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12/12/2013 3:05 pm
artie_fufkin wrote:
I know looking at the rankings calling a win over Portugal seems seriously optimistic, even homer-ish.
Ghana has to be a win. Then it's up to the result of Portual or Germany, and .... I think we have a much better chance of beating Portugal....
The U.S. will definitely be underdogs against Portugal, but remember Portugal didn't win its qualifying group and needed two goals in the last 15 minutes against Sweden in their playoff to make it to the WC finals. Their entire offense revolves around Rinaldo and if he's hurt or he pouts or he gets a red card for kicking someone in shins, they're a beatable side.
I've already written off the Germany game, even though the U.S. beat a version of them this year. At full strength, they're solid at every position. A draw would be almost miraculous.
I'd certainly agree with that. I'd take a draw against Germany in the group stage any day of the week. That would leave us with a decent possibility of taking first in the group stage and at least drawing a second place advancement in the elimination stage.
However for the immediate future, quite a few months in fact. Nothing matters outside of Ghana. Beating them may not get us through the group stage, but losing to them will almost certainly end our world cup hopes.
12/10/2013 6:28 pm
I know looking at the rankings calling a win over Portugal seems seriously optimistic, even homer-ish.
Ghana has to be a win. Then it's up to the result of Portual or Germany, and .... I think we have a much better chance of beating Portugal....
The U.S. will definitely be underdogs against Portugal, but remember Portugal didn't win its qualifying group and needed two goals in the last 15 minutes against Sweden in their playoff to make it to the WC finals. Their entire offense revolves around Rinaldo and if he's hurt or he pouts or he gets a red card for kicking someone in shins, they're a beatable side.
I've already written off the Germany game, even though the U.S. beat a version of them this year. At full strength, they're solid at every position. A draw would be almost miraculous.
12/10/2013 3:42 pm
I know looking at the rankings calling a win over Portugal seems seriously optimistic, even homer-ish.
Ghana has to be a win. Then it's up to the result of Portual or Germany, and .... I think we have a much better chance of beating Portugal.... 
12/09/2013 10:55 am
Wow, Costa Rica has a fun group... Uruguay, England, Italy.
Yeah, there was apparently a lot of English angst over that draw. Italy makes it through for sure, and it will come down to the England/Uruguay game to see who gets the other spot. For all their talent up front and their reputation, the Uruguayans finished fifth in the South American qualifying group and had to beat Jordan to make it to the field of 32.
And this is not an overwhelming English side. Joe Hart is no one's idea of a first-choice goalkeeper, they're weak in the back, old in the middle and with the exception of Rooney don't have a proven striker on the international level. Sturridge is supposed ot be the Next Big Thing, but English expectations and reality almost always don't meet.
Costa Rica is obviously the minnow of the group, but they finished second in the CONCACAF Hex and it would be unwise to sleep on them. Bryan Oviedo and Bryan Ruiz both play in the Prem, and their goalkeeper plays on a good team in La Liga.
12/09/2013 10:28 am
"I think we can beat Portugal and Ghana"
Before Rinaldo arrived, Portugal was historically an underacheiving team. The problem for the U.S. is his strength - attacking from the wings - is the U.S.' weakness.
The key is the first game against Ghana. If the U.S. loses, they're done. Three points won't be enough to advance. Four might get you to the next round in this group, though.
12/06/2013 12:47 pm
Wow, Costa Rica has a fun group... Uruguay, England, Italy.
12/06/2013 12:44 pm
Guessing they didn't use the Nov 28 rankings? Portugal (5) and Germany (2) in the same group?
Meh, actually it doesn't worry me. I think we can beat Portugal and Ghana. Let's see if they can.
12/06/2013 12:38 pm
yeah ..... fuckkkkkkkkkkk
12/06/2013 12:20 pm
Portugal, Germany and Ghana. Could have been worse. But not much.
12/05/2013 2:47 pm
This is bad. For reasons that are perplexing to me, FIFA has decided to do an entirely different draw that aligns the bottom three pots more by region than rankings. Pot 1 stays the same - the top seven teams and the host team. Pot 2 combines the African qualifiers and the non-seeded South American teams, Pot 3 is the CONCACAF/Asian teams, and Pot 4 is the non-seeded UEFA teams.
(You'll notice there are seven teams in Pot 2 and nine in Pot 4. One of the Pot 4 teams will be randomly drawn into Pot 2.)
This is bad news, because the U.S. is clearly the best team in Pot 3. They're going to be drawn into a group with a seeded team, an unseeded European team and an African team or an unseeded South American team.
All the possibilities aren't bad. The U.S. could end up with Switzerland, Cameroon and Greece. But they're more likely going to wind up with something like Argentina, Ghana and France. Worst case: Spain, Chile and Italy or Netherlands.
Pot 1
Brazil
Argentina
Colombia
Uruguay
Belgium
Germany
Spain
Switzerland
Pot 2
Algeria
Cameroon
Côte d'Ivoire
Ghana
Nigeria
Chile
Ecuador
Pot 3
Australia
Iran
Japan
Korea Republic
Costa Rica
Honduras
Mexico
USA
Pot 4
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Croatia
England
France
Greece
Italy
Netherlands
Portugal
Russia
11/21/2013 10:49 am
Yeah I was curious how the last two games would affect us. Until then, we'd had a pretty solid case to even move up a little higher in the rankings (although not to 7th which would have been the A pod cutoff since Brazil isn't in the top 8).
Hopefully we don't fall past 16th because of it.
The USA will be 14th when the updated rankings come out next week.
Portugal and Greece will pass them, but they'll pass Chile, and they're comfortably ahead of B-H and Ivory Coast.
It also looks like Portugal will move up to Pot 1, and Switzerland will move down. Sucks when you lose to South Korea.
11/21/2013 9:51 am
Yeah I was curious how the last two games would affect us. Until then, we'd had a pretty solid case to even move up a little higher in the rankings (although not to 7th which would have been the A pod cutoff since Brazil isn't in the top 8).
Hopefully we don't fall past 16th because of it.
11/20/2013 1:29 pm
So 31 of the 32 teams are set, with only Uruguay's perfunctoy elimination of Jordan today remaining.
Prior to the draw against Scotland and the loss to Austria last night, the U.S. and A. was ranked 13th, and they'll probably end up 15th, which should be good enough to keep them in Pot 2 and be relatively assured of not being involved in a Group of Death scenario.
The seeding should shake out approximately:
Pot 1
Brazil
Spain
Germany
Argentina
Colombia
Belgium
Uruguay
Switzerland
Pot 2
Italy
Netherlands
England
Chile
USA
Portugal
Greece
Bosnia-Herz
Pot 3
Ivory Coast
Croatia
Russia
France
Ecuador
Ghana
Mexico
Costa Rica
Pot 4
Algeria
Nigeria
Honduras
Japan
Iran
South Korean
Australia
Cameroon
The ideal draw would be, say, the Swiss, Ecuador and Australia.
Spain, France and Japan would be a problem ...
10/16/2013 2:26 pm
Really have to feel bad for Panama, that was pretty heartbreaking... First the mexican bicycle kick and then the US scores two in extra time to beat them and kick them out of the World Cup.
I guess some of them were miffed we tried to win that game, having no need to do so, but we played almost none of our starters, and they were playing highly aggressive with a lead in stoppage time, and the kids we WERE playing were trying to get jobs. I can't see us throwing that game just to eliminate a pretty piss poor mexican squad who won't be playing in mexico even if they make the world cup (it's in brazil).The Mexican team is probably lucky a foreigner who doesn't have the same animosity toward them is the U.S. coach. Bradley or Arena probably would have sent the Kirkwood High junior varsity to Panama if things were going to turn out the way they did. Of course you're right that there's the integrity of the qualification process to consider. Maybe New Zealand will knock ouf Mexico.
Rec. although it's a soccer post, so it won't get much love, but that was hilarious Artie. I laughed.
10/16/2013 12:33 pm
Really have to feel bad for Panama, that was pretty heartbreaking... First the mexican bicycle kick and then the US scores two in extra time to beat them and kick them out of the World Cup.
I guess some of them were miffed we tried to win that game, having no need to do so, but we played almost none of our starters, and they were playing highly aggressive with a lead in stoppage time, and the kids we WERE playing were trying to get jobs. I can't see us throwing that game just to eliminate a pretty piss poor mexican squad who won't be playing in mexico even if they make the world cup (it's in brazil).
The Mexican team is probably lucky a foreigner who doesn't have the same animosity toward them is the U.S. coach. Bradley or Arena probably would have sent the Kirkwood High junior varsity to Panama if things were going to turn out the way they did. Of course you're right that there's the integrity of the qualification process to consider. Maybe New Zealand will knock ouf Mexico.