There she is. Few things leap off the page at me. 1. USA is screwed. They need a lot to go right to advance out of this group. Germany, Portugal, and Ghana are all better sides. Period. The US does however have it in them to at least get 4 points here. We've seen 4 points get into the Round of 16 before. Unfortunately for the US i'm only seeing 1 or 2 points here. 2. Messi's Cup to shine. Messi has been given a relatively easy group to get his feet wet and find a nice lil rhythm going into the Round of 16. Bosnia and Nigeria present challenges, but nothing Argentina can't handle. 3. France better not fuck this up. This is a cake group for them. Period. 4. Holy contradicting styles Group C. 2 offensive powers with 2 defensive/disciplined scrooges. Colombia and Ivory Coast score goals, but Greece and Japan do a darn good job packing the box preventing them. Very interested to see how this group shakes out. 5. Group of Death? I'm not seeing your 100% all 4 sides killer group of death here. Although, two groups are looking pretty fatal with 3 strong sides in each. Groups B and D each feature 3 teams i wouldn't want to see in the group stage of a tournament. Look for a traditional power in each to go home. I'm thinking the Dutch in B and the Italians in D each say goodbye after just 3 matches. What do you TSO'ers think? Would love to debate and make ridiculous predictions with all of you.
Do you want a writing gig again? Haha. Group D should be a lot of fun to watch, I'd love to see Costa Rica ruin someone's day there. Those poor Australians. Ivory Coast v Greece should be a great clash of styles, as you mentioned.
1) Group E and H, my God! 2) Mexico squeaks in and they get thrown in a group with Croatia and Cameroon. 3) Only thing benefiting the USA is that Germany will be match 3. 4) Group F....Seriously!!!?!?
If Germany already has the top of the group clinched, over. If Germany has ANYTHING to play for in that game, under. I could easily see the US coming into that game having only scored 2 or 3 goals and getting blanked by the Germans.
I'm really hoping Africa comes to play in this World Cup as they did last Cup. Except Ghana of course. I'll be rooting for Cameroon and Nigeria to play spoiler.
Well, on the bright side...it could be worse for the USA. We could be where Costa Rica is...but that was pretty much worst case scenario. 3 points against Ghana in the opener is a must to have a chance at getting out of the group. And I think we have a better chance of getting out of a group that includes Germany and Portugal than a group that has Spain and Netherlands. Group A, E, F, and H are weeeaaaakkk. Likely round of 16 matchup between Brazil and Spain/Netherlands And I didn't necessarily like the way they drew the groups...seeding the top 8 by world ranking rather than the actual 8 best teams...but there are a LOT of great matchups in the group stage. Will at least be a ton of fun to watch
Group F isn't getting as much credit as I think it deserves...Bosnia is a pretty good team, so is Nigeria. Definitely not a cake walk for Argentina.
Argentina did avoid all of the premier teams from each pot...and Iran is arguably the worst team in the whole tournament. I don't think there is a bad team in the tournament from Europe. But going in with the possibility of being placed with Italy, England, Portugal, France, or Netherlands; Bosnia looks pretty good
My initial thoughts: GROUP A - It may be an "easy" group for Brazil, but I don't think Mexico can be penciled in as #2 as many people are predicting. advance: Brazil, Mexico GROUP B - Poor Australia. advance: Spain, Chile GROUP C - One of the more balanced group from top to bottom. Though Colombia should advance, they haven't proved it yet on an international stage. advance: Colombia, Ivory Coast GROUP D - One of the two European teams will be left out. I don't think people realize how big an advantage it will be for Uruguay to play in Brazil. advance: Italy, Uruguay GROUP E - Same as group D. Ecuador will have a huge home-field advantage in Brazil. advance: Switzerland, Ecuador GROUP F - Argentina shouldn't have any issues advancing, but for Bosnia-H and Nigeria it will probably come down to goal differential. advance: Argentina, Bosnia-H GROUP G - Similar to group C balance wise, but overall more talented teams. Four points and goal differential will probably win 2nd place. advance: Germany, USA GROUP H - Don't think its automatic for Belgium and Russia. Korea Republic will come to play. advance: Belgium, Korea
My two cents. Not sure why people think the US are a soccer power nation. Score more than 4 goals? Like Jozy scoring more than 15 in the EPL this year? Nuts. 3 points against Ghana? Yeah cause they're only the best African nation and well to be honest a better more complete team than the US (goalie might be the only thing they lack). Portugal? Yeah who will be defending Cristiano? Onyewu? But seriously, nope. Germany? Their B squad would still beat or at least tie the US. Now, I'm not saying the US can't go on through. Since Portugal is the most likely of the 4 to under achieve big time. Ghana can go deep, a lot deeper than the US. Now if we were in this group or F or whatever. It would still be hard to qualify to the next round. Switch us to Group A? Yeah good luck with Brasil and Croatia. Group B, instead of Australia, remember 98? Group C, instead of Japan. The Greeks would probably pull a 1-0 win. And Colombia and Cote d'Ivoire? Ha. Group D, instead of Costa Rica, yeah back to 98. Although we could probably get 3 from the Brits. Group E, instead of Honduras, would be one of the most even groups in the WC. France has been playing better, but eh. Ecuador and Switzerland are similar as in both are very disciplined. Plus they have better individual players than us. Group F, instead of Iran, eh maybe next round. Argentina will either go far or well falter big time. Bosnia is for me the worst European squad. Nigeria, has the talent but always loses. Always. Group H, instead of Korea, good chance. Either Belgium or Russia won't make it out of that group. Also Algeria is the closest thing as 3 points get. Well unless you're the US and need a miracle goal late in the game. Again my two cents, but many and I mean many Americans are beginning to think like many Mexicans did a couple years ago. Sort of like invincible. Too much confidence can sometimes be bad. Will the US progress? Maybe. At this point any country can. That and Europeans typically suck at World Cups not held in Europe. Also Spain will not make it out of the group. Dutch 1 and Chile 2. Brasil v Chile knockout will be nice. Tough tough test for Brasil.
Once again, Bracket Predictor group, now no password required: http://games.espn.go.com/world-cup-...NTk0NjYwMjQ=&ex_cid=invite-twitter-worldcupbp
Group C is super weak. Amazing what the loss of one player (El Tigre) can do to the overall strength of a particular bracket. Wouldn't be surprised if the Greeks make a run.
You've picked the wrong girl to be your fiance then My wife pitched it to me, and no way I was gonna shut her down on that...
haha, she has plenty of other redeeming qualities, and we're going to end up spending 2 weeks in italy instead. i'm ok with it. but enjoy! are you following the US to their games? Or staying in one spot and just the games that come there?
We're staying in Natal where Ghana game is. Flying to Manaus for the day for Portugal game, then driving to Recife for the Germany game and returning from that, we're flying back late late night from Natal. We plan on attending the fan fest area in Natal other days. It's gonna be setup by the beach, seems like a cool area to watch about 3 games a day. Everything is pretty much walking distance (within 5-6 mile radius). Everything's booked and game tickets are purchased. Just pumped to go now. And I get to watch them in Jax right before the cup.
