There's been a lot of talk about the strength of the group, and whether expectations were too high or too low, and whether the USA underperformed or was simply outplayed (or of course, combinations of all of those). I thought it'd be interesting to look at all of our WC opponents since 1990 and discuss where our 06 opponents would fall among them. One caveat: I'm judging on the strength of the team when the opening whistle blew, not necessarily on what happened later in the tournament. So even though the Czechs fell apart without Köller, when we played them they were an outside shot for the semis. I'd rank them: 1) Brasil 94 (cupwinners) 2) Italy 90 (knocked out of semis on PKs) 3) Italy 06 (Could be a finalist) 4) Romania 94 (Underrated team. Lost in the quarters on PKs) 5) Germany 02 (Finalist, but had a really easy go) 6) Czech Republic 06 (they looked every bit the contender with Köller) 7) Czechoslovakia 90 (gave us our worst WC whooping. Beaten by eventual champs in the quarters) 8) Korea 02 (3rd place largely aided by home crowd and extreme heat.) 9) Germany 98 (Lame team that got bounced in the quarters by Croatia) 10) Mexico 02 (2-0.) 11) Portugal 02 (Scored a ton of goals, but their goalie couldn't stop one) 12) Ghana 06 (Wouldve been more interesting vs Brasil with Essien) 13) Colombia 94 (Hugely talented...they just imploded in the first round) 14) Yugoslavia 98 (Nothing special. Lost in Round of 16 to Holland) 15) Switzerland 94 (Got creamed by Spain in Round of 16) 16) Austria 90 (tough defensively, but couldn't score. Except against us). 17) Poland 02 (Only scored against us. -4 goal differential) 18) Iran 98 (Dreadful. Only scored against us.) Interesting that the worst 3 teams we played all beat us. In fact, we got results against middle-of-the-road competition better than the top or bottom--wins against #8, 11 & 13, draws agaisnt #3, 9 & 15. Looking at the teams we've played in the past, our 06 opponents were definitely among the toughest. You could easily argue that Ghana is top 10, and though some might argue that I placed Czechs that high, they're certainly in the top half. Our results: 1990: Czechoslovakia (L, 1-5), Italy (L, 0-1), Austria, (L, 1-2) 1994: Switzerland (D, 1-1), Colombia (W, 2-1), Romania (L, 0-1) Brasil, (L, 0-1) 1998: Germany (L, 0-1), Iran (L, 1-2), Yugoslavia (L, 0-1) 2002: Portugal (W, 3-2), Korea (D, 1-1), Poland (L, 1-3), Mexico (W, 2-0), Germany (L, 0-1) 2006: Czech Republic (L, 0-3), Italy (D, 1-1), Ghana (L, 1-2) Discuss.