I’ll always remember what this hubris lead to
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That 2010 match between the US and England I think was the first time I’d heard the word “howler” outside of a Harry Potter book.
I do genuinely feel bad for Robert Green though.
I don’t think anyone outside of Robert Green cares too much about the States in the World Cup, but Scotland would be extra spicy. Double points if England go in as heavy favourites, get outplayed and then win with an own goal and something that bounces in off Harry Kane’s arse.
I might have to restart my BARRY MCGARRY career in FIFA to prepare myself.
So there’s no clear Gorup of Death that I can see. Group of Death being at least three heavyweights in the same group. The draw seems pretty even.
Wow, yeah, no obvious Group of Death like in previous World Cups. I’d say Group G and H come the closest.
If Italy had made it in might have made an old school Group of Death somewhere. But they didn’t qualify. Again.
Yeah, when they pulled Spain and Germany for Group E, that looked like it was headed to being the GoD, but then…well, I like New Zealanders and the Japanese a whole lot, but probably their national teams might not rise to what others would see as a group of death, maybe.
Hey, the last time NZ made the World Cup we were the only undefeated team! 🧐
But yes, our role (if we qualify!) will be to act as kingmaker for the top two teams in terms of the for and against tiebreaker…
If we’re going to clown about US/England World Cup history, it seems only fair to bring up what happened when Iran played the US en route to the latter’s last place finish in 1998:
Also, I forgot that this will be the last 32-team World Cup until I read an article memorializing it. On to 16 groups of three teams each and a knockout round-of-32 next time.
I didn’t realize we were “clowning” on the US and England.
But if we do want to clown on England and since we’re talking 1998, perhaps we can revisit the joke about the difference between David Beckham and a snap-together Airfix model?
(BTW, by everything I’ve seen, Iran 2022 looks like a very tough team this go-round. They might be the 2nd-place side in that group with the US, depending on who wins through amongst the other three.)
Hey, I’m just glad the US overcame the titans of CONCACAF to qualify this time.
That is exactly the reason for changing to basing the ‘pods’ on world ranking. There shouldn’t ever be a Group of Death unless some nation is seriously under-ranked for some reason.
I really think Group B any team has a realistic shot of advancing, with England being the only side I’d take an even bet on advancing.
USA/Iran/playoff team are all around 40% odds in my book.
The U.S. Men’s team is back to being good? I haven’t kept up with them. I’m always hoping. Every World Cup. But it usually doesn’t happen.
Almost as good as Canada even.
THey’re very young/inconsistent, but on their day they’re really good, off their day, they’re as bad as 2018.
They’re probably a bit green for this World Cup, and still very front-loaded and perhaps just not deep enough to do much in 2022. They’re inconsistent as hell – in keeping with what you’d expect from a very young side that massive issues on the back line.
But with Pulisic, Dest, Reyna, McKennie, Musah, Aaronson et al, it’s absolutely one of the most talented player “cores” they’ve had in a good while, if ever. The back line is the biggest issue tactically and talent-wise. And it’d be great if Pepi got over his initial adjustment to top international footie and showed up in November as a more savvy, stronger player. (He’s just 19 so hard to be too down on him not yet meeting the absurd levels of hype generated around him; there’s time for sure.)
One sign of progress: the USMNT probably has at least as many – if not more – of its top-line players rostered with top division clubs in Germany, England, Spain, Italy, France, etc than it ever has.