Pool stage

I’ve just seen the draw for the World Cup and so deviating away from my usual ramblings here’s something actually about Roller derby.  I say ramblings, as I’m no expert. Words from the wise, “Mongo only pong in game of life”.

The favourites seem evenly spread as far as I can see so there is no real group of death, well for the favourites at least. As for some of the less fancied teams it could be hard slog, but anything could happen. First round upsets are not uncommon in competitions. The favourites not settling down, getting into their stride and being defeated by a team on paper, shouldn’t have presented any problems. It just takes a Roger Milla to inspire the underdogs.

Roger played for the Cameroon national football squad for many years and at 38 years old, an age at which most centre-forwards had retired, scored four goals at the 1990 world cup. He was their talisman and with him they out performed many, so called better teams, and gave Africa hope of having their first World Cup winners. It wasn’t to be, but it inspired many to believe that anything is possible.

A symbol can be a powerful rallying point and can galvanise a team to achieve success above their station. There are players in some of the less fancied teams that I will be keeping an eye on. Those, that given the right circumstances and a bit of luck could turn things around and provide a few upsets.
The groups, for those that haven’t seen them are:
Group A: Canada, Brazil, Sweden and France
Group B: Germany, Australia and Finland
Group C: USA, New Zealand and Scotland
Group D: Argentina, Ireland and England

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