Thoughts on the 2014 groups?
Talk Beautiful Game
This group has been archived. Find out more.
Join LibraryThing to post.
1mabith
The group draw has me feeling a little hopeless about the teams I usually cheer for (US, England, Mexico). Not that I'm ever particularly *hopeful* about the US men's team, but they're the lads I know best.
2elenchus
Same for me, but I'm mostly ignorant of all things FIFA and qualifying. Trying to better myself in that regard, as we approach Brazil.
So I recall the US saying we've drawn the Group of Death, but don't recall the details. Before I trudge off to look it up, two questions:
1 - Doesn't every team think they have the Group of Death?
2 - What thoughts specifically do you have making you feel helpless? I mean, over the past 8 cups, those three teams haven't proceeded too far.
My biggest question for the US team is whether there's any reason to believe they'll be stronger and more competitive. Than last cup, sure: won't take much. But stronger than any past US team?
So I recall the US saying we've drawn the Group of Death, but don't recall the details. Before I trudge off to look it up, two questions:
1 - Doesn't every team think they have the Group of Death?
2 - What thoughts specifically do you have making you feel helpless? I mean, over the past 8 cups, those three teams haven't proceeded too far.
My biggest question for the US team is whether there's any reason to believe they'll be stronger and more competitive. Than last cup, sure: won't take much. But stronger than any past US team?
3mabith
It's more about feeling hopeless that we won't get past group stage, chances of winning don't really enter into it for those teams. Sometimes there's an extremely good chance of the US getting past group stage, sometimes it looks a lot dicier (like this year).
There's usually only one or sometimes two death groups that I ever hear talked about. Qualifying for one league isn't necessarily the same level of difficulty as qualifying in another league. No one could say that Brazil was in a group of death, since the teams they're with have rarely proceeded very far in the cup (other than Croatia's third place finish in 1998 they've never gotten post group state and didn't even qualify last year). Argentina will play Iran, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Nigeria. If Argentina thought they were in a group of death they'd be delusional (barring losing half their team to a lion attack before the cup starts). If you have one power team and three which seem on a more even footing than those three teams also have an okay chance of moving on, so they shouldn't see it as a death group either.
I think that Jürgen Klinsmann is a better coach than the previous US coach, Bob Bradley, but I haven't been able to watch enough national team games to judge that much. I worry with Klinsmann that he's trying to get the US to play in a specific way to match European styles versus focusing on endurance and getting the players to stay in position and communicate well. Endurance can be a deciding factor, but the US teams rarely seem to get better at that.
There's usually only one or sometimes two death groups that I ever hear talked about. Qualifying for one league isn't necessarily the same level of difficulty as qualifying in another league. No one could say that Brazil was in a group of death, since the teams they're with have rarely proceeded very far in the cup (other than Croatia's third place finish in 1998 they've never gotten post group state and didn't even qualify last year). Argentina will play Iran, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Nigeria. If Argentina thought they were in a group of death they'd be delusional (barring losing half their team to a lion attack before the cup starts). If you have one power team and three which seem on a more even footing than those three teams also have an okay chance of moving on, so they shouldn't see it as a death group either.
I think that Jürgen Klinsmann is a better coach than the previous US coach, Bob Bradley, but I haven't been able to watch enough national team games to judge that much. I worry with Klinsmann that he's trying to get the US to play in a specific way to match European styles versus focusing on endurance and getting the players to stay in position and communicate well. Endurance can be a deciding factor, but the US teams rarely seem to get better at that.
