Sorry. So, I encourage you to go over and check out FIFA's flash site for the draw. The schedule tab is pretty useful as you can hover over the teams to see them popped out. Therefore, I can tell you that the US will play...
England on Saturday, June 12th
Slovenia on Friday, June 18th (big gap to rest up after the opener!)
Algeria on Wednesday, June 23rd
I know I'll be struck down from on high for saying this, but...we can advance out of this group. Heck, we stand an outside chance of winning it. England often start slow and Slovenia and Algeria both went down to the wire and narrowly made it to the finals. Not that I'm discounting either of the later two teams, but they do present winnable games for the US.
As for the rest of the draw, Groups D (Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana), E (Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon), and G (Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Portugal) look to be the tastiest. So which is the dreaded "Group of Death"? Tough call. D & E don't really feature any minnows like G does, but come on! Brazil are the best in the world outside of Spain at the moment. The Ivory Coast is probably the best Africa has to offer. And Portugal may have looked dicey in qualifying, but if they put it all together, they're among the most talented teams in the world. As for poor North Korea...
Karma's a bitch, ain't it, Dear Leader?
We have a shot. It will be tough, but we have a shot. Of course if we make it out of the group we get either Serbia or Germany. Either game would be interesting - US versus Subotic or revenge against the Germans for Seoul...but first we have to get out of the group. Slovenia outwitted the great Hiddink and Russia. Algeria is playing on African soil and England is a very good team with a very good coach (but weak goal-keeping!).
ReplyDeleteMy only question is: who does Mexico regularly bribe to get those draws?
Brazil, Ivory Coast, Portugal?
ReplyDeleteThat's GOD!
Spain, assuming they win their group, gets the second place team of those three.
I suppose it depends upon your definition of "Group of Death." Does it mean the group where a really good team is going to get eliminated no matter what happens? In that case you go with G.
ReplyDeleteIf however, you mean a group with no minnows where the teams outside of the #1 seed are roughly equivalent and fully capable of beating the #1 seed on a good day, then I'd say D or E.
Semantics, schmemantics...
You're right, it's got to be G.
Five of the eight groups have three teams ranked in the top 25 with Group G having the highest rated teams overall. That makes it tough even though they have a real minnow in North Korea.
ReplyDeleteGroup D only has the Netherlands and Cameroon in the top 25 but Denmark is a good side that dominated its qualifying and Japan always puts on a good show...still if its parity you're looking for with some good squads, Groups B and H could be really interesting.