pool4 ranking

[sushi]

Pool Four: Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago, United States

please tell me your opinion :) and your country :)

I think… United States, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago

[Team Melli forever]

Iran, Japan, South Korea, United States, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica, T&T

[Charlie Beagle]

Iran, Japan, South Korea, United States, Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica, T&T

Japan, saudi arabia, iran, Costa rica, USA, T&T, South Korea

[English_Warrior]

USA an easy first

Japan
Iran
South korea (these three close behind)

Costa Rica (this one a little bit further away)

Saudi arabia (this one way further away)

T&T (this one not too far of SA)

[YCashMoney42]

Korea/ USA
Japan
Iran
Costa Rica/ Saudi Arabia
TnT

[fk51785]

United States - Should have been in Pot 1
Rep of Korea - Asia's Best, 4th place in 2002 WC, Plenty of WC Experience
Japan - Strong team with talents
Costa Rica - It will be tough for Costa Ricans to advance to Round of 16.
Iran - Lack of WC Experience ...
Saudi Arabia - Still remember 0-8 against Germany in 2002 WC
Trinidad & Tobago - It's like China in last WC

[Mani]

Iran
Japan
USA
Costa Rica
South Korea
Trinidad and Tobago
Saudi Arabia

[Vinnievin]

USA
South Korea
Japan
Iran
Costa Rica
Saudi Arabia
Trinidad & Tobago

[scaryice]

1-United States
2-Japan
3-South Korea
4-Iran
5-Saudi Arabia
6-Costa Rica
7-Trinidad

[leonidas]

I think these rankings are all dependent on who they are matched up against. Brazil would probably have a tougher time against the US or Iran than with Japan or Korea for instance.

[rougou]

I think these rankings are all dependent on who they are matched up against. Brazil would probably have a tougher time against the US or Iran than with Japan or Korea for instance.

they seemed to have a tough time with Japan when they resorted to time-wasting at the confed cup :p lets not forget Japan had a perfectly good goal ruled out too, and had to play catch up the whole match. I think Brazil would have a tougher time with Japan and Korea.

[appoo]

I'm not too sure there is much difference between USA, Japan, and South Korea....

[Colm]

South Korea/Japan
USA
Iran
Costa Rica
Saudi Arabia
T & T

[tamachan]

Japan
USA
South Korea
Costa Rica
Saudi Arabia
Iran
T & T

[NBlue]

Japan, saudi arabia, iran, Costa rica, USA, T&T, South Korea

I'm sorry, are you able to receive television reports down under -- Costa Rica ranked ahead of the US -- um okay. Would you be so kind as to bless us with your analysis of how you arrived at this learned position?

[The Potter]

1-United States
2-Japan
3-South Korea
4-Iran
5-Saudi Arabia
6-Costa Rica
7-Trinidad


About right. There really is a huge drop of between the top 3 or 4 and the rest.

[benztown]

Pool Four: Iran, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago, United States

please tell me your opinion :) and your country :)

I think… United States, Iran, Japan, South Korea, Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago

I think you should include Serbia & Montenegro into that, because even if they are technicaly not in pot 4, they practically still sort of are.

[qdwe]

USA - easy 1st.
Serbia & Montenegro - Isn't this place reasonable? :)
S.Korea/Japan - They(acutually we, I'm Korean.) almost always were in the same range. And still is. And will be. I'm so sure about that.


Others in the same group won't like..
-------------------------------------
Others in the same group will like..


Saudi Arabia/Iran - I don't think Saudi Arabia'll lose 8 goals again, but they were stronger, and not now. They have talent though.
Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobago - Uncertain. I don't think that they can beat any teams in pool 1,2,3.

[Franchise]

I trust ELO pretty strongly (especially when compared to the official rankings); they've got
US (14th place; 1869 points), Iran (19; 1801), Japan (21; 1796), Serbia (24th; 1761), Costa Rica (35; 1710), S. Korea (45; 1669), Arabia (54; 1615), Trinidad (63t; 1560)
Check it out at http://www.eloratings.net/

While some that have already posted have placed the US as low as fourth in pot 4, I seriously doubt that even those people really believe it. An argument might be made for a couple of these teams, but I don't think it would be a compelling one. On the other hand, if someone wanted to say that Japan was better than Iran, I would probably agree. Perhaps this will be Iran's chance to prove that they belong on the world stage, much like the US and the host nations did in '02.

[Sunderj]

How about trying some objective criteria?

By FIFA WC seeding formula
USA(9), South Korea(11), Japan(12), Costa Rica(18), Saudi (19), Iran(21), Serbia(24), T&T(29)

By current FIFA ranking
USA(8), Japan(12), Iran(15), Costa Rica(17), South Korea(20), Saudi (22), Serbia(27), T&T(30)

By Bookmakers odds (edit)
USA(13), Serbia(17), Japan(22), South Korea(23), Costa Rica(29), Iran(30), Saudi (31), T&T(32)

By current ELO rating (edit)
USA(13), Iran(16), Japan(17), Serbia(18), Costa Rica(25), South Korea(27), Saudi (28), T&T(31)

(Each rating is out of the 32 WC qualifiers)

Never argue with the bookies IMHO

Conclusions?

US is the best of this lot, full stop.
Japan is the best of the rest.
Others are too close to call, except Saudi and T&T who are clear in last place.

(edit - had ELO & bookmakers odds in wrong order)