With Netherlands likely to miss out on a seeded spot in the World Cup draw, a tough group may await Louis van Gaal’s side in Brazil next summer.
- By Michael Bell
- Follow Michael on Twitter
With only eight sides making it into pot one for the World Cup group draw on December 6th, Netherlands are set to miss out after the latest World Rankings were released.
Switzerland have overtaken the Oranje into 7th in the rankings, and the final place in pot one, even though Netherlands had a better qualifying record with only one draw and nine wins to the Swiss’s three draws, and seven wins. Plus the Swiss didn’t even qualify for Euro 2012, or get out of their World Cup 2010 group where Netherlands made the final.
There is only one hope left for the Dutch to make it into the top seeds, but they need Uruguay to fail to qualify when they face Jordan in a two leg qualifier.
Current world cup pots look as follows:
Pot one: Brazil, Spain, Uruguay (Play-off pending), Colombia, Belgium, Switzerland, Argentina, Germany
Pot two: Concacaf/Afc/Oceania): USA, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico/NZ (Both face each other in a play-off), Iran, South Korea, Japan, Australia
Pot Three: Caf/Conmebol/+ one from Uefa): Ghana/Egypt, Nigeria/ Ethiopia, Burkina Faso/Algeria, Ivory Coast/Senegal, Tunisia/Cameroon, Chile , Ecuador, (lowest-ranked Uefa qualifiers)
Pot four: Netherlands, Italy, England, Russia, Bosnia + three highest-ranked play-off winners (Portugal, Greece, Croatia, Ukraine, France, Sweden, Iceland or Romania)
Netherlands face the daunting task of facing Germany, Spain or hosts Brazil in the group task, but will be glad at avoiding bogey team Portugal if they come through their play-off.
From Pot one Switzerland, Uruguay and Colombia seem the best draws for Louis van Gaal, while they will fancy their chances against any of the clubs from pot two or three, with Ivory Coast the toughest team.
To win the World Cup, Netherlands will have to beat the toughest teams at one point, but the draw with Estonia in the group stages may prove costly when the draw is made in December. A repeat of the Euro 2012 group campaign is unthinkable next summer.
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Not necessarily. They could get drawn in a group with Switzerland or Colombia or Uruguay or Belgium. What is also good is that they will avoid Portugal, England and Italy. But based on all Dutch draws including Ajax they always seem to get put in the group of death. Being 2nd is not a bad thing if the teams in the same pot are a danger. A disaster would be Spain, Holland, France and Ghana. Ideal would be Switzerland, Holland, Japan and Ecuador. The fact is the top teams from pots 1 and 2 are much better than those from 3 and 4. The Euro draws are far worse.
I messed up. My pots are FIFA based. The fact is Holland can’t be drawn with Italy, Portugal or Engalnd. Its okay to be in a group with Spain, Brazil, Germany and even Argentina. The Concacaf, African, Asian countries are very weak. Anything is possible but the main thing is to advance. Whether you play the best team in the final or the 1st knockout round does not matter. You have to win period.