Eboria & Marida: Ready for the finals

WEFA | World Nations Cup

Both teams have finalised their squads, played their warm-up games. Now comes the hard part- three games that will shape their destiny!

Eboria have to play Australia, Italy and Belgium. The squad is as ready as it can be. It will be interesting to see if the injured experienced couple of Murphy and Buckhalter will be missed, being replaced by youthful Jordan Wilcox and Mark Vladic.

Marida have to face one of the favourites- Brazil, with Mexico and Nigeria completing the group. Marida have the firepower to take on two of these teams, but have looked a little weak at the back recently.

We will soon find out if either squad is strong enough to get out of their groups. If they can reach the knockout rounds, then who knows how far they can get?!

2018 World Nations Cup Finals Draw

WEFA | World Nations Cup | 2018 Finals Draw

The draw for the World Nations Cup Finals was made at the WEFA Executive meeting today. All 30 nations that had successfully completed their way through qualifying joined joint hosts Spain and Portugal in the draw. The teams were selected from four ‘pots’. The only proviso being that teams from the same confederation could not be drawn together, apart from the European teams.

Notably absent from the list were the defending champions, the Netherlands. They had such a dismal campaign and became the first team not to be able to defend the cup at the finals tournament. Russia, Panama and New Zealand will also feel they were unlucky, also losing in play-offs. In North America, the US national team failed to progress.

Hosts Portugal headed Group A, along with Uruguay, Egypt and Iran. Group B, headed by highly-fancied France, also holds super-underdogs Iceland, unpredictable Ghana and Saudi Arabia.

Argentina will play in Group C, with Switzerland, Croatia and Morocco. England will play the seeds Chile, Sweden and Senegal in Group D.

As the groups were forming, Eboria and Marida’s representatives were getting nervous, as groups with Brazil, Germany and Spain had vacancies.

Marida were drawn into Group E, with cup favourites Brazil, Mexico and Nigeria. Spain head group F, joined by Colombia, Denmark and South Korea.

Eboria’s name finally came up in Group G, headed by Belgium, former world champions Italy and Australia, who will want revenge for their beating in the IC3 last summer.

Germany were the last seed drawn into Group H. They, once again, have drawn Poland in competitive play!  Costa Rica and Japan round out the group.

Marida and Eboria both have difficult draws, both perhaps can be a little bit miffed that they weren’t seeded, especially as Eboria did so well in the IC3 last summer. Even with this ‘new’ WEFA, Euro-Latin influence is still prominent. Argentina and Spain will be quite happy with those draws.

Then again, if you want to be the best, you have to beat the rest of the best. This will be on, come the summer!