Belgium didn't impress me at all in their two qualifying games against us. Great talent on paper, meh on the pitch. Switzerland will impress IMO
Bro, but don't underestimate Chile. Australia will be the weakest. Round of 16 should be awesome. Brasil vs. Spain/Holland!
Well after looking at the draw, I don't think it will be as bad as it looks. Germany vs Portugal in the first game of the group. Hope for a tie or Germany win. Germany plays Ghana in the 2nd. Germany wins. We play Germany last which might be a blessing if Germany win their first 2 matches. Also as far as travel goes Germany doesn't have to travel to Manaus or Brasilia. So the USA has to win one of their first 2 and hope that Germany has nothing to play for in the last.
You're Dutch?! I didn't realise there were more Dutch people in here, other than myself and arno. About the draw - difficult, but not impossible. Expect us to lose against Spain, but Chile will be very hard. They played very well against England at Wembley. It's not the worst group, at least. England > book return flights after the third game now.
Germany-USA-Portugal-Ghana Yikes. Our team might as well be sponsored by a Lube company. Germany and Ghana in the same group again. Last WC match between the two ended in 1-0 for Germany with Ozil scoring the lone goal if I recall correctly. Ozil vs Ronaldo & Pepe. This should be interesting.
Brazil-Holland, Croatia-Spain will probably play in Round of 16, then the winners of those games meet in Quarterfinals. Who survives these two rounds, should be the favorite to win the tournament.
I don't expect any less than Mou style gridlock from Chile. Spain has done well to counter that with pure talent tough. I am worried about Casillas because he was one of the keys to getting past those scrappy South American teams.
Yeah I am. Trying to go down for the first 2 games of the group, mainly so I can see the Spain v Netherlands match.
False. Winner of Group A will play 2nd place of Group B on one side of the bracket, ON THE OTHERSIDE would be 2nd place Group A vs 1st place group B. Basically, if you both advanced from your group, you wouldn't be able to see each other again till the finals/3rd place game.
Actually, in the qualifiers Chile was very offensive. They scored the second most goals, Argentina scored the most. Granted the WC is a completely different but I expect them to play similar.
I don't mind the group. I mean Portugal and Ghana are both solid sides but they are beatable. First game against Ghana is a must win. Don't get a win there and you can pretty much kiss advancing goodbye. Third time is the charm against those bastards.
Now the USA realizes how easy they had it in 2010. (As Bob Ley also mentioned) I'm sure Nigeria feels about Argentina the same way the USA feels about meeting up with Ghana..."When will it end???" lol. Those teams Nigeria-Argentina and USA-Ghana just seem to keep meeting up. Great job by you mentioning this earlier. Absolutely scandalous the group France undeservedly got. Nice pot placement for them.
I hate that DeMarcus Beasley was already on ESPN talking about how tough of a group it was and how they need to focus on taking ONE POINT from Ghana in the opener in order to have a chance to advance. What kind of attitude is that?? Where's the fire and intensity? This is the team that's taken you OUT of the World Cup! Rise above!
Gridlock from Chile? Have you seen them play? Last two games against Spain have been a 2-2 draw and a 2-3 win for Spain where they came back from 2-0. Chile plays extremely offensive against all teams. Their biggest defect is the weak defense that is left from their high-pressing, direct-passing game. They'd have to watch out for deadly counterattacks.
