Brazil 2014: a short path and a death trap

The Spanish team begins its journey to the World Cup Brazil 2014. The reigning European champions and the world is in Group I of the European Zone, the only one of the nine groups with five instead of six components. What does this mean? That the path will be shorter but has trap.

Fifty-three European teams aspire to one of thirteen places the FIFA offers for Mundial'14. So, the qualifying phase consists of eight groups of six participants and one, that of Spain, which has only five. The first nine will qualify directly, while the eight best runners must cross each other to solve who occupy the other four seats. This is where Spain was could complicate life.

The undisputed favorite Red as part of their group, although Group I the only one who has two world champions (Spain itself in 2010 and France in 98). The main threat is the Gala selection, the you have to give them time to show their true level: Didier Deschamps has replaced Laurent Blanc as coach after falling in the quarterfinals of the last European Championship in Poland and Ukraine, precisely against Spain. Few new faces we see at the moment and the main attraction is to see what kind of character they play and what prints Deschamps.

The other three teams in Group I are very weak. Belarus is ranked No. 76 in the ranking of the FIFA , Georgia 86 and Finland on 96. None of these should pose a threat to Spain, but beware, you can always fail. And failure in this group can be definitive. Until both parties tied with France and winning all the others, La Roja could drop to second place as a matter of goal average.

But the great trap of Group I is an unthinkable scenario for many: if Spain click on various parties and just as a second, leave with the disadvantage of having played two games in relation to all other second the other groups. Being nine groups and only four seats for the playoff between the second, the second one is worse off. It seems unlikely, yes, but not impossible. Fingers crossed for that within a year or so we are not talking about the bad luck or the injustice of having two games to get into the playoffs.