The Group of Death is one of the most exciting terms to look out for when the World Cup comes around every year. This season there are arguably three Groups of Death, but now it is time to look back at past World Cups to see what other teams had the misfortune of being placed in hard opening round groups.
Here is a look at the 2010 World Cup's Groups of death.
This tournament only really had two groups that could be considered "Groups of Death."
The first one was group A. It consisted of the host nation South Africa, Mexico, France and Uruguay. South Africa was ranked 83rd in the FIFA rankings heading into the tournament, but many figured that the host nation would stand a chance at getting out of the group stage; no host had ever faltered at the first hurdle before. Mexico entered ranked 17th in the world while Uruguay and France were 16th and ninth respectively.
So how did the group play out? Mexico and South Africa battled to a 1-1 draw in the opener indicating that Bafana Bafana could be elevated by the home fans and could potentially make some noise. Meanwhile France and Uruguay drew 0-0 in their opener, solidifying the notions that the group would be tight. But then everything came undone in the second round. Uruguay pummeled the hosts 3-0 while Mexico undid France 2-0. The French responded by protesting their coach and getting aggressive about their situation. Chaos ensued and escalated into the final game where Les Bleues lost 2-1 against South Africa. At that point it seemed like Mexico would need to lose by one of the other teams in the other game would need to lose by an excessive margin for South Africa to qualify but instead Uruguay won 1-0.
The other group of death in this tournament, the real one per se, was Group G. That group included Ivory Coast, Brazil, Portugal and North Korea. The Koreans were the lowest ranked team in the tournament at 105 and were expected to be perennial punching bags for the other three sides. Brazil was the best team in the world while Portugal came in in third place in FIFA's standings. The Ivorians were listed as the 27th best team in the world.
Ivory Coast and Portugal drew 0-0 in the opener while Brazil's 2-1 win over North Korea proved that the Asians were not essentially pushovers. Or so they though. Fueled by the goal against Brazil, North Korea decided to televise the second game against Portugal; it proved to be a huge mistake as the Iberians embarrassed them 7-0. Meanwhile Brazil made easy work of the Ivory Coast in a 3-1 win.
In their final game Brazil and Portugal battled to a scoreless draw while the Ivorians won 3-0 but were ultimately eliminated.
Which group of death in 2010 did you find most compelling?