USA, England, Czech Republic, Brazil... would be that fine? please no Germany in your group...i would rather we meet the USA later not in the first games....
ach, you are from England...England-Germany..old rivals.. Well I don´t want we have USA in our group since I like USA team.. and I want both Germany and USA will play in different groups but if you have USA in your group (England)..hm..USA-England... a bit difficult...I know that english team is very competetive.... so we hope that USA will get other group better....but I would not sure....maybe USA could beat England..eveything is possible.. USA could have won against Germany in 2002...so i would not underestimate american team...they are always a lot of surprise
well I´m German but I don´t underestimate american team... I saw you like Dukla Prague..my mother is from Prague. .by the way czech team is good I think.... maybe many German or European underestimate american team, but I also think that it changed a lot... many started to have much more respect for USA....everyone who watched WC 02 in Korea, knows that USA is no more "newcomer" in soccer.... everyone has a chance to win this cup... of course competition from Europa is big..
I want Italy...especially with the squad they have now. Pablo would torture Totti. Gooch would beat down Vieri and EJ would blow past Nesta and Cannavaro (hopefully). We can beat them. My second choice would be France. Until the French find another hero like Zidane, they are lost. However, Henry would torch our defense. My current choice for our group is Italy, USA, Cameroon, Saudi Arabia.
I'm not so sure ... my brief impression after a recent visit to Europe is that people think of the U.S. as something like an African country - not good enough to win the senior World Cup, but good in youth competitions and a dangerous opponent even at the senior level. Pele recently made the same comparison, said that Africa + U.S. were at the next level of competition after the big-name countries, and definitely a step up from the top Asian countries.
I think that's fair and accurate. Like a Nigeria or Cameroon, we're not a threat to win it all. But a run to the quarter-finals is more than possible, with an upset along the way, we could make the semi-finals, and most important, nobody will want to see this level of quality in their group. We're a difficult and dangerous opponent regardless.....
This is history repeating itself; Europe (and especially the parts of Europe that are forced to deal with the US during a tournament) always patronizes the US (before and after '02), as long as they end every sentence with "but they just don't have enough heart/class/will/soccer juice to do anything." Sometimes the press puts out an article about how US players recently discovered how to cross the ball, like some National Geographic documentary marvelling at the human-intellect-like wonders of nature. And when they lose, it's always some lame excuse about underestimating "those plucky Americans" or how the wind was kicking up sand in the stadium that day. Frankly, I'm getting quite bored of it. What matters more than what other countries' fans think is what fans in the US think, if it matters at all. It's best to channel out the veiled disrespect these guys throw at us under the guise of vaunted "insight into The Beautiful Game(tm)."
This would be nice......but regardless of who we draw in our group, it will always be a challenge to get to the second round.....the rate of improvement around the world and not just in the US makes for increased parity.....but I still feel we will get out of our group and after that who knows?
I believe the teams we need to be concerned with are the big central and eastern european squads. Our team has difficulty playing large physical teams. So I feel we would have problems with Croatia, Czech republic, and Ukraine. We haven't proved we can beat Poland. England even threw us around. This will be a well balanced cup.
While probably true, until they beat a European team in Europe whose not called Poland, there is certainly cause for concern.
well as I already told here....I think we European should not underestimate USA...maybe it is because of lack of soccer history in the USA..but if we look at current time, at last few years, then I would say USA is already in top "soccer" league countries.....I think we will get very quickly competition from USA and I think we will notice it too late... this is why I keep me already informed about american soccer.... you have excellent soccer style and talented players....
hadn't pele picked colombia to win the 1994 wc...and he's always touting africa to win... still, if usa draws one of the old line communist powers, the contrast in styles of play will become about usa style succeeding over the old commie style... usa using the ncaa tourney equivalent is like gonzaga, one of those teams who'll be a tough one, but doesn't have the depth of 23 players to win the entire thing.... it could be the usa brings the BEST usa team ever, yet fails to advance...
It's realistic to say that the US could get to the semis but also might not get out of the group. I agree with poster earlier who listed all of the top countries and said we have a shot at beating them even though they would beat us the most out of 10 games. This isn't a home/home tourney it's 1 game. The US has the potential to beat any country in one game, and do it 3-5 times. But also this is the World Cup, anything can happen. And that's why you play the games.
I'll take Brazil if we can play them in their opening match, and France or Spain, if they're the "best" team in the group with no problem.
I know that current czech team is very strong. They have very good offensive players, like Baros from Liverpool, he was the top striker last European Cup 2004, then Nedved from Juventus Turin or Kollar or Rosicky from BL. So from these countries you mentioned is czech team the strongest. If you watched the European Cup 2004, you will know it. They played excellent against Holland and won against Germany as well. But similar to the USA they play very aggressive soccer, I think they have something in common. Just my opinion. Would be interesting to see both how they play against each other. England-USA...well I hope they are not in the same group as well Germany-USA should not be in the same group....it is better they meet later...... I would wish to see Holland-USA...this could be excellent soccer. I myself like aggressive soccer with many scores, if teams play more offensive then careful and defensive...Just my opinion.. Holland, USA, Czech they play super aggressive soccer.. but Germany is changing its "careful" attitude and starts to play more offensive as well.. I think the next soccer cup in GErmany will be definitely more interesting then the last cup in Korea......We will see many scores... And which country will be difficult for U.S?... I think soccer changed so much in recent years and we have so many "newcomer" and new successful countries that it is hard to say who is better " old-tradition" countries like Germany or England, Italy, Spain or "new" countries.... your bltleo GERMANY
I also believe we should fear these Eastern European countries. If Slovakia qualifies, they would be a handful...as well as Serbia and Montenegro. Against African and South American countries, we can definitely compete with anyone. Especially, against Africa because the teams are so undisciplined and disorganized...similar to the teams we play in Concacaf. I believe European teams trouble us because we're not used to the style of play (physicality and speed)...and often they are simply more skilled.
Slovakia I think they are second in the group after Portugal. I saw them play against Portugal, but they were not so good as I thought. They have very good striker MINTAL, he is striker of year in BL, Germany plays for Nürnberg. But I would not fear Slovakia. Czech is definitely better then Slovakia. And I also would not fear all european teams. Of course we european playes "other" soccer style. But your style is not worse, just different. I always enjoy watching when these two different "soccer styles" American and Euro play against each other. USA is skilled as well. Maybe we have more good players (I mean number of them), we have good tradition. But you have motivation and your aggressive style of play.
No, no, Ringo. 2010 group play will be easy. That's the year we will win the Cup. It says so right here in the Project 2010 Manifesto...
I agree with you about our aggression...it's what we do best. But in terms of physicality, we're a bit behind the Euro teams. Damarcus Beasley and Landon Donovan are a bit smaller than most Euro midfielders. In my opinion, the key to our success in 2006 will be the play of Claudio Reyna and John O'Brien. If they return to be the force that they were in 2002, we could make the second round again. If O'Brien does not come back, we don't have another holding midfielder. Our young players simply want to attack, attack, attack. Dempsey plays full speed constantly...he gets the ball and attacks. We don't have a young player who can dictate the speed of the game and distribute the ball with intelligence other than O'Brien and Reyna.
Besides a penalty kick, I don't see the current Italian squad scoring against Kasey Keller, Gooch and Cory Gibbs and Pablo. They constantly play defense and hope for a penalty. We would attack constantly. Italy has never played the US in a major international tournament. Bring them on. I hate their style and we would embarrass them on the world stage. Totti is ridiculous and then Del Piero...please. The Italians' world cup fate hinges on the money they pay referees. Unless Italy calls up that forward that torched on US U-20 team, we could beat them.
Whoever we get drawn with, the most important thing is to get a positive result in the 1st match. Historically, non-power nations fail to move out of the group when losing their 1st group match, even if they are considered darkhorses for that tournament (Colombia '94, Portugal '02, Spain '98)Teams like Italy (losing to Ireland 1st game '94) or Germany (losing to Algeria 1st game '82) or Argentina losing to Cameroon 1st game '90) can overcome this and even go on to tournament success. Outside these few though, the uphill battle is too difficult (even France '02 couldn't overcome the shock loss to Senegal). Our entire tournament success in '02 was built on those amazing 1st 25' of the Portugal match.