As expected, a ton of teams suffered nightmares once the World Cup draw was revealed. Here are the teams that will be sleeping less easy in the next few months.
Spain: Spain's last World Cup match was a 1-0 win over Netherlands to claim the trophy. The team will hope to replicate a similar or better result in its first game of the group against a Dutch side that has offensive firepower. Then Spain gets to take on Chile, a team that nearly beat them in a friendly a few months ago; Chile also gave Spain a headache in the group stage of the last World Cup in 2010. Australia might be the lone consolation for Spain, but that match could mean little if the defending champions do not manage to pull out victories in their opening two games. Watching Brazil and Argentina get simple groups in the opening round did not help in the least.
England: The three Lions were never seen as favorites but it is hard to imagine them having risen in the rankings after drawing Uruguay and Italy in the group. Those two sides are undoubtedly the favorites to get out of the Group stage. England is a likely bet to fail in the first round since, ironically, the 1950 World Cup in Brazil.
United States: This will be a perpetual story leading up to the World Cup. Not only did the USA draw the most difficult group in the entire tournament, but they have the worst travel schedule of all. The team opens up against Ghana in Natal, then meets Portugal in the Amazon at Manaus before finishing off against Germany at Recife. In total the Americans will travel 9,000 miles throughout the group stage. No other team has a longer travel schedule. The Americans have lost to Ghana in two straight World Cups and were eliminated by Germany in 2002. The lone consolation is that the team defeated Portugal in 2002; however, Cristiano Ronaldo was not on that team.
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