<rant>Well, the U.S. has seen its hopes of reaching the second round of the World Cup diminished greatly after a 3-0 loss to the Czech Republic. Of course, the Czechs are ranked #2 in the world. The U.S. is currently ranked #5, but I'm sure that will go down with this loss. What I want to know, though, is why the U.S. was put in the same group as the Czech Republic and Italy. Observe the following to see how unfair the U.S.'s draw is.
The average ranking of teams in the U.S.'s group (Group E) is 8.9. Consider the teams in the U.S.'s group. The Czech Republic is ranked #2, Italy #13, and the U.S. #5. (Ghana is ranked 48). Meanwhile, in other groups, the draw is much, much easier. Brazil, for instance, the best team in the world according to the rankings, is in a Group F with such soccer "heavyweights" as Australia (ranked 42), Japan (ranked 18), and Croatia (ranked 23). The average ranking in Group F is 12. Compare those average ratings to average ratings of each group. The average ranking of Group A is 27. Group B has an average ranking of 22. Group C comes in at 14. Group D also rates out at 14. Group E, as mentioned above, is 8.9. Group F, as mentioned, averages 12. Group G averages 27. Group H has an average ranking of 20.
So, the U.S. is in the hardest group by far, with three strong countries, and probably won't make it to the next round. Meanwhile, countries that wouldn't move on if the pools were created by seeding, such as Switzerland, Croatia, and the Ukraine, will probably wind up making it into the next round. It's unfair.</rant>
4 comments:
I understand and totally agree with the frustration, but honestly I think Ghana might have been able to beat us the way we were playing today. It was no dignified loss. We were not merely overpowered by a stronger team. We were humiliated.
Disregarding the pressure of a big game to start out the tournament, and disregarding the fact that it was the #2 ranked team in the world with 6' plus guys all over the place, we were technically dysfunctional; we couldn't make a decent pass the whole game. And we were tactically paralyzed; we kept trying to make the same plays over and over again, like the long ball from half field, and trying to chip it over their heads, which NEVER worked.
There's a good team in every group, and I think any team playing heads-up, disciplined soccer is going to shut down the kind of weak, unfocused play that the USA showed today. We can't overlook the fact that we had a chance and we blew it.
This game, at least. If we want the right to complain, we'd better prove that we deserve to have top placement.
Good point. We need to play better, no matter what the draw. I didn't see the game, so I had no idea we played so poorly.
I'm sorry, I hope I didn't ruin the outcome for you. I thought the game was what inspired your post.
The game did inspire my post, partially. I had meant to post about the difficulties of each group before the tournament started, but I forgot. Then, we got pounded, and I remembered my earlier thoughts and put them out there. In my "mathematical" analysis, though, I forgot about the fact that we were pretty much dominated, at least as far as I could tell from the stats I was able to see. I don't think I'll be watching that game. :-)
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