World Cup 2014

The "pots" have been put out by FIFA and they seem insane.


Pot 1: Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina, Colombia, Belgium, Uruguay, Switzerland
Pot 2: Ivory Coast, Ghana, Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chile, Ecuador
Pot 3: Japan, Iran, South Korea, Australia, United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras
Pot 4: Bosnia, Croatia, England, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, France


It's clear they don't want multiple teams from the same region in the same group, but how on earth are Colombia and Switzerland in the top group and not Italy, Netherlands or France?

Note ... the draw is Friday.

Pot 1 are the host and the top 7 teams in the FIFA World Rankings, if the host isn't in the top 8. In this case, Brazil is ranked 10th and the Netherlands loses a seeded position as the 8th ranked team. While. UEFA gets a fair amount of criticism for the way they set the Champions League groups, they pretty much go down the line with team coefficients. FIFA doesn't do that. After Pot 1 is set, the rest are divided by region and CONCACAF always ends being paired with Asia and Oceania.

I haven't seen any random draws that are favorable to the US either. Most forecast the US to be in a Group of Death.

Sure, but the fifa world rankings are obviously crazy. I don't need to go into any further detail than the fact that Brazil is ranked 10th. Ignore that Switzerland and Colombia are somehow in the top seven, Brazil is ranked tenth. If you asked any person on earth, not just people who followed soccer, zero of them would rank Brazil out of the top 5 let alone 8. Not just zero out of a group, zero human beings on earth and that includes babies and people who have never heard of soccer.

andyt said:

I haven't seen any random draws that are favorable to the US either. Most forecast the US to be in a Group of Death.

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FIFA have this setup up for multiple groups of death for the first time in recent memory, but I suspect that when the (weighted?) envelopes are actually drawn that you'll only see a couple of them. It's simply not in FIFA's interests to screw over the countries who provide the most TV revenues and that ALWAYSseems to show in the "random" draws.

I'm not expecting the US to draw a creampuff group, but I doubt they end up with three former champions either.

VinatieriDefinesClutch said:

Sure, but the fifa world rankings are obviously crazy. I don't need to go into any further detail than the fact that Brazil is ranked 10th. Ignore that Switzerland and Colombia are somehow in the top seven, Brazil is ranked tenth. If you asked any person on earth, not just people who followed soccer, zero of them would rank Brazil out of the top 5 let alone 8. Not just zero out of a group, zero human beings on earth and that includes babies and people who have never heard of soccer.

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Been that way my whole life. FIFA is not only corrupt to its core, but you get the sense that it might also be run on a part time basis by interns from a mental health institution.

VinatieriDefinesClutch said:

Sure, but the fifa world rankings are obviously crazy. I don't need to go into any further detail than the fact that Brazil is ranked 10th. Ignore that Switzerland and Colombia are somehow in the top seven, Brazil is ranked tenth. If you asked any person on earth, not just people who followed soccer, zero of them would rank Brazil out of the top 5 let alone 8. Not just zero out of a group, zero human beings on earth and that includes babies and people who have never heard of soccer.

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Not to defend FIFA, becuase that's an impossible task, but the world ranking is based on results. Aside from the Confederations Cup, they didn't play anyone. As the hosts, they didn't have to go through qualifying and their recent run of friendlies hasn't instilled fear into anyone.

Group A: Brazil, Croatia, Cameroon, Mexico
Group B: Spain, Netherlands, Chile, Australia
Group C: Columbia, Greece, Ivory Coast, Japan
Group D: Uruguay, Costa Rica, England, Italy
Group E: Switzerland, Ecuador, France, Honduras
Group F: Argentina, Bosnia-Herzigovina, Iran, Nigeria
Group G: Germany, Portugal, US, Ghana
Group H: Belgium, Algeria, Russia, Korea

Once again, we have to go through Ghana. As the G3 team, we also have the worst travel in the draw, with almost 9,000 miles between games and their home base in Sao Paolo.

So excited........ And Mexico barely sneaks in and gets Croatia and Cameroon. I'd be shocked if we came out of our group.

Ghana. Good Lord, they've eliminated us from the last two World Cups. And Germany is Germany. We know what they hold. Portugal would scare me more if they weren't such an enigma. Seem to possess boatloads of talent but they needed a special performance from Ronaldo to get past Sweden to qualify. I think we can get a result from them. Just have to find a way to get three from Ghana or we're looking at having to get a result vs. Germany.

BTW, The Three Lions have a tough draw but it's really not as bad as some think. Uruguay struggled to qualify, and this is not our father's Italy team. They will get a result vs. Costa Rica and a win vs. either of the other two should see them through. And paired with Group C? Too bad that's not the U.S.

Cali Ed said:

BTW, The Three Lions have a tough draw but it's really not as bad as some think. Uruguay struggled to qualify, and this is not our father's Italy team. They will get a result vs. Costa Rica and a win vs. either of the other two should see them through. And paired with Group C? Too bad that's not the U.S.

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I dunno man. The Ticos aren't your Daddy's Costa Rican side either. They've got some real physical presence and pace now. They'll show up and play with some real fire in front of a ton of Spanish speaking fans and I'd wager they'll drive England slightly bonkers before that match is decided.

As for the US ... meh. I knew in my bones we'd get Germany as out Pot 1 team, so the real reaction is to Portugal. And you know what? I'm not that upset. The Portuguese aren't freaking Spain or anything, and they sort of suck in the back. You mark the living daylights out of Christiano and see how it goes ... and it's not like he's set the WC stage on fire in his career either. It's Ghana that has me concerned. You need a draw and a win to get out alive and relying on Ghana for one of those has been an issue so bloody many times in the past that you just have to shake you head.

And if you want to talk about somebody getting stuck by the draw, look no further than Chile. After the qualifying run they've had they pulled up the strongest pot 4 team imaginable. That group sucks on toast for them. Oh, and France need to make sure they keep up the monthly payments to old Sepp. That's the best WC draw they've had in decades.

At least we don't get Ghana in Manaus. Natal's enough like home for them, but at least it should have some ocean breezes. On the other hand, Portugal shouldn't have anything on us in Manaus.

Ronaldo was huge against Sweden in the playoff, but he only had 1 goal in the group matches. He only has 2 goals in the World Cup (1 on a penalty), the same number of yellow cards he has. For an elite player, he comes up awfully small at crunch time. So will the effort against Sweden be a harbinger of things to come or was it an aberration? Ghana? To paraphrase Indiana Jones. Ghana. Why did it have to be Ghana.

Speaking of cakewalks, look at the group Argentina got. They can probably start the reserves and advance.

andyt said:

Ronaldo was huge against Sweden in the playoff, but he only had 1 goal in the group matches. He only has 2 goals in the World Cup (1 on a penalty), the same number of yellow cards he has. For an elite player, he comes up awfully small at crunch time. So will the effort against Sweden be a harbinger of things to come or was it an aberration?

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IMO, Ronaldo really thrives on head to head matchups. He's at his best when the opponent has a premiere player that he can square off against in a macho contest. Everybody was billing that playoff set as a mano a mano between him and Ibra and you could tell he wanted to make a statement. In past WCs the Portugal side really looked to him too much to be the primary focal point on attack and sometimes he just doesn't seem all that into it. I think the USMNT is a good under the radar matchup for Portugal. They give up a lot of counter attack opportunities and the US is pretty doggone good at taking those and running with them. I like our chances.

Last world cup, Portugal seemed to set up as ten defending and Ronaldo. I don't think you can fairly blame a player for not looking as good when he's asked to suffer such a bigger brunt of the offensive onus against teams preparing for just that. When he is on Madrid or before on United, he is the player teams most prepare for, but they can't just ignore the likes of Benzema, Bale, di Maria, Isco, Ozil, Rooney, Tevez, Nani, Giggs, etc like they often can with Portugal.

Roy Hodgson has named the England squad:

Goalkeepers: Joe Hart (Manchester City), Ben Foster (West Bromwich Albion), Fraser Forster (Celtic).

Defenders: Leighton Baines (Everton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Phil Jones (Manchester United), Luke Shaw (Southampton), Chris Smalling (Manchester United).

Midfielders: Ross Barkley (Everton), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Adam Lallana (Southampton), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), James Milner (Manchester City), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Arsenal), Raheem Sterling (Liverpool), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal).

Attackers: Rickie Lambert (Southampton), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Daniel Sturridge (Liverpool), Daniel Welbeck (Manchester United).

Standby: John Ruddy (Norwich City), Jon Flanagan (Liverpool), John Stones (Everton), Michael Carrick (Manchester United), Tom Cleverley (Manchester United), Andy Carroll (West Ham United), Jermain Defoe (Toronto FC).

If Phil Jones doesn't recover from his shoulder surgery, John Stones will be named to the squad.

Interesting mix, but I still see some of the same fit issues that have plagued England for as long as I can remember. At least they've added some speed down the flanks with this roster. They badly needed that.

Klinsmann named a 30 man roster that must be cut down to 23 by June 2. There are 3 matches in the "Send Off Series"

May 27 v. Azerbaijan at Candlestick Park
June 1 v. Turkey at Red Bull Arena, Harrison, NJ
June 7 v. Nigeria at EverBank Field, Jacksonville, FL

GOALKEEPERS (3) : Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Tim Howard (Everton), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)

DEFENDERS (11) : DaMarcus Beasley (Puebla), Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), John Brooks (Hertha Berlin), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City), Timmy Chandler (Nürnberg), Brad Evans (Seattle Sounders FC), Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy), Clarence Goodson (San Jose Earthquakes), Fabian Johnson (Hoffenheim), Michael Parkhurst (Columbus Crew), DeAndre Yedlin (Seattle Sounders FC)

MIDFIELDERS (10) : Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Alejandro Bedoya (Nantes), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Joe Corona (Club Tijuana), Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo), Mix Diskerud (Rosenborg), Maurice Edu (Philadelphia Union), Julian Green (Bayern Munich), Jermaine Jones (Besiktas), Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City)

FORWARDS (6) : Jozy Altidore (Sunderland), Terrence Boyd (Rapid Vienna), Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders FC), Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy), Aron Johannsson (AZ Alkmaar), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes)

FWIW ... the guys over at Grantland have put out a series of YouTube videos with the Men in Blazers breaking down the World Cup chances of a variety of countries. The US, "Inglund" and Brazil are up so far. As per usual, they are freaking hilarious.