We are ranked 15th in the world by Fifa, but can we really beat teams that are ranked lower than us? Which team is most likely to beat us in South Africa if the world cup was next week (all opposing teams would be at full strength). This is just for fun because we know the Fifa rankings do not mean much.
This is assuming Bob is still our coach and based on our current away form. In South Africa, I think we would lose to: 16 Uruguay 17 Paraguay 19 Cameroon 22 Ukraine 23 Serbia 26 Chile 28 Romania 29 Denmark 30 Nigeria 31 Ghana 32 Australia 33 Sweden 36 Côte d'Ivoire 37 Egypt 42 Ecuador 43 Colombia With a better coach, I would be more optimistic. We will find out much more during the next two qualifiers and our trip to SA this summer. The Egypt match this summer will be interesting.
The whole list might have a chance, but not a 'great' chance. I would consider it a fairly big upset for about a third of those teams to beat the US.
Of those listed, I think we'd lose to: Paraguay, Serbia, Nigeria, Egypt, and Sweden. Australia and Ghana would be toss ups. I'd be inclined to give us a victory against Ghana just for the revenge factor. We'd be highly motivated for that one. Personally, I'd get the most satisfaction out of it too. We should beat Denmark.
do you ever get bored repeating yourself?? yes, we understand you do not like the coach, his tactics, nor the team's current form... time to move on
Looking at all these teams, I only picked two, Australia and Serbia, as teams that can definitely beat us. Both sides are in suprisingly good form, Australia may be the first team to qualify for the World Cup. Paraguay is in great form right now but I think they are the only team in qualification genuinely overrated. The US in fact has a history of beating Paraguay over the years, and it was only broken in the last Copa America when we played an experimental team. A full strength US team would have given the Paraguayans a much better game if not drawing or beating them outright, Paraguay's defense is incredibly ordinary- pretty much made up of decent utility men from the Mexican League. Their real strength lies in their strikers, Cabanas and Valdez. (In short--I predict Paraguay to be the team in 2010 to get 2002 Portugaled) What I don't understand is the high marks for Ghana and Nigeria. Ghana had a lot of help from the officials against a dispirited US team in the World Cup, I don't see Ghana beating the current US team. They have a class midfield, but besides that they are very ordinary. As for Nigeria, it's the reverse, talent everywhere except the Mid. Niether are complete teams and would have to struggle to get a result against the current US team.
When did Australia get so dangerous? In the times we have played them, or the times that they have been in the WC, I don't remember being overly impressed. And of the African teams, I definitely remember Cameroon and Nigeria being better than Egypt. When did Egypt get good? Maybe I should watch more videos of mid-tier soccer countries? Nah, sounds like a lot of work...
??? Australia have onlyn been in the World Cup twice,once in 1974 and again in 2006 and they were quite a bit better than the USA in that tournament. You've only played them twice: a 0-0 draw in 1998 and a 1-0 loss in 1992 both in the USA. Egypt have been one of th strongest teams in Africa since the very beginninng of the CAF and they've won the last two ANCs. The FIFA rankings are obviously not very accurate and IMO USA would struggle against a number of teams that are supposedly lower-ranked
There is a part of the ecuation that is not mention....They could defeat USA with the Referee help or without it ? Because if you look back at USA/Germany 2002 and Ghana 2006 they were favor by FIFA REFEREES ....
Watching teams, looking at their results, looking at the players they have at their disposal and using this as a basis of comparison. How else? The only thing I'll add is if Altidore can step it up, then that more than anything else will improve the USA as he is a genuinely talented classic centre foward. Looking at the other strikers the USAs key weakness is it's lack of goalscoring threat against quality oppostion. Previously Eddie Johnson as looked the most dangeous US striker against quality oppostion, players like Brian Ching (though who does have decent hold-up play) have looked a negligible threat against a good defence. There's teams like the Ivory Coast ranked a full 21 places below the USA who would go into a WC match as favourites to get the win against the USA.
On a truly neutral field I would not like our chances against Paraguay, mostly just on current form. I have the impression that Serbia is stronger than us but haven't really watched them. Anybody else, most of those are probably a toss-up, as it should be with teams that close in the rankings to us. We would win a few, lose a few, tie a few. I hope we are put in the pot with CAF teams for 2010, though, as we haven't matched up well with African teams in the past and I expect they will do well at an African world cup. Of the African teams I would like us most against Egypt--probably the best team in there but their style is the least likely to give us trouble.
We could have any coach in the world, and I look at 16-46 and don't see many teams that couldn't get a result against the US squad. It doesn't mean they are better teams or they play together better, but it does mean they have better players in more than one position than the US and they play much more competitive schedules year in and year out. Costa Rica, Mexico and Honduras are some of the exceptions, and I'm not terribly familiar with Hungary, Bosnia, Denmark, Switzerland. But as for the rest... #46 is Norway, with Carew, Gamst-Petersen and Riise attacking. Paraguay, Uruguay, Bulgaria, Cameroon have proven world-class strikers. Chile is doing well in CONMEBOL q's. Nigeria is full of speed and talent. We don't have players that can touch Obi-Mikel and Obafemi Martins. Ivory Coast has some great talent, Drogba, Kalou, Toure, Eboue... we can't touch that. Poland is consistently competing in their UEFA qualifying group. I know we beat them there 3-0, but I'm not sure what kind of squad they had or how much the players cared. And in the end, friendly results mean jack and shit. I think the list falls off at 47, Slovakia. A better gauge is to look at the teams ahead of us. Do you think we are anywhere NEAR Turkey? I certainly don't. Consideration of the US team would be much, much different around here if we consistently played against teams that are the same quality as those in CAF, CONMEBOL, and UEFA. We are a top 35 team in the world, maybe. Not much higher than that.
I think about 35 is right and that's probably where most fair-minded (I say fair-minded because there are some who still have views coloured by USA's past staus as an international minnow which hasn't been the case for several decades) non-US fans would put them. Of course there's a fair scope for argument as the USA is sitting on a plateau in term sof quality with a fair number of teams of simalir ability. Also very importnatly international football doesn't lend itself very well to ranking unlike sports/games like Tennis, Chess, Snooker. It's simply too complicated and dynamic and there's no great way of measuring the dynamism. You can learn far more about a teams compartive ability by wtahcing them play a few times than you can by studying their ranking.
Egypt are reigning two-time African Cup of Nations champions. They are pretty good. Australia has Cahill, Kewell, Bresciano, Schwarzer, Neill, Culina, and recently were playing Viduka, Emerton, Grella... Not a lot of those guys wouldn't be welcome on the US starting lineup.
No. Whether or not Bob is our coach sporting a conservative approach, 4-5-1 formation, Ching as a lone striker with no support, and many of our top players sitting next to Bob on the bench has a MAJOR impact on my expectations for this team. Getting Altidore and some of our other highly talented young players ready for South Africa prior to the summer of 2010, would increase my expectations for our potential. However, if we played the games based on our form and that of other potential competitors in South Africa today, I don't like our chances against: 16 Uruguay 17 Paraguay 19 Cameroon 22 Ukraine 23 Serbia 26 Chile 28 Romania 29 Denmark 30 Nigeria 31 Ghana 32 Australia 33 Sweden 36 Côte d'Ivoire 37 Egypt 42 Ecuador 43 Colombia We look very ordinary away from home right now but the next five games on the schedule will provide much more color regarding what we should expect.
you guys complain about the same thing in every thread, very rarely making a new point... forcing the same people to counter your arguments with the same defense.... we understand you dont like bob nor his tactics.... however, he's managed a large number of successes with few negatives.... just b/c he doesnt play the style you prefer or even the players you want doesnt mean he's doing a poor job... 1. won gold, getting us into confeds 2. won twice in europe 3. won in Guat, away (something we havent done in over 20 yrs) 4. won the group stages of quals easily 5. top of the hex these are results to be proud of.... things could have been completely different, be glad we've had such success