I'm referring to the World Cup soccer tournament drawing that was held today. The USA, ranked 8th in the world, is in group E with Italy (12) Czech Republic (2) (who basically score at the same pace as the Ottawa Senators or the Indianapolis Colts) and Ghana (50). I give the USA a very slim chance to get one of the top 2 records in that group and advance.
I totaled the FIFA rankings for all 8 groups. The four combined teams in Group E is 72. The lower the number, obviously, the better the ranking, and the better the teams are. The next best group is Group F with Brazil (1), Japan (15), Croatia (15), and Australia (49) for a total of 85. But the key is not winning your group, it's how tough the competition is from the other teams in order to advance. The Czech Republic was the second ranked team in the world and not even considered one of the top 8 seeds for this tournament. Amazing.
The only way it probably could have been worse is if they were in Group C with Argentina (3) and the Netherlands (4). This will not be easy.
My South American team, Ecuador, is the lowest ranked team in their group. They're 37 and draw the hosts, Germany, Poland (23), and Costa Rica (27). Plus, if I can score a goal in a game against a group of Ecuadorian soccer players, they're probably not too great anyway.
Mexico has an easy path to the second round. At least they'll play Iran in their group where someone has to lose!
No comments:
Post a Comment