We always hear (and say) that after making the final 8 we can't count on being overlooked and we wont be taken lightly at this world cup, etc. However, i think we overestimate our reputation. In the BBC world cup summary they predict for us "Unlikely to make much of an impression." Even Ghana (and almost every other team) gets a more positive forcast. Then tonght on this dubbed South American show on GolTV they were interviewing Pele about all the groups. About our group he said (paraphrasing) "Everybody of course expects the US to be the weakest team in the group but they are not that bad." So I'm thinking, of course we wont be overlooked by our opposition. Teams take every world cup game seriously. However, I do think teams still vastly underrate us and that could STILL work to our advantage. I hope the czechs and italians agree with pele that the US will be the weakest in the group and spend more time preparing for Ghana than us.
In 2002 we were over looked just as we are in 2006. The result was a place in the quarterfinals. I think a place in the quarters is ridiculous even if we do get out of the group because we would likely face Brazil, but I don't think it a reach for us to beat Italy or the Czechs. Unlikely, but possible.
That's because most agree that Europeans do better on European soil and that doesn't include WC 2002. Also, Portugal probably played their worst half while we played our best half of the cup. The second half was probably the more likely (2-0 not us). We were about equal with South Korea but I'd say were better. We played a VERY meaningful game against Poland while they had little to no chance and we were exposed for what we were at 3-1. Somehow Portugal slipped up and lost on a late goal and we were through. Against Mexico it was an average and predictable game with the lovely 2-0. Against Germany we played lights out and showed heart. We'll need that same luck and effort this time around and even then we have essentially a one in four chance.
who gives a s....t if other countries respect us. Im happy as long as our team wins. I could care less what Kofi in africa, mr. lee in asia, aziz in arabia,hanz in germany and jose from spain think of us.
It is pretty funny that it seems the other nations in the world want to give the United States as little respect as possible, and they always will because it isn't any fun for other nations to root for the wealthiest nation in the world and the one which dominates many other sports.
underestimated or not , we have a huge task to accomplish next summer which is going to be real to do . I definitely think we can do it whether or not we go in as underdogs
I was just tryin to add a new angle to an old topic, which is that, reding these boards you get the impression that no team will take us lightly... I'm not saying we don't need a lot of luck and great play to advance, I'm just saying that is seems we will be under estimated again... now i'll let it die