as runners up which can be considered a valid dream for all of them. Croatia and Mexico include some great players in their ranks but Cameroon led by the evergreen Samuel Eto'o and Alex Song will surely compete for this second spot. Group B includes the winner and the runner up of the last edition of the tournament alongside Chile and Australia. Chile is a very decent side that includes some exceptional talents but they'll find it really difficult to steal a spot from Spain and The Netherlands as both teams are on a totally different level and will surely qualify to the next round unless a huge surprise takes place. Group C had some great news for African giants Ivory Coast as they were paired with Colombia, Greece and Japan. The group is not easy by any means for Ivory Coast but given they were paired with Brazil and Portugal in 2010 and Argentina and Holland in 2006, they'll surely be more pleased with the draw this time. Led by African footballer of the year Yaya Toure and former Chelsea legend Didier Drogba, Ivory Coast will have at least an equal chance of qualifying to round 16 as its rivals in the group. Maybe Colombia will pose more danger than Japan and Greece. As for Group D, it is considered by many as the group of death. The group includes England, Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica. One would feel sorry for Costa Rica when he sees its group rivals and one would feel sorry for football fans in general when they realise that either Uruguay, England or Italy, all previous World Cup winners, will leave the World Cup as early as in the group stages. Uruguay led by the deadly Edinson Cavani and best player in the Premier League, and arguably one of the best five players in the world Luis Suarez will go head to head with Italy's Mario Balotelli and Andrea Pirlo and England's Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney to qualify for round 16. It will be very difficult for the three teams but it will be very interesting for football fans. Moving to Group E, France will be more than delighted to be drawn with Ecuador, Switzerland and Honduras after qualifying for the World Cup in the hardest way possible. The French side had to overcome a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Ukraine away from home to beat them 3-0 in the return leg in France to clinch a place in Brazil. Obviously, football fans are expecting France led by the extraordinary Franck Ribery to seal qualification to round 16 with ease as group leaders. Group F yet again held some great news for African champions Nigeria as they were paired with Argentina, Bosnia and Iran. Lionel Messi and co will find it easy to top the group but Nigeria can be pleased that they will compete against relatively average sides in the form of Bosnia, appearing in the World Cup for the first time, and Iran to land a place in round 16. Group G could have seen Egypt a part of it before Ghana destroyed our Egyptian dream and defeated us 7-3 on aggregate to seal their place in Brazil. However, Ghana and Ghanaians will not be so happy with the draw as they were paired with the Germans, Portugal and the US. The draw was obviously not kind to the Ghanaian side as they face an uphill task to qualify to the next round as all the other three teams in their group are extremely tough to play against especially Germany who's tipped by many pundits to lift the title this year. Ghanaians will just hope their players give their all in their three games hoping they can cause an upset against all odds. Crisitiano Ronaldo who is waiting to know whether he'll be crowned the best player on the planet at the end of this month or will it be Messi once again will simply give 500 per cent to make sure his nation seals a place in round 16 alongside Germany. The player is at the top of his game at the moment and managed to take Portugal to Brazil single handedly and will surely aim to cause all kinds of problems for their opponents in Brazil. The last Group H includes African and Arab side Algeria. Algeria qualified for the second time in a row and will hope to appear in better shape than the last World Cup as they left the tournament with one point and failed to score a single goal in their three games. In this years' draw they were paired with Russia, Belgium and the Korea Republic. The draw is not easy but Algeria and Algerian fans will hope their national team can clinch a spot in round 16 at the expense of either Russia or Korea. Belgium is one of the best teams in Europe at the moment and will have the biggest chance of topping the group while the other three teams will fight for that second spot. The reaction of Egyptians after the draw was full of sarcasm as usual, as is known of the people. Most of them thanked God for making us fail to qualify as we could be beaten in all three games and maybe could have been at the wrong end of a big defeat against Germany or Portugal, as happened to Saudi Arabia eight years ago when they lost to Germany 8-0. Egyptians wanted desperately to reach the World Cup for the first time since 1990 but are realistic in knowing they could have seen some tough days if they were in Ghana's shoes. The writer is a freelance journalist.
