OT- World Cup Draw

Submitted by MGoPietrowski on
11:00 am.

Brace yourselves.

UMQuadz05

December 6th, 2013 at 8:50 AM ^

Unless the USA gets in Switzerland's group, we are almost guaranteed to be in a group of death. Of course, this year every group will be one- there are no weak teams.

Joined: 04/03/2009

MGoPoints: 7302

Hagen

December 6th, 2013 at 12:07 PM ^

A buddy of mine spent two years in Ukraine with the Peace Corps.  Ukrainians despise "THE Ukraine."  The country is just Ukraine, no "the" needed.  Reminds them of when they were in the USSR and not independent, plus they hate Ohio.

Joined: 03/03/2012

MGoPoints: 1014

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

December 6th, 2013 at 9:59 AM ^

Of course, this year every group will be one- there are no weak teams.

There are, but most of them are in our pot.

I think we'll be alright as long as we don't have to deal with the Netherlands or Italy, although it would help also if we got someone from Africa that isn't Ghana.

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 41586

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

December 6th, 2013 at 10:43 AM ^

There are actually nine teams in Pot 4 and seven in Pot 2; the first thing they'll do in the draw is to move a random European team from 4 to 2 and then they have a fancy procedure to make sure that team is with a South American team from 1 so as not to have a group of three European teams.  So if Italy or the Netherlands is moved over to 2, then they could be drawn with Brazil and us to create a disaster.  From Pot 2 I'd say there are three African teams we don't want plus the European team if it's someone really good.

The flip side of course is that teams will be looking to Pot 3 as their potential minnow pot and praying they don't get the US.  Italy had such a rotten showing in 2010 and I think our nightmare scenario is the same as theirs.

Joined: 07/02/2008

MGoPoints: 41586

User -not THAT user

December 6th, 2013 at 9:15 AM ^

The home team tends to get more than their share of the calls on the field (or "pitch", if you must), FIFA has shown that they don't mind assigning the most incompetent on-field officials available for World Cup matches featuring the USA.

Brazil is still good enough to beat us on skill alone (probably), but they are not up their usual standards talent-wise and FIFA will want to make sure they're playing as long as possible to keep the home fans involved in a positive manner.

Joined: 06/05/2012

MGoPoints: 2422

ChasingRabbits

December 6th, 2013 at 10:37 AM ^

the US is rightly worried..  but think of the teams that draw the US or mexico from our Pot?

Have lots of chances for one easy game and get us instead...  that would suck. 

Joined: 01/19/2010

MGoPoints: 1492

gjking

December 6th, 2013 at 10:58 AM ^

FIFA is European biased so the draw design favors the European teams heavily because Pot 4 is essentially a de facto second seeded pot, it contains the top ranked teams outside of Pot A minus Chile and the US. This draw design hurts the US the most of all of the teams, as the USA's group is the group with the lowest average rank on average if you simulated this thing a zillion times.

You just have to embrace the group of death thing and realize it'd be fine to get in a tough group. If we lose to some big teams, that would be expected. If we beat some and advance to the knockouts, that'd be considered a super sucessful world cup.The other option is getting a relatively easier draw and then we'd be in the camp of needing to advance to knockouts in order to make the World Cup at all sucessful. I also think the group of death thing could drive TV ratings, as many more Americans would tune in for USA-England or USA-Brazil vs. USA-Nigeria or USA-Greece.

 

 

Joined: 10/16/2011

MGoPoints: 601

SKIP TO MY BLUE

December 6th, 2013 at 10:58 AM ^

I am not worried about the Germany, Brazil or Argentina teams being in the USA's group since the top 2 teams advance and as long as USA advances they could avoid a top top team for a few knockout rounds (having been in the same group stage). I just hope the other 2 teams in the group do not have the ability to beat USA and the other teams making it harder to get 1st or 2nd in the group stage. Switzerland would be easier for the USA to beat than Germany, but it would be easier for Bosnia or any other weaker team as well.

Joined: 05/19/2010

MGoPoints: 546