US World Cup expectations

Leaving the group stages would be big. It's not a failure to finish 3rd, but it's hard to call that a big success. If we make it through the group, we'll face either Korea or Belgium (or Algeria/Russia if there's an upset) in the 16s, both very beatable.

But then it's Argentina, which in no universe the US can beat. Winning against Ghana, drawing against Portugal, and hoping Portugal both loses to Germany and scores fewer goals than us (uuuunnnlikely) is pretty much the route we're seeking.

Considering their group. 3rd place in that group should be considered a success. Taking a point off Portugal would be a good result. Portugal can be a flakey team I give the US an outside chance at progressing through the group stages. Ghana have a strong team and were robbed of a semi spot in South Africa by Suarez's handball although they are nowhere near as strong. The US world ranking is questionable as they don't have as many competitive games in their region as Europe or South America.

Here's my group prediction.

1. Germany

2. Portugal

3. US

4. Ghana

USA will win the world cup, mark my words.

An expected result is that the US gets left in the group with Germany and Portugal moving on. Soccer is a weird sport where luck can make an average team beat a top team. It's happened many times. If the US is lucky, they might make it out of the group.

Agree with the first reply. Getting out of the group would be success. It's going to be harder to get out of the group than in 2010, and even in 2010 we weren't really expected to make it. Should be a good one.

Scoring a goal and earning at least a tie against someone. Going 0-3 would be considered a poor result.

Could there be a better system in soccer than total goal differential? It seems silly to me.

Americans hate futbol wrote:

If we make it through the group, we'll face either Korea or Belgium (or Algeria/Russia if there's an upset) in the 16s, both very beatable.

USA haven't got a cat in hell's chance of beating Belgium.

Hazard, Kompany, Vertonghen, Vermaelen, Lukaku, Mirallas, De Bruyne, Fellaini, Courtois vs Clint Dempsey's one man band.

Only one winner.

En no universo podemos ganar contra argentina? Basta con eso vamos a ganar. Ellos solo tienen Messi, que queremos de el?

VIVA USA!!!!!!!

NO,

Argetina will win the World Cup.

Pertinent to the question, the US coming third will be okay though not good.

Second would be very good.

This group is one of the worst together with that of England and that of Brazil which also includes Mexico.

I think they are groups A, D and G.

Group A:

1. Brazil

2. Croatia

3. Mexico

4. Cameroon.

Group D:

1. Uruguay,

2. Costa Rica

3. England

4. Italy

Group G:

1. Germany

2. Portugal

3. Ghana

4. U.S.A.

Some people from these groups will cry.

I think the US might scrape through.

Ghana and Portugal might go home. Just my thoughts.

A warm-climate country will win it all this year. Very likely Brazil.

The US threw in the towel once placed in the Group of Death. That's why Landon is not there--- it's a re building year

Clint Dempsey is not the US's best player. If all of your soccer knowledge is based off of watching Sportscenter then you might believe he is.

US could absolutely beat Belgium. Saying USA "haven't got a cat in hell's chance of beating Belgium" is absurd.

Success is getting out of our group. We are the third best team in the group, definitely.

sfsdfdsfsaI wrote:

Success is getting out of our group. We are the third best team in the group, definitely.

I concur!

This is the trickiest group I think. The US ocassionally does a topsy turvey kind of move like beating England at the South Africa World Cup.

Reality bytes wrote:

A warm-climate country will win it all this year. Very likely Brazil.

The US threw in the towel once placed in the Group of Death. That's why Landon is not there--- it's a re building year

The US group is not the group of death. The group wth England, Uruguay and Italy is the group that will lose the highest quality team. The US is nowhere near as strong as any of those teams. I know this is a predominantly American forum. Get a grip, The US aren't a soccer power like any of those three teams.

All of those teams have numerous players on each team worth over 30 million euros. America's ability is highly overrated in America and they don't even warrent consideration anywhere else in the world

ssssss wrote:

En no universo podemos ganar contra argentina? Basta con eso vamos a ganar. Ellos solo tienen Messi, que queremos de el?

VIVA USA!!!!!!!

Ellos solo tienen a Messi? You don't know about Angel Di Maria, Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuain, Javier Mascherano, Pablo Zabaleta, etc?

The only issue with Argentina is a pretty "normal" defense. (They called Demichelis in the last weeks after his title with Manchester City, but he did not play in the South American Qualification Tournament with Sabella as trainer, so the defense is a problem when you don't put the same players every game)

But in offense, if the play as good as they played last 2 years, it's going to be easy for them.

And for the question, USA vs Portugal in the preliminary rounds, I see a draw. Ronaldo isn't in his best shape.

Belgium is a very young talented group (Courtois, Hazard, Lukaku, Company, Fellaini, etc) but they haven't experienced players like USA, so, even if Belgium it's better than USA (in the papers), USA has some chances in 1/16 round (if they advance from the groups), it is not impossible.

Agreed, and you were missing a key group in there. Also, Group G has by far the worst playing conditions you can think of for any team in the World Cup. Germany and the USA both have all 3 of their games very close to the Equator. Man does something ever smell fishy that Argentina has the easiest route to the semifinals by far.

Unbiased irish guy wrote:

Reality bytes wrote:

A warm-climate country will win it all this year. Very likely Brazil.

The US threw in the towel once placed in the Group of Death. That's why Landon is not there--- it's a re building year

The US group is not the group of death. The group wth England, Uruguay and Italy is the group that will lose the highest quality team. The US is nowhere near as strong as any of those teams. I know this is a predominantly American forum. Get a grip, The US aren't a soccer power like any of those three teams.

All of those teams have numerous players on each team worth over 30 million euros. America's ability is highly overrated in America and they don't even warrent consideration anywhere else in the world

At least, both teams that get out of groups D (URU, ENG, ITA, CRC) and G (GER, POR, GHA, USA) have realistic shots of making the quarterfinals.

The second place team in Group B (ESP, NED, CHL, AUS) will more than likely face Brazil in the round of 16 and can essentially book their flight home as soon as they find out they came 2nd in the group.