2014 World Cup

[lukethedrifter]

seems like it's time for its own thread

http://online.wsj.com/articles/with-his ... 1401899734

[Freed Roger]

The question is, will Trill step up for us again,

and face the ridicule of jim, FatBulldog etal.

[thrill]

I'm here. Whaddya want?

[Freed Roger]

to fill out my bracket.

[go birds]

Do we stand a realistic change of advancing?

[Gashouse]

Christiano supposedly has a nagging injury.

[lukethedrifter]

the story i posted might give you some optimism

[thrill]

Do we stand a realistic change of advancing?

Here's a totally arbitrary number I'm going to pull out of my ass. Germany is going to go through, and the other three teams compete for the other spot and I'd weigh it like this:
Portugal 40%
Ghana 31%
US 29%

If Ronaldo can't go (he will), I'd put it at even money between the US & Ghana for that second spot.

We play Ghana first, Portugal second and Germany last which is ideal. Both Ghana and the US know they have to get three points in that first game, so it should be an awesome match up.

It's a tough group, for sure and the fact that US is going to send the most talented team it's ever sent to a World Cup and probably won't get out of the group is disappointing, but they certainly have the potential to beat anyone on any given day, so who knows what will happen? It's not like I'd be shocked if they even won the group. Any outcome outside of dominating or being dominated wouldn't surprise me.

To be honest, there's a small part of me that thinks I'm tempering my optimism to try to seem like a realist. Somewhere in the gray area between my inner fan and the objective observer, there's a part of me that absolutely believes we're the second best team in that group. Portugal are ALWAYS overrated because of their one top-end talent, Ghana is really young and inexperienced compared to the teams that knocked us out in 06 and 10. The US has a very, very smart midfield and very fast, athletic defenders. I'm acting more scared than I actually am, but that could be just my inner homer talking.

[Jocephus]

Christiano supposedly has a nagging injury.

World Cup 2014: Cristiano Ronaldo injury 'caused' by Ghana's most influential witch doctor named the 'Devil of Wednesday'

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 91252.html

[thrill]

America is actually sending some of it's best writers to cover this thing. Brian Phillips and Wright Thompson are as good as it gets.
Here is Wright Thompson's WC blog: http://www.espnfc.com/blog/name/94/post ... 9/headline
Here is Wright Thompson's article on maybe the most compelling athlete in the world, Luis Suarez: http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_ ... ful-player
Here is SI's Grant Wahl on who to follow: http://soccer.si.com/soccer/planet-futb ... dia-brazil
For daily coverage of the US team, you can't beat: http://www.americansoccernow.com
Here's Brian Phillips profile at Grantland (I assume he'll covering the WC, he usually writes big soccer events for them): http://grantland.com/contributors/brian-phillips/