The field is complete: Seeds are in Red. AFC Australia Iran South Korea Japan CONCACAF USA Mexico Costa Rica Honduras CAF Ivory Coast Ghana Algeria Nigeria Cameroon CONMEBOL Brazil (Host) Argentina Colombia Uruguay Chile Ecuador UEFA Spain Germany Belgium Switzerland Netherlands Italy England Portugal Greece Bosnia and Herzegovina Croatia France Russia The Final Draw will take place on December 6, 2013 in Brazil. Group Stage games start on June 12, 2014 and conclude on June 25. The Knockout Stage starts on June 28. The World Cup Final is on July 13.
This is a strong field folks. No cupcake teams this year. Every group will be a battle. Last time I remember this many sluggers was Mexico 86.
Your not kidding. There will be multiple groups of death. The spread of soccer talent is really going to be evident here. Swiss, Uruguay and Columbia as seeds over the Dutch is mystifying. The Dutch are just awesome.
So I'm thinking the pots will be: Pot 1 8 Seeds Pot 2 8 UEFA Pot 3 2 CONMEBOL 1 UEFA 5 CAF Pot 4 4 CONCACAF 4 AFC So the CONCACAF teams will be in a group with a Seed, a UEFA team, and likely a CAF team but possibly a CONMEBOL or UEFA team.
Agreed. The way the pots will likely be put together means CONCACAF squads will not see any Asian teams in the groups and may not get any African squads either. Could be looking at two UEFA teams plus a top CONMEBOL squad. No Mexico 2006 groups
That was the best case scenario math I came up with last night. Chile or Ecuador as a substitute for either the African or Euro II opponent.
"Brasil, Holland, Nigeria...You have to fuk one, eat one and kill one! Go!"---Doback on WC Group of Deaths for 'mericans
When you look at the probable type of group the US will be in and compare it to our draw in 2010 . . . . . you realize how much Bradley squandered the best draw the US will ever have
Messing around with the simulator leads me to believe that unless the USMNT is in perfect form, they will likely not advance out of the group stage.
Avoid Brazil, Spain, Germany, and Argentina in pot 1. Avoid Dutch, Italy, England, and Portugal in pot 4. And hope for Algeria, Nigeria or Cameroon in pot 3. Everything else is a crap shoot as we don’t know who will show up and can argue all day about potential, recent form, and WC history.
I don't want to fooookin avoid anybody! I want to see the US beat fair and square whoever falls in our grasp. Foooooooook the other teams foooooooooook em all!!! #USA USA USA Let's not forget just like the Germany WC the teams are going to need a lot of discipline to get past the other teams since Brazil is going to be party central just like Germany was. Brazil were heavy favorites and were a stacked team from front to back but partying too much had them playing horrible, Ronaldinho was MIA the whole tournament. It's hard to resist brazil nightlife as a famous and rich footballer.
I was surprised at my sims. 11 times and rated each one: -Good chance of advancing (ie i would be mad if we didnt advance)---5 -Some chance (ie play well and we most likely would advance)---4 -No chance of advancing (ie our best soccer and we still wont advance)---2
When you mentioned Mexico's 2006 group, I immediately thought of USA's group in 2010. Concerning all the x, y, and z country don't scare me talk: even Algeria can have a good day and fk someone's chances up. How quickly people forget they were mere seconds from doing so in 2010.
Algeria, Honduras, Costa Rica,iran The weaker teams to me: Algeria, Iran, Honduras seem the weakest to me. Although Mexico probably should be included lately.
Gotta agree. You wanna be world champions you gotta beat the best at some point. We get a tough group then so be it.
POT 1: Argentina, Brazil, Belgium, Colombia, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Uruguay POT 2: Algeria, Cameroon, Chile, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, Ghana, Nigeria POT 3: USA, Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Korea Republic, Japan, Australia, Iran POT 4: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, England, France, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia The odds are good for a poor drawing. Potential for the USMNT drawing the group of death.
FIFA has decided on an interesting procedure. 1. Pick a team from Pot 4. Then draw a team from Pot X, which are Pot 1's South American teams. Then draw one team from Pot 3 and 4. That will create a group with 2 UEFA teams (pot 4 & 4), 1 CONMEBOL team (pot 1) and 1 CONCACAF/AFC team (pot 3). 2. Isolate the two CONMEBOL teams in Pot 2. Draw those teams into separate groups and then draw from Pot 1-X, which are Pot 1's European teams. Then draw from Pot 3 and 4. That will create two groups with 2 UEFA teams (pot 1 & 4), 1 CONMEBOL team (pot 2), and 1 CONCACAF/AFC team (pot 3) each. 3. Then draw one team from each pot to determine the other 5 groups.
Drinking game: every time "Group of Death" is mentioned on the broadcasts, take a shot. Probably dead in minutes...