FIFA has never been one to leave much to chance. Russia will be a seed, obviously. What are the chances of a US/Russia group? Who do we expect to be seeded in which pots? This is, of course, given that the US actually qualifies for the tournament. Let's not turn this into a ridiculously stupid political pissfest, but imagine the widespread American media frenzy around Putin and Trump and the US/Russia game. It would be epic on many levels.
That would be interesting but Russia isnt a NT I would fear as much, we would beat them on the field, no doubt about it, however the political view to is an animal in itself. Would the US team and fans be safe if we klober them an embarrassing home defeat in the world cup where Americans are not liked at all??
Not sure how I feel about that... On one hand Russia is likely to be the weakest seed, on the other hand they're still a solid team and will be a tough out at home, particularly if the refs are nervous about coming down with a case of polonium poisoning.
The way you worded your original post all but implied that. Chances are, the US media would be rooting for the US to lose just to stick it to Trump. Of course, beating Russia would be awesome and most normal Americans would love that, too.
No, that would suck. To hear about Trump and Putin, I can turn on any news channel. The World Cup is supposed to be a month-long escape from bullshit.
I'd put the chances at 1 in 8. It'd be nice though, since I think they're far weaker than any other team who could potentially be seeded. To answer your question on how the pots will work, it'll probably be determined by exactly how many CONMEBOL and UEFA teams crack the top 7 and what the split is between the 2 confederations. The last 2 World Cups have gone: Pot 1: Host and top 7 countries in FIFA rankings Pot 2: Asia and CONCACAF Pot 3: Unseeded CONMEBOL teams and Africa Pot 4: Unseeded European teams
My guess Pot 1: Russia, Portugal, France, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Colombia Pot 2: USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Japan, Korea, Iran, Australia Pot 3: Egypt, Nigeria, Congo, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Peru, Uruguay, Ecuador Pot 4: Netherlands, Switzerland, Ireland, Serbia, Croatia, Greece, Italy, England
That will not happen. For the next 4 years, the US news media is going to make everything about Trump because they want to sabotage and ultimately destroy him. If the USA and Russia do meet at the World Cup, the Trump-Putin angle is all they will talk about. Soccer for them will be an afterthought. It will be even worse if the USA and Iran meet as well. Then it will be nothing but nuclear weapons this, nuclear weapons that, and how Trump wants to pull out of that agreement. Again, the actual soccer will be an afterthought. When it comes to soccer and especially because it's the USA, the world's lone economic superpower, anytime the USMNT steps on the field against a political adversary (Russia, China, Iran, etc), this talk is always going to come up. If it was up to rational people, we'd send journalists and politicians to a deserted island to fight wars themselves to leave the rest of us alone.
You have 7 CONMEBOL teams instead of 5 (assuming CONMEBOL beats OFC) and 12 UEFA teams instead of 14 (Russia and 13 from qualifying).
little chance of us-russia group, imo. first, if you think groups are not random - which i think they are not random - then you must ask what factors influence group composition? russia as a host will be a weak seed - probably the weakest seeded - even with home field. home teams almost always have a weak enough group that they can advance from. in the US favor is that they ave advanced from their group in 3 of last 4 word cups. therefore, FIFA knows the US is a threat in a any group they are in. they will want to give russia - as host - best chance of advancing. which would most likely be panama or maybe iran or austrailia. if FIFA wanted to limit chances of russia advancing...they would give them mexico or US....imo, the 2 strongest teams in concacaf/asia. on the other hand, from a usmnt perspective, i expect an "easy" group this time....germany, ghana, portugal was just about the toughest possible group i could imagine last time and the us stll advanced...so FIFA usually balances it out and gives a team that got a hard draw one year an easier one the next.. ... i predict for the us: argentina, nigeria greece. for russia: panama, ecuador, serbia
I actually wouldn't mind getting France. It's a 50-50 of whether Good France or Bad France shows up...if it's Good France they'll win all 3 of their games and we just need to take care of business in our other 2 games. If it's Bad France they'll implode, in-fight, fxck each others' wives, crash out in the group stage, and we stand to benefit as much as anyone else.
I won't be going to Russia next summer and if I did I wouldn't want to be an American fan in Russia before the Russian match. If last summer is any indication, I would expect that to get very ugly, and for security forces to deliberately abet that to a point.
I don't want Russia in the same group as us. I really don't want to hear about Trump, Putin or any politician for that matter . I'll flip to Fox, CNN, if I want to listen to that...
I'm more worried about him hacking the refereeing to be honest, and that's the main reason I want to avoid their group. As a general rule the host nation always makes it out of its group; the only exception was South Africa in 2010. But when you look at Russia's form and recent tournament history — last week's loss to Mexico in the Confederations Cup marked the 3rd consecutive international tournament in which they failed to advance from the group stage — there's a very good chance they could become the second. Then consider their state-sponsored doping program, and how two of their anti-doping officials mysteriously died within a month after the scandal broke. So yes, anything is possible.
They're #42 in Elo right now, but which isn't good but is good enough that along with having home field advantage and a favorable draw by virtue of being seeded they'd have a decent chance to advance even if everything was on the up and up. Considering that everything won't be on the up and up, smart money on them right now has to be to advance...and my bet is that if their R16 opponent gives the ref any chance whatsoever to put the Rooskies through they make the quarters.
If I were a FIFA referee going to Russia for this world cup, I would refuse being a match official in any match involving Russia. Russia's government is well known and notorious for assassinating their political opponents with uranium, poisons, and chemical weapons. I sure wouldn't put it past the Russians to try something like that on a referee who rules "against" their team, especially since it's on their home soil.
This time it'll be a young and hungry France that may well win it all. That's my bet. So much talent.