Having access to German and Polish federation representatives and coaching staff provided an opportunity to gauge the reactions to the draw. Prior to the draw, both teams had preferred to be very diplomatic. Now there are no attempts to hide a delight on the Polish side. Nobody really wanted to comment on Sweden as an opponent, whereas there was great optimism in relation to Slovakia. Korea is known to be a 'dark horse' on the men's side, but it seemed that nobody was too scared. And above all, there seemed to be particular safisfaction about having TWO relatively weak teams in their group. What will Argentina think about that?

On the German side, the reaction was more stoic. Being drawn into the group that others describe as the 'group of death' was not seen as a cause for panic. There were even comments to the effect that it might be positive during the preparations to know that they are in for a really tough test and furthermore against well-known opponents. I got the sense that Egypt was not seen so much as a worry, and that Tunisia by tradition might be more inclined to cause trouble for Spain and especially France. But of course there is a concern that qualifying for the next round is not really good enough; there is a need for taking a few points from France or Spain in order to have good chance for the medal round.