Essential The Official Football (Soccer) Thread - We are SO back, the Premier League returns!
nomoreneveragain
Superstar
No
I fully expect the US to be drawn into this type of group, quote me in December
Argentina
USA
Netherlands
Ghana
Bboystyle
Bang Bang Packers gang!
he'd be the midfielder we went for with that utter flop juninho
no, not on on paper.
in europe #1 means you're in automatically and #2 means you need to play a playoff. but in other countries it means nothing, except by virtue of winning msot games you get more points for the fifa rankings, which is based on last 4 years of results.
top 8 get 'seeds' which means you wont get drawn in any killer groups (most of the time)
so you get a team like uruguay that finished 5th in south america and is in the playoffs, but based on world cup results is still a seed.
but then on the flip side you have colombia and belgium, who haven't qualified for a long time but finished 1st in their groups and they're seeds.
so its not a direct correlation that finishing 1st means you get something out of it, but it helps in the rankings. japan finished 1st in asia, but it gets no advantage cause they haven't done that well in world competitions.
USA finished 1st in north america, but they havent gotten deep enough in the world cup or won enough friendlies against top teams to be a seed (though we got pretty close)
http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/index.html
Damn, Columbia that good now? they done came up
Bboystyle
Bang Bang Packers gang!
and mexico gets algeria, iceland, switzerland, jordan
my confidence concerning the USAs ability to get out of tough groups was at 100%, bring on the group of death
but every day the draw gets closer i'm dreading it. almost guaranteed that our strongest squad ever will get screwed somehow
these dudes
i think Jack Wilshere revealed Hodgson's locker room (monkey) joke.
sneaky Arsenal b*stards. Can't trust em
funny i think it was wilshere aswell.
he didnt like that he wanted januzaj to play for england and he hasnt been starting for england recently
Kunty McPhuck
Scust Szn has Returned
Wheelchair the newest member of the EDL
Roaden Polynice
Superstar
Jack the lad's done alright by me. I'm sure Özil or any of the Arsenal lads would've done the same.
Stop trying to wedge that Belgian pub teamer into the conversation
Premeditated
MANDE KANG
QuintessentialBM
GoldenAgeGamer82 - PSN ID
Yes and no..... When FIFA does the draw for the groups.... The top 8 ranked teams that qualify plus the host will have their own group. Usually the host group and the #1 seed will have the easiest group. This is where it gets tricky. I'll use the US as an example... in the 2010 World cup we got a favorable draw because we drew 1 team that was ranked higher than us so we were the number 2 seed in our group while Slovenia and Algeria were the #3 and #4 of our group, countries that have a decent soccer history but hasn't taken it to the next level because they(especially Slovenia) has a harder time qualifying. The USMNT is about equal in talent to everyone but England.
This time around, I don't believe the draw will be so easy as compared to 2010 because for starters... Brazil is the host and not a team like South Africa. Secondly, most of the Europeans have either matured or rebuilt their teams so they will be better this time around. The confederation hosting the tournament is the second best confederation in the world and will have 6 of its 10 members in basically a home tournament. In this tournament, it may not matter much because each group will have at least 2 ranked powerhouses (3 in the Group of Death)from Europe and South America then you throw in a #1 or #2 into the mix, none of the other top teams from Africa, Asia or North America will have a favorable draw. Gotta hope your team is built for that life.
