I have enjoyed these types of threads in the past. I went for the low-hanging tabloid Bild fruit first, but will scan the German press over the weekend. Jogi is hot for teacher http://www.bild.de/sport/fussball/wm-2014/jogi-jetzt-kommen-deine-gegner-33707772.bild.html Jogi Löw in der ARD: „We are meeting old acquaintances. It is something special to have the USA in a group. Jürgen and I are very close. But of course there are things that we can't discuss now. Klinsi: "We've already joked about it. A crazy group! Couldn't have been more difficult. But we believe in ourselves, that we can make it into the next round."
soundbites from Löw, Hitzfeld, Bierhoff and Niersbach. Löw makes the point that all four teams made it out of the group phase four years ago. http://www.bild.de/video/clip/joachim-loew/reaktionen-wm-auslosung-33752320.bild.html
All I can say that the term GOD is surely sth that only occurred(and is understandable from your pov) in the US. Spiegel states Germany was drawn into a group that doesnt fit the usual terms "Hammergruppe"(group of death) or "Duselgruppe"(an lucky, easy group). Stern thinks "group G is not easy but doable". RPOnline saw "enough luck and not to much hammer in our group". Die Welt states "Hammergruppe? Löw's chances are bright". More important topic seem to be the climate conditions. The papers more have respect for the moist and hot weather now that we know the three cities theyll be playing in.
Germans aren't going to think any group is a group of death. They're the second best team in the world.
I understand that point of view from the Germans. They don't really need to worry about any group. But I would consider this a Group of Death for the other 3 teams in it, including Portugal. Tbh, Portuguese news clippings are what I'd be most interested to see, because I have a feeling they will under rate the US and Ghana, and then be shocked when both teams can play with them.
2004 is 10 years ago. It's a whole different ballgame. Also, your 2012 group of death saw you go undefeated. Must have been shaking in your boots.
Talking of Todesgruppe is always nonsense. Now in hindsight it doesnt look very reasonable. But that's how the mood was before the tourney. Holland, who we consider to be our main rivals, against whom we didnt look all to well in the last two decades. Portugal with Ronaldo, obviously looking for revenge for 2006 and 2008(+ 2012 now) and a fighting spirit Denmark. Still a great side Germany, right? You can see how close this group in the end was if you notice that Germany won all three games by nothing but one single goal! In the Denmark game Erikson hit the post and Denmark should have got a penalty. Germany would have been out. See? So there are Todesgruppen from a German pov. It's just that this isnt one.
This got me wondering, when's the last time this happened in a World Cup? I can't think of any World Cup group since I've been watching where all four teams made it to the knockout stage in the prior tournament.
When I saw the thread title, I thought this would be about the group that other countries are calling the group of death. In the Argentine press that I read through, group D (Italy, Uruguay, England, Costa Rice) is the group of death. They point out that there are 7 world cup wins in that group. They also mention in passing group B (Spain, Netherlands, Chile, Australia), but not ours. Interesting that different countries have different perspectives.
Not surprising. It's Germany, Portugal...oh and those two other teams. See the ESPN FC commentating crew for more of that. Not saying it's necessarily wrong, but it's definitely an opinion among the Europeans in particular.
Headline from A Bola: "Group is treacherous but it allows [us] to dream." From Record: 'Paulo Bento: "The group is difficult but nothing changes." (also has this quote from Klinsi: "It is useless to try and lock down Ronaldo." From O Jogo, there's this article about the United States team. "Paulo Bento knows well that this is not a team to underestimate." About Klinsmann: "The coach has slowly been revitalizing a team that possessed many players with a lot of experience, especially attackers Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey. But...there is still the powerful Jozy Altidore...[and] the midfielder Michael Bradley." No word in there about Brad Evans or DaMarcus Beasley... Also from A Bola, this quote from Gyan: "There is no fear of Germany or Portugal." Seems to me like they consider the group a tough challenge, but one they are more than capable of advancing out of.
Nothing new about that being an opinion among the Europeans in the slightest (and from what I'm gathering, Portuguese fans are fearing Ghana more than us), but the Germans are spending about as much time talking about us as anybody, though I'm sure that's largely due to the Klinsmann Factor. Much of it in fact focuses primarily on Klinsmann.
This is a different WC. First time ever also that a rematch of the previous final in the first round.
Yes, very interesting. I would trade us places with Costa Rica in a heart beat though. It doesn't mean that isn't a tough group.
It's all in how you look at it, fellows. That is the most important thing to master and if the US does, we really can advance out of Group. Now, 1st things 1st, all of the 3 other teams need to just consider Germany the winner of the Group, in all 3 matches, and they'll advance w/ 9 pts. and they are done for this analysis. So, we have 3 teams left, and at this point they are all tied, w/ 1 loss apiece (to Germany). Now, here is where it gets easy to decipher. You can leave it up to chance and goal differential if you like, OR, you can do this... Match #1 -- Beat Ghana. Match #2 -- Beat Portugal Match #3 -- Lose to Germany, but by then it doesn't matter b/c you are thru w/ 6 pts. Simple!
I wouldn't. If only because I'd not want to be forced to read about how much better than everyone England is for six months and watch that country delude itself into thinking it's anything but R16 fodder. It's better to do that a little removed, because then its funny. But primarily because if we advance out of our group, it means we're playing well enough to make a run, and we won't play anyone clearly above our level until the QF.
Well, considering the damn thing got seeded by FIFA ratings, and our group has the lowest average, FIFA considers it the GOD.