Seedy

[Dan Loney]

This is a placeholder paragraph to let you know that I'm about to spoil the Portugal-Mexico-Iran-Angola fracases. You have been warned. Turn back. Portugal won, but Mexico goes through anyway. Oh, shucks, sorry about that.

And Mexico upholds the honor of CONCACAF and justifies its seeding by backing in to the second round. Now, there's nothing that says that a team can't botch the third game of group play and go far into the tournament, but unfortunately, Mexico can't play itself in the second round.

Instead, they will play either Holy Crap or Sweet Merciful God, No. I don't think people filling out brackets hit the "x" key terribly often after the second round.

Fortunate seeding or no, you have to feel for Mexico, who will be the biggest underdogs outside a pet cemetery. (Was that one too forced? It probably was.) If Mexico does get by Holland or Argentina, I promise to buy one of their jerseys.*

*off of E-Bay**

**from a Thailand bootlegger***

***with "Mexico" misspelled

[FMF_LFP]

Quit being so bitter about it.

Mexico not matter what has been very consistent with the last perfomances in reaching the knock out stages. Eventhough Mexico hasn't impressed this WC ,just like the many other teams. Mexico will give a good earn fight game between their upcmoing rivals Netherland/Argentina.

[Casper]

Even if it's funny, it's still not cool to put spoiler at the top of the front page of BigSoccer.

[kennytt]

I wish Mexico good luck. Please don't repeat 2002.

[Flyin Ryan]

Backing into the second round when one's qualification is not assured.

Hmm...see 2002 World Cup. It worked out well for the USA then.

[ninnid]

Backing into the second round when one's qualification is not assured.

Hmm...see 2002 World Cup. It worked out well for the USA then.

Well, there is a bit of a difference in backing into the second round when in a group versus two European powers and the host country and what Mexico had to face. As I recall,the US beat Portugal when all their stars had four years fresher legs under their feet.

We beat someone else in the quarters too but I just can't quite remember who... :D

[Flyin Ryan]

Well, there is a bit of a difference in backing into the second round when in a group versus two European powers and the host country and what Mexico had to face. As I recall,the US beat Portugal when all their stars had four years fresher legs under their feet.

Poland is a European power? :confused:

Our region is getting destroyed this World Cup. It's not just Mexico, it's everybody. The only team that's matched expectations is Trinidad who exceeded theirs cause they were expected to have 3 losses. Mexico has our only win and I'm not too confident on the U.S. tomorrow, so unless you want to see the U.S. trying to qualify in a region with 1.5 World Cup berths, take heart that they at least managed that.

Costa Rica 0-3
Trinidad 0-2-1
USA 0-1-1
Mexico 1-1-1

Total 1-7-3

[ninnid]

Poland is a European power? :confused:

Our region is getting destroyed this World Cup. It's not just Mexico, it's everybody. The only team that's matched expectations is Trinidad who exceeded theirs cause they were expected to have 3 losses. Mexico has our only win and I'm not too confident on the U.S. tomorrow, so unless you want to see the U.S. trying to qualify in a region with 1.5 World Cup berths, take heart that they at least managed that.

Costa Rica 0-3
Trinidad 0-2-1
USA 0-1-1
Mexico 1-1-1

Total 1-7-3

I hear you, but it is always fun to give Mexico a bit of pain - they are our rivals and will take great joy in giving it back the next time they beat us in the World Cup.

As for the 2002 groups, you are right... Poland wasn't great but they were the weakest team in the group that had the host country and Portugal - who were absolutely dominant coming in. You can't tell me Iran and Angola match up....

As for expectations, I think everything went about as one could expect considering the groups. Yes the Trinis played organized defense but never really threatened. Costa Rica was outclassed in a tough group. The US has an outside chance to go through in probably the toughest group in the tournament and Mexico qualified out of a relatively weak group.

I would say that was pretty much what we could expect, no? Certainly no informed Americans thought we were going to waltz through our group. The vast majority put our odds well below 50% to advance and that has played out just about right. Can you really see FIFA coming down on us for failing to go through in Group E?

It would have been nice to see CR or the Trinis go, but it was never likely to happen. If anything, the shocker is that it took an Iranian goal to get Mexico in the next round. For a number one seed they should have qualified easily.

The problem isn't that some US fan (giddy from witnessing our incredible display of blood and guts and hyped about going to the game tomorrow) is giving the Mexicans a hard time. The problem is that the Mexicans have under-performed - and that might hurt CONCACAF going forward.

[edu76]

Tru dat
Perhaps we shouldn't have 3.5 slots. The only teams
worthy of playing in the WC are Mexico and USA/USA and Mexico.
Costa Rica should play Uruguay or Australia.

Poland is a European power? :confused:

Our region is getting destroyed this World Cup. It's not just Mexico, it's everybody. The only team that's matched expectations is Trinidad who exceeded theirs cause they were expected to have 3 losses. Mexico has our only win and I'm not too confident on the U.S. tomorrow, so unless you want to see the U.S. trying to qualify in a region with 1.5 World Cup berths, take heart that they at least managed that.

Costa Rica 0-3
Trinidad 0-2-1
USA 0-1-1
Mexico 1-1-1

Total 1-7-3

[Flyin Ryan]

Tru dat
Perhaps we shouldn't have 3.5 slots. The only teams
worthy of playing in the WC are Mexico and USA/USA and Mexico.
Costa Rica should play Uruguay or Australia.

So much has changed in CONCACAF in 4 years. In 2002 the hex was awesome, although too adventurous for Mexico and USA fans. A lot of fans forget this, but Costa Rica actually "won" the hex by 6 points. The 4th place team, Honduras, would've been a scrappy side in the World Cup to play. And our results showed the region was strong.

USA 2-2-1, quarterfinalist (defeated Mexico and Portugal, tied co-host South Korea)
Mexico 2-1-1, round of 16 (defeated Croatia and Ecuador, tied Italy)
Costa Rica 1-1-1, group stage, lost out on goal difference (defeated China, tied eventual 3rd place Turkey)

This time it was weak. After 3 gamedays in the hex, it was clear who the top two were going to be, and that kills your competitive spunk for the top two I think. Don't know if the quality has gone down, or having Panama and Guatemala instead of Jamaica and Honduras brought a decrease in the good hex teams, but it just wasn't there that time. Although I'm happy they made the World Cup, Trinidad took their 2002 team, who went 1-7-2 in the hex, added Dwight Yorke, and went 4-5-1 in the 2006 hex. Not to mention, pre-coaching change to Beenhakker, in the semifinal round of CONCACAF they looked terrible for stretches against the easiest draw in World Cup history in St. Kitts and St. Vincent (they still won all four games).

I think next time CONCACAF should have 3 berths. It's a good solid number and it works for the hex. Maybe 2002 was a fluke, when we pulled off 5 wins with 3 teams, when we're now standing at 1 win with 4 teams.

I see now that Mexico in the second round will play:

Argentina. Considering their playing history in the Copa America. This should at the least be fun to watch.

[scaryice]

If you don't want to spoil the result, you should make your first post the warning, then make a second post with the result.

[Jambon]

Well, if we're going to be honest with ourselves, we should admit that 3.5 slots for CONCAF really is ludicrous, even if our region did win the playoff spot. Poor results in this cyce will probably just result in a readjustment to a more reasonable 3. The beneficiary of the extra half slot should be South America in my opinion.

[Eric B]

Well, if we're going to be honest with ourselves, we should admit that 3.5 slots for CONCAF really is ludicrous, even if our region did win the playoff spot. Poor results in this cyce will probably just result in a readjustment to a more reasonable 3. The beneficiary of the extra half slot should be South America in my opinion.Then Uruguay should have defeated Australia.

The one match about which CONCACAF-haters can say "gotcha" was Mexico's draw with Angola. Other than that, Asia has been typically underwhelming, and are now looking up at our collective ballsacks after the Mighty Persians pants-dropping to the Green Rats, and Bahrain would have just been smoked by the Hondurans had they not gotten the ass end of the "Warner draw" in the SF round of qualifying. There's no one else who really deserved that half spot that much more than CONCACAF, IMO.

However, it's likely we won't get it come 2010. I imagine Africa will still get ther five spots plus South Africa, considering how well Ghana and the Coasties have looked this tournament. That means one less spot for the non-Euro Confeds, meaning we're likely back down to three, the Asian, back down to four, and the fifth CONMEBOL team probably taking on New Zealand. Of course they could piss all of Europe off and take another spot from them, which would at least be fun to watch...