They fared as well as you could expect them to fare if a Sepptic Bladder had been handled by a Mad Qatar.
Ghana = Knocked the USA out of the previous 2 World Cups Germany = Knocked the USA out of the 2002 World Cup Portugal = Ronaldo is well-known to American soccer and non-soccer fans alike. Higher TV Ratings = More $$$ for FIFA.
are you asserting that draws are always rigged? or that fifa was angry about criticism? the reality is that this world cup is one of the best ever in terms of quality, and with the US being one of the best teams in the weakest pot it was always unlikely that they got into a group of life. Ivory coast had been in the group of death its 1st 2 world cups ever and they never accused fifa of anything, this is incredibly petty and childish, the US got a tough draw. get over it. this is a tough draw for ghana and portugal too, same with italy and uruguay and chile and most teams in the tournament to be honest.
US in the second round = Even Higher TV Ratings = Even More $$$ for FIFA. (Though I don't know quite how, because the TV rights have already been sold and the advertising will be sold, it's not like they go back and say, "Well, this many people watched, so now you owe me this much more than you already paid.")
When it comes to FIFA draws, yes, I assert that. I do not have any confidence in the current FIFA regime. Canchon was saying it was about the criticism, not me.
so you believe that this full draw was created before the draw and that the whole ceremony was a hoax? or do you believe only certain nations were targeted. I ofcourse do not believe any of this (because if it were in any way proven the scandal would destroy FIFA and theres no way they could keep that information to a mere handful of executives especially in such a public ceremony, this is just a knee-jerk response to the 1st group of death the US has ever had) but I'm interested on what exactly is being alleged
I believe it was created before the draw because it's in FIFA's best interests to do so. If it were proven in any way, FIFA would go right along on its merry way, because FIFA has no methods of accountability for any wrongdoing of its leadership. Just being a realist about it. I mean, really, wasn't the whole Qatar World Cup "bid" an obvious giveaway of FIFA's crookedness? What makes you think their draws and ceremonies aren't just as crooked?
That FIFA is crooked is one thing. That the draw is rigged is entirely another. I think mastermoo is trying to get at why you go so far as to conflate those things and assume everything is micromanaged (or microrigged) when there is no evidence of such. It makes no sense to say the draw is rigged and to see Spain and the Netherlands at risk of being knocked out by Brazil as early as the second round, or worse yet, of knocking out Brazil. Several groups don't make sense but the way conspiracy theories work that doesn't matter, what matters are the cooked up ideas like the notion that FIFA wants to retaliate against certain nations. Those things take hold and people won't let go of them. Yes, FIFA is unaccountable, they're effectively a mafia. They take bribes for hosting the Cup and rationalize them away as part of the procedure. If they wanted to rig the draw they could, but they don't have to. That doesn't make them "less" crooked because we're not comparing them to anyone here, there's only FIFA and they're crooked as it gets. But they'll do just fine with a semi-random draw (the seeds are not random, and the geographical separation is not random, everything else is). They get more out of making it a super-production (check how much money went into the whole shindig) and selling TV rights than out of rigging it. The World Cup is going to fill their pockets just fine without being rigged.
What a conspiracy theory. Remember that with 8 groups and the seedings the way they were, groups were likely to be interesting. Given there are 8 groups, the probability of having 1 or more groups where teams have a bit of history against each other isn't that low. It just happened to be the US and obviously with bigsoccer's massive American userbase that point is missed. If it happened to the French team then I expect a similar thing to be said on French forums etc. etc. There is no evidence to suggest the draw wasn't random. However, the decision to use the Pot X procedure is obviously not random but chosen. That's the only part that was fixed. The seeding procedure was announced well in advance and so there is nothing wrong with that either.
Yeah, FIFA are scumbags but the difficulty of this World Cup was set in stone when the seedings came out with teams like Colombia, Belgium and Switzerland. THAT'S when people should have been discussing this whole thing being rigged, not now. Sorry, I still think like a player, you STILL have to go out and play hard and try to get results, that hasn't changed. We got a tough group, so f'ing-what? Stop crying and knuckle-down.
Part of the perk of being one of the former players inducted in the draw process is that you get the inside knowledge that all of the World Cup matches in which you have participated in the past have been the result of rigged draws. Though one may think that this would bother at least one of the 50+ former players that would have participated in this process causing the whole house of cards to come crashing down. It doesn't. The coziness of being on the inside trumps their integrity.
The former does not necessarily prove the latter. The former was obvious to all. The latter requires people to do a Zapruder-like analysis of the video and draw conclusions that dovetail nicely with their pre-existing insecurities given America's long position as an object of derision in the global soccer context. That doesn't mean the draw was rigged. As TabLalas said above....it's a tough ********ing draw. Tough shit. Go play. I don't know who you're going to appeal to, the World Court or what, or exactly what justice people think they're going to exact by never leaving their ********ing computers.
Right. You need to come up with an absurd rationalisation to keep your conspiracy theory alive. Occam's razor has never been more applicable. Instead of building the logic that the dozens if not hundreds of people involved in draws over the years lacking integrity, how about as one of the possible of outcomes it happened. Many unlikely things happen every day. For example the exact numbers of whatever your national lottery is has a 1 in x million chance of being selected. And yet it happens. On a roulette wheel, whatever combination of colours you see for 10 spins, is exactly the same probability as 10 reds coming out in a row.
mostly what got my attention was the fact that both USA and England got games in Manaus right after both their managers said, "anything but Manaus!" pretty fishy...
I'm not saying it was or wasn't rigged. Still, how hard could it have been to open the balls in front of the camera? If he had just done that instead of fumbling around with the podium, it would have removed all doubt. Just makes you wonder for sure. Another thing I thought was weird while watching live was after Zidane picked his first ball, he looked back at the bowl with a "did I pick the right ball?" look as he was walking away. That's probably a massive stretch though, and of course would make the podium thing irrelevant. I really need to go to bed or study or do something more productive with my time.
Yes the draw was rigged. It is FIFA we are talking about. No, the draw was not rigged through an incredibly obvious switching of the papers inside the balls behind a counter. FIFA is an incredibly rich and important organization. They have the money to rig the draw without anyone having a clue how.
Even Alexi Lalas admitted that the draw is rigged a little bit to come up with the best tournament. How happy would people be with a group of Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Germany? How happy would people be with a group of Greece Australia, Croatia and Cameroon? Everyone would watch the first group, the second not so much.
this thread is beyond all hope and logic. by seperating the groups by pots, FIFA is already ensuring good teams go through. England and USA got some of the best draws last world cup, did blatter love them then? and I guess some one in fifa also hated the ivory coast from 2006-2010? The US was in the weakest pot in an exceptionally strong world cup, and subsequently got put into a hard group randomly. If there is any unhappyness, it should be at the pot system itself, not any nonexistent rigging. God forbid the US get grouped with countries its played before, 4/5 of Nigerias world cup groups have had Argentina in them, these things happen its the nature of the random draw. Get over it, ive never seen such a disgusting reaction to a countries 'First!' group of death! and it may not even be the hardest group in the WC! I can only hope this is only because of some grudge held after the awarding of 2022 that will dissipate after the US is inevitably given the rights to host 2026
Did you even read this thread? Most of the posters are saying the draw was rigged to increase TV ratings, not because "FIFA hates the US." The latter is completely illogical. The former has financial motivation.
the world cup will be a monetary success regardless, theres no reason to conjure up 'Story lines'. and there have been many posters pointing towards the US and England the difficulty of those 2 draws individually (ex. being drawn to Manaus) as reasons for rigging. i focused on those posters because i found them particularly offensive Honestly, i dare you to simulate a draw and not get scintillatingly interesting groups that will have high TV ratings, it is the nature of the high level of competition this year. Im simply saying that FIFA did not draw up these exact groups before the draw and have a sham presentation where premade groups were presented, and I disagree with anyone who asserts that regardless of their reasoning.