After a very busy weekend in Kansas City, I was a bit surprised to return home and not find any discussion about the World Cup Draw for next year's tournament. With all the footy fans on CF and the difficult draw for both England and the USA, surely there's some discussion to be had.
Here are the groups, for those that didn't follow Friday's Draw:
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/final-draw/draw.html
As for England and the U.S. - it really couldn't have gotten much worse. I actually think the Americans have a better chance of advancing than the Brits, but neither one should make it past the group stage tbh.
Overall though, I think the draw was a good one and it looks like Brazil could be hosting one of the best World Cups ever, at least as far as the competition is concerned.
There's also quite some debate over here as to which group is the "Group of Death". Most Yanks think it's Group G, of course, but Group D and Group B are also real contenders for that title. I feel really sorry for the Aussies more than England or the USA, because they don't stand a chance of winning a game much less advancing out of the group. Not only that, every opponent will be looking at not just winning the game, but beating the crap out of them because no one in that group will want to finish second and have to face Brazil in the next round.
Here's a look at the average FIFA ranking of each group that clearly show the U.S. and England groups to be the toughest:
Group A: 24.26
Group B: 21.00
Group C: 20.25
Group D: 14.25
Group E: 22.75
Group F: 26.25
Group G: 11.35
Group H: 28.25
Group B is a bit off because Australia bringing the average way down and it's going to be a real battle between Spain, Netherlands and Chile for those top two spots.
As for the USA, Hollywood could not have written a better script than what played out for the U.S. as one storyline after another played out on television screens across America on Friday morning.
First there's the opening matchup against Ghana, the nation that knocked the Yanks out in the Round of Sixteen of the last two World Cups (1-2 both times). Next up is Portugal, who lost to the U.S. the last time they met in the opener of the 2002 World Cup (3-2) and failed to advance out of the group as the Americans moved on all the way to the Quarterfinals (where they lost 0-1 to Germany). Even though that Portugal side was considered to be the best the country has ever produced, it didn't have Cristiano Ronaldo - currently the best player in the world. Group play wraps up with the game against Germany and Jürgen Klinsmann's date with destiny. The current USA head coach played in three World Cups for Germany, including winning the one in Italy in 1990. He also coached the German National Team to third place at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Now he'll be facing his former team, who is coached by his former assistant with most of the staff also picked by Klinsmann. It really couldn't get any more dramatic or any more difficult for the team in red, white and blue.
So from the American perspective it is the 'Group of Death', but is that really the case or could the U.S. be a stronger opponent than they're perceived to be? History certainly isn't on their side - since returning to the World Cup after a 40 year absence in 1990, they have advanced to the second round in every other World Cup – 1994, 2002 and 2010. But recent history seems to suggest that the eight year cycle can be broken. The Americans have notched up some historic wins over the past two years since Klinsmann took over, including their first ever victory over Italy (1-0 in Genoa), their first ever away win against Mexico (1-0 at the Azteca Stadium), a 4-3 home victory over Germany that started a record 12 game winning streak and their first ever come-from-behind win in Europe against Bosnia-Herzegovina (4-3 in Sarajevo). In fact, 2013 has been the best year ever for the U.S. Men's National Team. They finished atop the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying Standings, won the Gold Cup (FIFA's regional continental tournament equivalent to the Euros) and finished the year with a best ever mark of 16 wins, 4 losses and 3 (scoreless) ties.
There are however, a couple of advantages that the U.S. will have over their group opponents. They will be more accustomed to the heat and humidity than the Europeans, but more importantly will be the travel involved. With the Group G games spread out around the country and the U.S. camp in Sao Paulo, the Yanks are expecting to travel over 9000 miles during the 10 days of group play. The other teams will have similar distances to cover, but don't do that on a regular basis like American players in the MLS do week in and week out.
Another thing about Group G is that there are no South American teams in the group and since the Americans are used to traveling throughout Central America on a regular basis, playing in the extremes of South America will likely be easier for them than their European or African opponents.
England won't have that advantage and are facing Uruguay - a team very familiar with the conditions. Costa Rica will also have that advantage and they're definitely a tougher team than many Brits realize. I really don't need to expand on Italy. Every Brit footy fan knows how England has fared against the Azzurri and that Italy is a team that always plays better in a tournament than in qualifying or friendly matches.
I still have to look more closely at the brackets to make my prediction as to who will win it all, but I'll be posting it here as soon as I get a chance to figure everything out.
Here are the groups, for those that didn't follow Friday's Draw:
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/final-draw/draw.html
As for England and the U.S. - it really couldn't have gotten much worse. I actually think the Americans have a better chance of advancing than the Brits, but neither one should make it past the group stage tbh.
Overall though, I think the draw was a good one and it looks like Brazil could be hosting one of the best World Cups ever, at least as far as the competition is concerned.
There's also quite some debate over here as to which group is the "Group of Death". Most Yanks think it's Group G, of course, but Group D and Group B are also real contenders for that title. I feel really sorry for the Aussies more than England or the USA, because they don't stand a chance of winning a game much less advancing out of the group. Not only that, every opponent will be looking at not just winning the game, but beating the crap out of them because no one in that group will want to finish second and have to face Brazil in the next round.
Here's a look at the average FIFA ranking of each group that clearly show the U.S. and England groups to be the toughest:
Group A: 24.26
Group B: 21.00
Group C: 20.25
Group D: 14.25
Group E: 22.75
Group F: 26.25
Group G: 11.35
Group H: 28.25
Group B is a bit off because Australia bringing the average way down and it's going to be a real battle between Spain, Netherlands and Chile for those top two spots.
As for the USA, Hollywood could not have written a better script than what played out for the U.S. as one storyline after another played out on television screens across America on Friday morning.
First there's the opening matchup against Ghana, the nation that knocked the Yanks out in the Round of Sixteen of the last two World Cups (1-2 both times). Next up is Portugal, who lost to the U.S. the last time they met in the opener of the 2002 World Cup (3-2) and failed to advance out of the group as the Americans moved on all the way to the Quarterfinals (where they lost 0-1 to Germany). Even though that Portugal side was considered to be the best the country has ever produced, it didn't have Cristiano Ronaldo - currently the best player in the world. Group play wraps up with the game against Germany and Jürgen Klinsmann's date with destiny. The current USA head coach played in three World Cups for Germany, including winning the one in Italy in 1990. He also coached the German National Team to third place at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Now he'll be facing his former team, who is coached by his former assistant with most of the staff also picked by Klinsmann. It really couldn't get any more dramatic or any more difficult for the team in red, white and blue.
So from the American perspective it is the 'Group of Death', but is that really the case or could the U.S. be a stronger opponent than they're perceived to be? History certainly isn't on their side - since returning to the World Cup after a 40 year absence in 1990, they have advanced to the second round in every other World Cup – 1994, 2002 and 2010. But recent history seems to suggest that the eight year cycle can be broken. The Americans have notched up some historic wins over the past two years since Klinsmann took over, including their first ever victory over Italy (1-0 in Genoa), their first ever away win against Mexico (1-0 at the Azteca Stadium), a 4-3 home victory over Germany that started a record 12 game winning streak and their first ever come-from-behind win in Europe against Bosnia-Herzegovina (4-3 in Sarajevo). In fact, 2013 has been the best year ever for the U.S. Men's National Team. They finished atop the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying Standings, won the Gold Cup (FIFA's regional continental tournament equivalent to the Euros) and finished the year with a best ever mark of 16 wins, 4 losses and 3 (scoreless) ties.
There are however, a couple of advantages that the U.S. will have over their group opponents. They will be more accustomed to the heat and humidity than the Europeans, but more importantly will be the travel involved. With the Group G games spread out around the country and the U.S. camp in Sao Paulo, the Yanks are expecting to travel over 9000 miles during the 10 days of group play. The other teams will have similar distances to cover, but don't do that on a regular basis like American players in the MLS do week in and week out.
Another thing about Group G is that there are no South American teams in the group and since the Americans are used to traveling throughout Central America on a regular basis, playing in the extremes of South America will likely be easier for them than their European or African opponents.
England won't have that advantage and are facing Uruguay - a team very familiar with the conditions. Costa Rica will also have that advantage and they're definitely a tougher team than many Brits realize. I really don't need to expand on Italy. Every Brit footy fan knows how England has fared against the Azzurri and that Italy is a team that always plays better in a tournament than in qualifying or friendly matches.
I still have to look more closely at the brackets to make my prediction as to who will win it all, but I'll be posting it here as soon as I get a chance to figure everything out.
. 
