I was thinking after watching most of the matches from the group stage of the 2018 WC, which teams would the US have faired well against, which teams would the US have put up a strong fight again, and which teams would hav
Swap us for any of the other concacaf teams and I don’t see our current player pool getting out of any of those groups. Regardless of coach.
Agree, although I think we would've shown better than they did. If we'd qualified we would've replaced either Costa Rica, Panama, or Australia (if we'd finished 4th and then gone to the Hex)--so looking at those groups: Costa Rica - Serbia, Brazil, Switzerland I can actually see us getting a point (maybe even 3?) against Brazil as sluggish as they looked in the group stage but shitting the bed in the other 2 games. Serbia in particular is the type of team we always struggle against, Switzerland has 0-0 draw written all over it. Think we start off with a loss to the Serbs then get a pair of draws but it isn't enough. Panama - Belgium, England, Tunisia Think we steal a point from one of the Euros, not sure which one. Belgium started off pretty slow in their game against Panama and we always play England tough. We beat Tunisia handily. Think we get 4 points from this group which might be enough to advance but most likely not based on other results. Australia - France, Denmark, Peru Well we just drew France in France in real life and also Australia was unlucky not to get a point from them so obviously that means we would've beaten Les Bleus. In all seriousness, I do think we take a point from them based on how they actually played in that game. Denmark is a tough one...I don't see us beating Schmeichel but I don't see them beating us either. 1-1 draw, with Omar Gonzalez of all people getting our goal on a set piece. Finally, we manage a draw against Peru as well. 3 points, whether or not we advance again depends on other results. Keep in mind, all the above analysis is made with full 20-20 hindsight against how those groups actually went--especially keep in mind that in real life the power teams in each group (with the exception of England vs Panama) didn't play well against the team we would've hypothetically replaced.
Though we wouldn't have been in the same pot as Panama/Australia due to the new seeding system. Our ranking would have put us in pot 3, so we'd have had a slightly easier group than either of those two countries got. The only pure "like for like" switch that could have happened is us and Costa Rica.