Thoughts on the World Cup Draw

Boy, wouldn't it have been nice to be seeded and get Mexico's draw instead of the one we got?

[KDawgCometh]

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Poland vs England
Portugal vs Argentina



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interesting. England and argentina might meet in the quarters to continue a great rivalry, if that happens, that might end up being the match of the tournament

[jdl22]

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Poland vs England
Portugal vs Argentina



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interesting. England and argentina might meet in the quarters to continue a great rivalry, if that happens, that might end up being the match of the tournament

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I was going to put this in the other post, but I guess I took it out.

England and Argentina have to finish in different places and win their first knockout game to advance. So if England win their group and Argentina finish second or if Argentina win and Engand finish second they meet in the quarterfinal if they get through their round of 16 match.

That would be a fantastic match.

[Aceshigh7]

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Thoughts on the World Cup Draw

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U.S got screwed. Mexico lucked out.

[partygirluk]

Group 3 is fkn tough

[KDawgCometh]

I was watching FOx Football Friday, and the hosts brought up a very good point that will negatively effect the US. Italy normally has a bad game in their first match in big competitions, well, guess what, the US is the second game. What this means is that the US will have to play the game of their lives against the czech rep.

One thing that I have forgotten though is that Nedved is retired from international play. This is huge if he doesn't come back for the WC. Rosiscky isn't anywhere near the player that nedved is, and they will be relying on Jan Koller to get their goals, and IMO Koller isn't that strong of a striker. THe main problem for the US in that game will getting anything past petr cech. Look at his play for Chelsea and how he has done on the internation scene.

If only the US had played some more competetive friendlies in the past few years or had gone to the last Copa America we would be seeded as we only lost out on it by a measly point. The USSF is fully to blame for this, instead of programing matches against Cuba et al then we'd be talking about who the US would be facing in the 2nd rd and if they would be possibly going to the quarters. I think that the US can still advance, but, a lot of factors will have to come into play, and in the end, the talent gap might not be closed through great team play

[UCF THAYER]

When Czech were struggling to qualify, Nedved came out of retirement and played in their last few games. I assume he will play in the WC.

[jgunnip]

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If only the US had played some more competetive friendlies in the past few years...

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I agree and hopefully we'll see some positive results from the scheduled friendlies leading up to WC 2006. While Canada shouldn't be a tough game, matches against Norway and Japan should provide good test, both from the level of play as well as the differeing styles of play.

Leading up to WC '02, the US matched up against (at)South Korea, (at)Germany, Holland, Ireland, and Uraguay. Maybe (hopefully) the USSF will add some additional friendlies to the slate in preparation for this tough Group.

[jdl22]

The Spanish are obviously pretty happy. Here's the Marca, the biggest sports newspaper based in Madrid, from yesterday:


Chupao is a slang term for easy.

[KDawgCometh]

well, it also goes for between world cups. We need to play more friendlies against decent nations, but unfortunetly this group will also negatively effect possible seeding in 2010. If we can get out of this group, and start playing more competetive matches overall, we should be able to be seeded in the next WC. We also will need to play in a Copa America as that is a very competetive tourny and we should be able to do well in it