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England seeded for the World Cup

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Still may depend on the draw. You could still end up with the Ivory Coast/Ghana, CONCACAF/Aussies and France.

The 3 from CONCACAF plus the Aussies I would want no part of. CONCACAF is much improved since 04 and they dont have any happy to be there teams like T&T and Costa Rica this time. Africa might be tough now that they finally get a tourney on their home continent and will be fired up. On the SA front Chile is quality, Urugray is excellent defensively and can hold England to a 0-0 draw.

Any WC winner will eventually have to go to penalties (maybe more than once) and I just can't see England beating anyone in pens. Every team (except Brasil and Spain) will muck it up in the middle against England and try to advance on pens as well. Hell Portugal didn't even try to score against England when England was down to 10 men in the last WC. Think about who will take the pens. Rooney might be OK, so will Barry and Defoe (won't be playing though) Gerrard and Lamps take awful pens especially under pressure. Then who Rio (awful)? Terry (ditto)? Walcott? Crouch? Carrick? Becks? Good luck with that.

The fact that South Africa got a 1 seed is a disgrace, they should have been placed in the Europe (with France seeded, though France being in it is kind of disgraceful as well) pot or the African pot with Ivory Coast getting the 1 seed. Japan and South Korea didn't get a top seed and SA barely made it out of their lousy Confed cup group.

As for the US, its going to be tough sledding as we won't have a pathetic Asian team in our group. I want Switzerland (living proof that UEFA qualifying isn't as difficult as people make it out to be), Italy/Argentina (we play both teams well) and Algeria in the group. The teams I want no part of are the Netherlands (they'll rip us to shreds), Brasil, France/Portugal (unless SA is in the group), and the Ivory Coast/Ghana. Luckily the US has got a training facility at 5000ft which should be a nice advantage.

I'm predicting the US gets another hard draw though with Portugal, England and Nigeria in the group.
 
Dreading to see who the US draws - hopefully the South Africa Group (no offense, Peanuts!!!). Any team that can effectively control and play out of the midfield will rip the US - the US is not capable of building a sustained offensive, breakouts and long balls are the US strength. Altidore is a brick wall up front - balls seem to clatter off him without fail.

If Dempsey has a good tournament, the US will do fine. He's got a knack for being in the right place at the right time - sort of Cahill-esque (from last year, of course).
 
My heart thinks that the US could advance in any group but my head knows that it will come down to the draw.

Besides Donovan the one player that the US absoulutely could not lose was Davies. With Davies, Donovan finally had a player who could give him space to work with and Davies more than any player had a knack for getting a hold of final ball from Donovan. We scored some world class goals with Davies in the side (Brasil, Mexico). Plus Davies also pulled a defender off Altidore when he went wide and against 1 defender Altidore could physically shed anyone.

Now Donovan is going to get suffocated in the midfield so in order to score goals we are going to have to go back to playing defensive footie and getting goals from the back line + Bradley and Dempsey on corner kicks.

Dempsey has a knack for scoring goals but he also disapears for looooong stretches and doesn't get back on defense in the RW position. I hope he gets moved to striker, he's a much better striker than RW plus besides Altidore our options at striker (Ching, Casey, Adu) are just pathetic.
 
Rook said:
Still may depend on the draw. You could still end up with the Ivory Coast/Ghana, CONCACAF/Aussies and France.

The 3 from CONCACAF plus the Aussies I would want no part of. CONCACAF is much improved since 04 and they dont have any happy to be there teams like T&T and Costa Rica this time. Africa might be tough now that they finally get a tourney on their home continent and will be fired up. On the SA front Chile is quality, Urugray is excellent defensively and can hold England to a 0-0 draw.

Any WC winner will eventually have to go to penalties (maybe more than once) and I just can't see England beating anyone in pens. Every team (except Brasil and Spain) will muck it up in the middle against England and try to advance on pens as well. Hell Portugal didn't even try to score against England when England was down to 10 men in the last WC. Think about who will take the pens. Rooney might be OK, so will Barry and Defoe (won't be playing though) Gerrard and Lamps take awful pens especially under pressure. Then who Rio (awful)? Terry (ditto)? Walcott? Crouch? Carrick? Becks? Good luck with that.

The fact that South Africa got a 1 seed is a disgrace, they should have been placed in the Europe (with France seeded, though France being in it is kind of disgraceful as well) pot or the African pot with Ivory Coast getting the 1 seed. Japan and South Korea didn't get a top seed and SA barely made it out of their lousy Confed cup group.

As for the US, its going to be tough sledding as we won't have a pathetic Asian team in our group. I want Switzerland (living proof that UEFA qualifying isn't as difficult as people make it out to be), Italy/Argentina (we play both teams well) and Algeria in the group. The teams I want no part of are the Netherlands (they'll rip us to shreds), Brasil, France/Portugal (unless SA is in the group), and the Ivory Coast/Ghana. Luckily the US has got a training facility at 5000ft which should be a nice advantage.

I'm predicting the US gets another hard draw though with Portugal, England and Nigeria in the group.
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good thoughts, although both japan and s korea were seeded in 2002. korea were just really unlucky getting poland, the USA and portugal. they still managed to win the group though..

every host country gets a top seed regardless of their fifa rankings. fifa want the host nation to go as far as possible to keep the vibe in the country going strong.

england are destined go out on pens. i hope i'm wrong, but its just how it is with england.

the USA were very tasty in the confederations cup this year. i think they will have their best tournament to date. they could easily match their quarter final of 2002.

friday will tell just what chances countries really have if they get a soft group and avoid teams like brazil until the semi's or final.

game on!!

what a shame the USA and North Korea can't meet until the final though!! that would have been special.
 

teppic said:
So that's a bit of help from FIFA who chose to use Octobers rankings rather than Novembers which would have seen France rather than England get in to pot one.

Chances of World Cup glory now?

BBC Sport - Football - England seeded for 2010 World Cup in South Africa
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At least no one can accuse FIFA of being bias in France's favour anymore. Do you reckon this was Blatter slapping Platini around for seeding France in the playoff before? Or was that a FIFA decision too?

Either way, it does seem FIFA are getting worse at making up the rules as they go along. I'm no French lover, but having read this World Cup article on England's odds, I was left feeling a little sorry for the way France have been treated. The arguments about tournament form are pretty convincing in my opinion. If the players are mostly the same from one WC to the next, mentality in tournaments should be considered.

Anyway, FIFA need to make their decision making more transparent, but seeing as England have benefited this time, I'll pipe down.
 
I'd actually like to avoid the USA.
We also have a mental problem against Brazil, who I feel we should be beating quite comfortably with a full squad.
 
Cahill_Winner said:
At least no one can accuse FIFA of being bias in France's favour anymore. Do you reckon this was Blatter slapping Platini around for seeding France in the playoff before? Or was that a FIFA decision too?

Either way, it does seem FIFA are getting worse at making up the rules as they go along. I'm no French lover, but having read this World Cup article on England's odds, I was left feeling a little sorry for the way France have been treated. The arguments about tournament form are pretty convincing in my opinion. If the players are mostly the same from one WC to the next, mentality in tournaments should be considered.

Anyway, FIFA need to make their decision making more transparent, but seeing as England have benefited this time, I'll pipe down.
Click to expand...

It's not subtle you know.

Full marks for effort though, patience and that....
 
Anybody who saw Lampard and Defoe take pens this week knows England doesn't have a chance to win it.
 
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