USA in group with Germany, Portugal, and Ghana for the World Cup.

Good World Cup for the European teams but I don't think the current Brazil team is beatable at home. Brazil-Germany final, Belgium to beat Argentina for 3rd.[/quote]

If Germany and Brazil both win their Group, they will face each other in the semi-finals. If Argentina and Belgium win their Groups, they will meet in quarter finals.

From how I view it. Brazil/Germany semi will be match of cup. Spain has easy draw into finals. I do not think Arg is as strong as people think , take out Messi and they are pretty soft. Belgium will be a hard test for Spain, but Being in the semis will be a new experience for Belgium and I am not sure if they will hold the pressure.

I am favoring Germany right now over Brazil as Brazil has to play Ned then Italy/Uru before semi with Germany. Pretty brutal challenge.

Germany looks to get Rus then Fra/Sui before Brazil. If Germany makes it past Brazil They should handle Spain. I would take Germany defense over Spains, and the Germany middle is pretty strong. As good as the Spain middle is I think they are over hyped because they play with Messi in Barca.

sgh wrote:

I am favoring Germany right now over Brazil as Brazil has to play Ned then Italy/Uru before semi with Germany. Pretty brutal challenge.

Germany looks to get Rus then Fra/Sui before Brazil. If Germany makes it past Brazil They should handle Spain.

You could argue either way. Germany playing Ghana, Portugal and the US in the group stage, then Russia or France/Switzerland, there is no real test. Reminds me a bit of 2002 when they made it to the final. On the other hand, that gives the coach time to find his perfect team.

Brazil can beat the Netherlands and Uruguay, no problem. Now Italy, I don't think so. Italians are masterminds when it comes to tactics.

Wørd wrote:

In soccer, 1-2-0 means 1 win, 2 draws.

No it doesn't

I have Italy winning their group, if they don't then they play Brazil. Don't sleep on the dutchy. They are very talented and Robben has been playing inspired lately. He is now out 6 weeks but will be 100% by then. If Ned wins their group (which could happen) then Brazil gets Spain in round of 16

soccer reg wrote:

Wørd wrote:

In soccer, 1-2-0 means 1 win, 2 draws.

No it doesn't

Yes it does. Watch the World Cup sometime and find out.

USA will need to bring it, but we need not let Ghana's semi-recent successes over us get to us. We open with them and absolutely must win that game. A draw and a loss in the next two may be enough. A win and two draws will certainly be enough.

As to the hardest group discussion, it isn't Group E, because let's be real, Costa Rica? It's also notable that Uruguay struggled in CONMEBOL qualifying, and England have had their usual problems. I look at "Group of Death" to contain four teams that could make it out of an "average" group, and that's B and G. B has a very strong Chile side joining the two returning finalists. In the last two Cups, Australia have been better than the "second tier" Euro nations (beat Serbia in '10, drew Croatia while needing just the draw to advance in '06, and also having their "winning" goal in that game strangely disallowed), so they are no slouches either. Too bad their aren't any second tier Euro sides in their group this year.

Meanwhile, our group contains four teams that went to at least the round of 16 last time. Each of us have been quarterfinalists at least once this millennium, with Germany coming off two 3rds and a 2nd. Yikes!

Anyone who thinks that the USA group is tougher to advance out of than the Dutch, Spainish, CHile, australia is an idiot.

Netherlands, Spain are unbeatable by any teams other than brazil and germany. Chile and Australia have absolutely no shot.

On the other hand, the USA group after germany you have a lot of mediocrity fighting for second.Dont pay attention to the rankings they are meaningless. Portugal is a mediocre team.

if onlyI wrote:

Portugal is a mediocre team.

You didn't watch the game in Sweden, did you?

I think it's a very balanced group and Germany is far from favorite.

I wouldn't be surprised to see USA+Portugal through.

ekjfhg wrote:

You didn't watch the game in Sweden, did you?

I think it's a very balanced group and Germany is far from favorite.

I wouldn't be surprised to see USA+Portugal through.

Sweden are a mediocre team too. Germany don't go out in the groups and they don't lose to lesser teams very often. They're always so efficient in qualifying through group stages, both in qualifying and the finals.

USA don't have a snowball's hope against them, they're really that good.

Whooopee

ekjfhg wrote:

if onlyI wrote:

Portugal is a mediocre team.

You didn't watch the game in Sweden, did you?

I think it's a very balanced group and Germany is far from favorite.

I wouldn't be surprised to see USA+Portugal through.

Germany is an overwhelming favorite in their group. What players on the USA squad would you not trade staight up for Mario Gotze? He is their weakest player on the starting 11. He is also plays a major roll for Bayern Munich which is current world #1.

Its going to be Germany and USA/POR. Portugal depends a lot on one player, but he is a mighty fine player.

In my opinion this is Germanys best squad in some time.

What a horrible draw. We drew the best team from each pot and have little to no chance of getting any points.

I'm calling Japan as a dark horse. They just beat a very strong Belgium side and feature two of the best play-makers in the world, in Shinji Kagawa and Keisuke Honda. 100-1 seems pretty good to me.

US will advance. 1-0-2. Bunker up, play for draws, sneak a goal late, done.

Australian runner wrote:

I'm calling Japan as a dark horse. They just beat a very strong Belgium side and feature two of the best play-makers in the world, in Shinji Kagawa and Keisuke Honda. 100-1 seems pretty good to me.

You can get 200/1 on Betfair - if you're going to waste your money, you may as well do it with hope of winning double what you though.

That said, given their group, it wouldn't be a bad 'back to lay' bet as that price would come in a bit should they qualify.

Fair enough, I didn't look at the bracket. I wouldn't expect that all those teams win their groups, but Brazil and Germany probably will.

I think Argentina actually are strong this time. They've been underperforming at the last few World Cups thanks to some bizarre coaching decisions. Messi seems to finally be performing in the national team and Agüero looks very strong this season. Argentina also has much more talent and depth defensively than, say, Uruguay or Colombia. Argentina is the only American team besides Brazil with a realistic chance of getting through the quarters. On the European side, I think all of Germany, Spain, Italy, Holland and Belgium have a decent shot. A Holland vs Belgium QF could be epic but it's probably not too likely.

Holland - Belgium would be nice. Thye would both have to win their group or both take second and then they could potentially see each other in semis

stick with eharmony wrote:

shhhhhhhhhhhh do you hear that??

thats the sound of nobody caring about soccer. Please find a more popular sport to follow

thanks

Why does a sport have to be popular (in the USA) for someone to follow it?

In your world, aren't people allowed to make up their own minds and like what they want to like?

Or do they have to be sheep and pretend they like football? You know the sport that has to have special commercials for its most important game.

Wørd wrote:

I think Argentina actually are strong this time. They've been underperforming at the last few World Cups thanks to some bizarre coaching decisions. Messi seems to finally be performing in the national team and Agüero looks very strong this season. Argentina also has much more talent and depth defensively than, say, Uruguay or Colombia. Argentina is the only American team besides Brazil with a realistic chance of getting through the quarters.

+1

Look at their offensive depth:

Di Maria (Real Madrid)

Messi (Barcelona)

Higuain (former Real Madrid, now with Napoli)

Aguero (Manchester City)

These 4 young guys are from the 1987-1988 generation (2 U-20 titles and U-23 olympic gold in Beijing)

In the midfield they have Mascherano and Gago in good level.

Their problem is the entire defense and the goalie.

But Alejandro Sabella is better coach than Maradona. (Sabella was an assistant coach between 1994-1998 and he knows about to be a coach in the World Cup)

Keep in mind that a very usual result for them is 4-2, 3-1, 4-1.

Their sistem it's like Brazil team in 1970. Very very offensive.

Messi it's almost unstoppable. I have never seen Lio Messi in this level with his National Team.

Usually he played excellent in Barcelona, and "good" with Argentina. Now, since 2012, it's the same. He plays excellent in both teams.

Look at Messi against Brazil in a friendly match played last year in New Jersey. I was in the stadium that day. It was incredible.

If you're going to look at the rankings within groups then surely for the purposes of comparing the prospects of given teams (like USA and England) then you want to take their own rating out of the picture.

USA have 3 teams with rankings 3, 8, 33 - an average of 14.6.

England have 3 teams with rankings rankings, 31 and 11 - an average of 17.

So on that basis USA have a tougher job.

And of course if the ratings mean anything England have a higher ranking than USA (7 as against 13), so even if the rankings of the opposition were equal you'd suppose that England had a better chance.

Again if the rankings reflect reality you'd expect the best two ranked teams in each group to progress at least out of the group stage. England is the best ranked team in its group, but USA is the third rated team in its group.

On the plus side for the USA, its hard to know what the rankings really tell you anyhow. Probably looking at the betting odds is a better predictor.