World Cup!

[General Veers]

Not fair the US finished first in CONCACAF but is in a tougher group than Mexico, which had to beat New Zealand in a play-in series. France was also given a cozy group as well. Group C looks like the most boring group by far. I expect Greece to advance on three nil-nil draws.

England is in a tough spot, playing Italy and Uruguay. After choking away the title Liverpool fans could then watch their own star Suarez stick it to their country.

[Witt]

I am afraid it does not look like the USA will get out of the group. I would like nothing better for them to progress at the expense of either Portugal or Germany.
I can’t stand Portugal. I think its players are whiney girls.

I am Italian and am sad Prandelli(my football team’s ex manager) has decided to leave Rossi at home. He would have been a beacon of good behaviour and sportsmanship in an otherwise team of cheats and miscreants. We are in a tough group and I hate it when the English, where I live, tell me we will qualify and beat England. It makes me nervous!
We have to qualify after the embarrassment of our early exit in 2010 as reigning Champions.

I will watch probably half the games, as I have a family(and only one TV) and I work when many of the games are on.
I suppose I am not too bothered who wins if Italy go out, as long as it is not Spain. I hate Del Bosque and our 4-0 loss to them in the European final 2 years ago still grates on me. 
Like you, General Veers, I fear Uruguay.

[axisandalliesplayer]

Experts give US about a 35% chance of advancing, but I’ve taken Moscow on worse odds.  :wink:

It’ll be tough and yea I’m also upset that Mexico got a much more manageable draw despite having to play in to earn their WC berth. Italy, Uruguay, and England’s a tough group as well and I think it’d be fun to watch English fans implode if they fail to advance.

[frimmel]

So is the “Draw” for this event an actual random draw or is it based at all on some sort of rankings? Is there politics involved i.e. intentionally setting the US up to fail?

[axisandalliesplayer]

Teams are placed in one of four pots of 8 teams each. The first pot is the top countries according to the FIFA rankings and the host nation, the 2nd pot is European teams, next is CONCACAF and Asian teams, and last is African teams as well as leftovers from other regions (Europe/S.America). After that one team from each pot is randomly placed in the various groups.

It’s a flawed system and almost invariably ends up with various ‘group of death’ and easy groups. While I do support the idea that they should try to spread out teams to create a more global experience, I think there should be more consideration for how good each team is. The NCAA Tourney does a fairly good job of seeding each team and then placing them according to their perceived strength, location, and potential opponents, etc. But with FIFA the way it is today, this could easily lead to corruption and group fixing. So maybe completely random is the way to go, it might not always be fair but at least it’s impartial.  :roll:

[Witt]

@frimmel:

So is the “Draw” for this event an actual random draw or is it based at all on some sort of rankings? Is there politics involved i.e. intentionally setting the US up to fail?

[axisandalliesplayer]

@wittmann:

@frimmel:

So is the “Draw” for this event an actual random draw or is it based at all on some sort of rankings? Is there politics involved i.e. intentionally setting the US up to fail?

???

[Witt]

Um! What was I going to say? Internet was slow and I could not post. I thought.

It was something along the lines of: I love football, but it is rife with corruption from the top down. See the Qatar fiasco at the moment. Why Qatar for a World Cup?
Blatter should never have got another 4 years as President. He has to go. He is a horrid man and the worse thing in football at the moment.
His comment about those bringing up corruption allegations being racially motivated, is ridiculous. He has always been against technology in football and against video proving right from wrong is another stupid sign he cannot see things need changing for the good of the beautiful game. He is the problem.
Good luck USA!

[Gargantua]

Canada will come out on top.

The most sure way to win, is not to play.

[aequitas-et-veritas]

Spain got robbt tonight! Robin and Robben Hood ,what else to say?? :-D

[John Brown]

@aequitas:

Spain got robbt tonight! Robin and Robben Hood ,what else to say?? :-D

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the game, but heard about the score.

Did you get to watch the game?

I was shocked. I wasn’t expecting that. :-o

[aequitas-et-veritas]

Only saw the goals summarized, but the game was way of a revenge (2010). Spain, who is Spain?? They got kicked.
Chile won as well and I think we will see a little bit more of them!

HUP ORANJE HUP! Looks like they going to Semi finals!

[axisandalliesplayer]

@John:

@aequitas:

Spain got robbt tonight! Robin and Robben Hood ,what else to say?? :-D

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the game, but heard about the score.

Did you get to watch the game?

I was shocked. I wasn’t expecting that. :-o

I don’t think anyone was expecting that. I was hoping and pulling for an Orange win, but I thought it’d be a close game decided by a goal or two. It was tied up at the intermission and then Netherlands started scoring and Spain just packed it in. They folded faster than a house of cards. Several goals were down to the goalie making mistakes, but he didn’t get a lot of help from the Spanish midfield or defense.

[John Brown]

@axisandalliesplayer:

@John:

@aequitas:

Spain got robbt tonight! Robin and Robben Hood ,what else to say?? :-D

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see the game, but heard about the score.

Did you get to watch the game?

I was shocked. I wasn’t expecting that. :-o

I don’t think anyone was expecting that. I was hoping and pulling for an Orange win, but I thought it’d be a close game decided by a goal or two. It was tied up at the intermission and then Netherlands started scoring and Spain just packed it in. They folded faster than a house of cards. Several goals were down to the goalie making mistakes, but he didn’t get a lot of help from the Spanish midfield or defense.

I wondered why their were so many goals scored. Thanks for the info.

I wanted to watch it, but had to work. :-)

[axisandalliesplayer]

http://www.espnfc.com/video/latest-videos/600/video/1878787?&ex_cid=espnapi_affiliate_Google_World_Cup_Video

That swan dive header is simply majestic! It’s not in the video, but one of the Spanish defenders kept him on when he got behind his defender. Spain never really got things going in the 2nd and Netherlands had some beautiful passing to set their shots up.

[axisandalliesplayer]

Found a gif of the header where you can see where he was kept on.

http://i.imgur.com/5JS27Ym.gif

[John Brown]

@axisandalliesplayer:

Found a gif of the header where you can see where he was kept on.

http://i.imgur.com/5JS27Ym.gif

Wow, thanks for the clips! I bet the Dutch fans were going nuts on this game. :-D

[Witt]

It was a very satisfying result for me. I can’t stand Spain.
I was working, but  kept getting texts from family. I watched the Chile-
Oz game and the goals from the Holland game. They were all good ones.
I was impressed with Chile too.
Let’s hope they can knock out Spain, who go home early as champions, like Italy did in 2010.

[arathorn]

Glorious play by oranje!

[aequitas-et-veritas]

@John:

@axisandalliesplayer:

Found a gif of the header where you can see where he was kept on.

http://i.imgur.com/5JS27Ym.gif

Wow, thanks for the clips! I bet the Dutch fans were going nuts on this game. :-D

You have no idea!… :-)