My Scottish friends have alerted me that the World Cup Draw is out now. Here.
Apparently, the USA is considered to be in the worst group—meaning the most well-balanced—Italy, Ghana, and the Czech Republic. However, it's not like the US did particularly well in qualifying, so I don't think anyone should make much of a fuss.
The Cup is in Germany this year, so hopes are high for that side. England got a very high seed and it's sort of touching to see, but my Scottish friends are really pulling for them (as Scotland is not in the tournament). Their sentiments about America? "I hope you feckin' don't make it out of the first round."
Andrew,
ReplyDeleteNot to suggest that you don't know what you're talking about, but I fail to see how the US qualifying first from Concacaf and essentially winning our qualifying group could be characterized as, "not like the US did particularly well." I'm not sure that we could have done much better than first place.
I should have said "not like the US has looked particularly impressive (enough)."
ReplyDeleteI mean, there's a reason they didn't get a seed.
I probably spoke hastily about it and the US does get screwed naturally because they're in a pot with the Asian countries and the other CONCACAF countries, but still. This isn't some conspiracy against America.
True - it isn't a conspiracy. We got hammered though because we didn't advance out of the first round in 1998. Simple as that. The seedings take into account world ranking and the place in the last two world cups, and we couldn't overcome the 98 debacle. We were the 9th team, however, so we missed being seeded by one place.
ReplyDeleteAnd we'll kick the crap out of Mexico (again) if we do get the chance to play them again...
i definitely hope so.
ReplyDelete