Group of Death = Group of Disappointment

As any soccer fan will explain, in a major tournament, there is often one particular group dubbed “the group of death”. The phrase is in reference to the fact that any of the groups members have the potential of advancing to the knockout stage of the competition. There are many examples of this in the past few major tournaments, both for club and country. However after the draw was made for Russia, no one group seemed overly difficult. Whilst there will be many tough matches in the various groups, no single group stuck out like is normally the case. This is perhaps because the group of death for this tournament is instead made up of Chile, Italy, Netherlands, and the USA; namely, the teams who failed to the qualify for the tournament.

With 2018 the final tournament with the traditional 32 team format, it will likely be the last time that teams of this quality will miss out on such a prestigious tournament. Still, one must not ignore the fact that these teams, all of whom have great quality, were unsuccessful in stringing together enough results to qualify.

Let’s start in South America; arguably the most difficult area of qualification due to grueling, diverse conditions, as well as the fact that almost all of the nations have raw talent in abundance. With Brazil runaway winners, and Uruguay and Colombia not far behind, there was only one automatic spot left, along with a playoff spot where New Zealand would stand in the way of qualification. Seems simple, however the teams vying for this one spot included Copa America champions Chile, 2014 World Cup runners up Argentina, and a very plucky Peru side. All three teams were separated by a handful of points, however it wasn’t as simple as beating each other to be successful. In South America, traveling to the lower sides such as Bolivia, is a challenge in itself due to the climate and altitude changes; things infrequently experienced elsewhere in the world. In the end, it would be Argentina, who struggled the entire qualification process, falling below teams such as Ecuador and Paraguay at one point, who earned the automatic spot via a Lionel Messi masterclass. Peru who earned a playoff game in Auckland, a 2 leg tie which they would beat the All-Whites and earn a spot in Russia. Chile and star men Alexis Sanchez and Arturo Vidal would miss out, just months after besting Messi and co at the Copa. Tragic.

Two giants fell in Europe in what was a strange qualification process there too. Italy were shocked in the playoffs by a Swedish team lacking any real quality and the Dutch failed to make it out of their group at all. There are real issues at both teams currently; Italy had a dismal 2010 campaign and 2014 wasn’t much better, and the Dutch, after finishing runners up in South Africa, have failed to make the last few major tournaments, and to make things worse, have had key players such as Arjen Robben announce their retirement. Rebuilding is more than necessary for both the Dutch, and the Azzurri before either will return to the form that made them both formidable opponents in the past.

I could write a whole article, or rather rant, about the USMNT, but I will refrain for the time being and instead summarize the atrocities that occurred during the Hex phase of qualification. The US have never been a good road team, and it really showed, scraping a draw at Honduras at a key moment during qualification. Also, after being soundly beaten at Red Bull Arena by Costa Rica, the US needed results against rival Panama at home, and already eliminated Trinidad away. A 4-0 rout of the Panamanians meant a draw would suffice in the Caribbean; a result that would evade them and lead them to not qualify for the first time in decades. Star man Christian Pulisic will have to wait four more years before taking his World Cup now, and the up and coming Jonathan Gonzalez elected to take his talents to Mexico instead of the US. Can you really blame him?

All four of these teams have talent in abundance, yet were simply not good enough when it counted most. Mindsets, in my opinion, were at most to blame. Be it the selfish mindsets of many of the Chilean players, or the complacency on display in the Italian and American camps, trophies will continue to evade all of these superstar teams if they do not sort out their problems, and quickly. Perhaps watching the World Cup from the couch at home will cause realization and create the change needed to become great once again.