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Post by pedroelgrande on Dec 6, 2013 12:48:41 GMT -5
 The US got F'ed In other news Spain in the group of death with Chile and Holland should be fun. |
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Post by Chris Hatfield on Dec 6, 2013 15:33:28 GMT -5
Am I right that Group D also looks ridiculous, or are England and Italy that down since I last paid attention?
When did the Dutch drop from the top 8?
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Post by GyIantosca on Dec 6, 2013 15:56:19 GMT -5
No group D is friggin hard, Italy got screwed, I have more confidence this world cup the last one they used alot of the old guard. This time they turned over the roster. They had an excellent showing at the Euro Cup in 2012.
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Post by pedroelgrande on Dec 6, 2013 16:21:52 GMT -5
Am I right that Group D also looks ridiculous, or are England and Italy that down since I last paid attention? When did the Dutch drop from the top 8? Thats a hard group too with Uruguay, England and Italy....Costa Rica will be lucky to score a goal. I guess it was their horrible Euros and apparently some soft friendlies they had. |
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Post by rjp313jr on Dec 6, 2013 20:05:30 GMT -5
It's hard to say the US got screwed. No matter their group it would have looked bad for them because they aren't very good. The pool they were in (with the other not too good teams) made it a forgone conclusion that they were going into a rough group. Portugal is talented as hell, but barely qualified this year. Plus, they always seem to do something dumb and screw up in the WC. Ghana shouldn't be all that difficult if the US were really all that good, but they aren't and Ghana owns the US for some odd reason.
Europe is so deep right now with teams like Greece, Uruguay, Belgium and Switzerland being World Class in addition to the Usual suspects. Italy wasn't screwed, they just didn't take care of business in qualifying and took it on the chin.
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Post by rjp313jr on Dec 6, 2013 20:09:16 GMT -5
Group D is alright, but England is not that good and Costa Rica sucks. It's pretty clear who the favorites are to get out of that group and it's not really much of a debate. England is a "big name".
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Post by FenwayFanatic on Dec 8, 2013 20:58:07 GMT -5
I personaly think its BS Mexico barely qualified and their group appears much easier. They have Brazil, true but Cameroon?
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Post by rjp313jr on Dec 8, 2013 21:20:53 GMT -5
Cameroon is like Ghana in our group. Both from pot 2, not sure the issue...
US may have a lot of travel but they have a very favorable schedule. Getting Ghana 1 and Germany 3 is the best possible outcome. Plus, they play Portugal in some stadium in the middle of the rainforest where the humidity is supposed yo be off the charts high. I would think that's a benefit for the US. Maybe not, but if there's one team I'd want to slow down to a snails pace it's them. If they beat Ghana and Germany, beats Portugal then in all likelihood, Germany has 6 points when we play them in game 3 and is playing a B squad.
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Post by FenwayFanatic on Dec 8, 2013 22:56:50 GMT -5
Cameroon is like Ghana in our group. Both from pot 2, not sure the issue... US may have a lot of travel but they have a very favorable schedule. Getting Ghana 1 and Germany 3 is the best possible outcome. Plus, they play Portugal in some stadium in the middle of the rainforest where the humidity is supposed yo be off the charts high. I would think that's a benefit for the US. Maybe not, but if there's one team I'd want to slow down to a snails pace it's them. If they beat Ghana and Germany, beats Portugal then in all likelihood, Germany has 6 points when we play them in game 3 and is playing a B squad. Ghana is ranked a lot higher than Cameroon and Portugal higher than Croatia. USA won the group and Mexico barely made it in thats what doesn't really make sense here. |
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Post by sdiaz1 on Dec 8, 2013 23:12:21 GMT -5
As a fan of Spain, I would like to point out just how stupid these groups are. La Furia pretty comfortably won their qualifying group (the simple fact that the previous cup winner needs to qualify is a separate BS matter) and yet we get stuck with possibly the worst draw possible, while France who finished 5 points behind us in qualifying get a rather easy group that if they win get to play the second place nation from Group F (The best of the rest in that group is Nigeria?).
Meanwhile, Spain get stuck playing in a group that features Holland and the very dangerous Chile. Obviously, you all know about Holland (Really a rematch of the 2010 final is our fricking first match)but it is Chile that really scare me. They have a wonderful attacking side that scored the second most goals in the CONENMBOL qualifiers, they are used to the heat (more on that latter), and they should have a really good showing of support. I really believe that one of Spain and or Holland will not make it to the round of 16.
Further, Spain got picked in the lot that plays their games in the tropical north of the country. It is going to be humid and hot, conditions that played against us mightily in the CONFED Cup semi-final in Forteleza. I really do not think it was merely a coincidence that when Brasil kicked our culos that we looked like a team made up of geriatric retired players.
Finally, with the draw as it is, Spain will be under immense pressure to win the group. Second place gets to play Brazil in the round of 16. So yeah, this draw is complete and utter bull-shit. I was under no assumptions that Spain was going to do the impossible, but the deck is significantly stacked against them.
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Post by Kevin Pereira on Dec 10, 2013 17:47:20 GMT -5
This may shape up to be one of the better World Cups in recent history. I've been waiting for USA and Portugal to draw a group together since birth and it has finally happened!
Too bad Ghana and Germany are there, too. I want USA and Portugal to advance, but I honestly think Germany and Ghana will. Portugal barely advanced, and it took a hat trick from Ronaldo to get past Sweden in the playoff. They also tied twice to Israel in qualifying play.
Ghana is no joke. They were strong in the 2010 World Cup, knocking out US in the Round of 16. They're a sneaky bunch.
All I know is I can finally wear my USA WBC hat and Portugal soccer jersey next summer in public without looking like a fool (well, kinda).
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Post by h11233 on Dec 11, 2013 17:46:09 GMT -5
I personaly think its BS Mexico barely qualified and their group appears much easier. They have Brazil, true but Cameroon? Agreeance. US is ranked 14 and beat Mexico, who is ranked 20... yet we get the #2 and 5 teams in our group (Germany/Portugal) while Mexico has #10 Brazil and #16 Croatia. US got screwed. Germany is my "backup" team when the US inevitably gets eliminated, so it sucks even more they drew them. |
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Post by rjp313jr on Dec 11, 2013 22:47:56 GMT -5
You guys realize how the draw works right? There's a draw and unless you are in the top 8 it's pooled by confederations. US doesn't get any favors for being mediocre.
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Post by h11233 on Dec 11, 2013 23:55:30 GMT -5
You guys realize how the draw works right? There's a draw and unless you are in the top 8 it's pooled by confederations. US doesn't get any favors for being mediocre. I admit I was unaware confederations played a part in the draw. I was under the impression there were groups of seeds and the draw was done from them (I.e. 8 #1s, 8 #2s, etc.) Seems a much more reasonable way to do it to me. Would certainly limit some of the controversy, but what do I know |
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Post by rjp313jr on Dec 12, 2013 0:08:32 GMT -5
See below. You will notice pot 4 has 9 teams and 2 has 7. A team from pot 4 got moved to pot 2 this us how Italy and England ended up in the sane group. 1 team randomly drawn from each pot goes in a group. We get put with Asia because both out leagues suck. It doesn't make sense to he by world rankings because world rankings are bogus. I'm assuming you're not aware of his they are calculated, which us fine because it's confusing and dumb. They literally mean nothing. It's a mathematical formula based on your results, but only in certain matches and don't take into account your lineup or if a team is working on certain things like lineups, etc. It also weights results over a 4 year period.
POT 1 (SEEDED TEAMS) Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Belgium, Switzerland and Uruguay
POT 2 (AFRICA/SOUTH AMERICA) Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Chile and Ecuador
POT 3 (ASIA/NORTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA) United States, Costa Rica, Honduras, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Japan and South Korea
POT 4 (EUROPE) Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, England, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and Russia.
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Post by h11233 on Dec 12, 2013 14:31:24 GMT -5
Yeah I read into it a bit after your earlier post. Its still pretty ridiculous in my opinion. I read the 8 seeded teams are determined by the October fifa rankings. If you're going to use the rankings to determine the top seeds, just take it one step further and seed everyone. You can still keep the draw, but draw based on seeds, not regions.
I'm just a passive fan and don't get too into it. Learning things like this just makes soccer more unappealing to me and probably others like me. It makes even less sense than the NBA lottery.
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