Let's talk about the World Cup draw

Brazil got a good group - theoretically easy, but not "piece of cake" easy.

USA got Italy, Ghana, and Czech Republic. Everybody says it's easy for the Italians and Czechs, but my spider sense says this group is going to get ugly, in a way that you murkans will probably like.

Argentina, to my unending delight, gets reamed up the ass with no condom and no vaseline. :evilgrin:

Comments?

only Croatia will give them any trouble. The Aussies won't be much trouble, the Japanese may give a good game, but that's about it. My guess: Brazil and Croatia.

Germany got a nice draw, too.

I agree, USA will surprise some people, like Portugal in 2002. They may take Italy and give Czech Rep. a good game. Don't know enough about Ghana to comment on them.

Argentina gets the Group of Death. :evilgrin:

France may get sent home early again. Serbia and Switzerland will not make it easy.

Iran is supposedly fielding their best team ever.

Spain will likely remain lackluster and leave after the 1st round.

Hard to imagine that Italy will underestimate the US as much as Portugal did in 2002. In that matchup, Portugal tried to score a quick goal against the US by sending almost its entire team up to the US half of the field, thinking the US still hadn't learned how to counterattack. By the time Portugal realized that 'Yes, the US has finally learned how to score in the World Cup', the game was 3-0, USA. Portugal rallied to make it 3-2, and the US had to hang on for dear life to prevent a tie. Italy will no doubt play more conservatively than Portugal.

I agree about Spain; they always find a way to bow out early in the WC.

in their last World Cup match /w Italy (1st round, 1990), basically, a bunch of college guys held Italy 1-0. Though Italy are noted for being slow starters, they couldn't rout the USA amateurs. This 2006 squad will be vastly superior to that 1990 college team. The big question is, can Bruce Arena get the same winning mix that did so well in 2002? As for Italy, in qualifying, their record was 8-1-1, but against the soccer "powerhouses" of Norway, Slovenia, Belarus, Scotland, and Moldavia. No high quality opponents, so Italy hasn't really been tested. Italy may be in for a shock when the World Cup begins.

Spain did well in 2002, and they got a nice draw for 2006. They may surprise us.

Just at the point when Italy is traditionally at its laziest and most overconfident. The Czech Republic team looks scary, precisely because they're a smart bunch of players.

Everybody holds Italy to 1-0 -- that's just the way Italy plays. They call it cattenacio, I call it anti-football.

as shown in their qualifiers against Belarus (winning 4-1 and 4-3) and 2-0 over Scotland in Italy. True, they'll spend too much time on defense, but I wonder about a team that let a team of college amateurs off with only 1-0 in 1990.

BTW, correction, Italy went 7-1-2 in qualifying for 2006.

Italy might have more talent than just about anybody that side of Brazil, and the Czechs have one of the world's best keepers and a pretty good team to boot. I have to admit I was surprised to see Mexico get a seed over the US, and this ended up being the end result.

Italy, in my mind, are one of the weakest seeds. Given that you will have to play a seeded team, Italy was one of two that I hoped the US would draw.

The Czech team is just not the same without Koller, and I don't think he'll be playing. Even if he can get back in time for the Cup he won't be 100%. The US may actually be better off if he DOES try to play, since it's unlikely he'll be in any sort of form by then. Nedved is fantastic of course, but he is slower than he used to be. Age is catching up to him. Baros is highly rated but I see an awful lot of him in the Premiership and I really don't think he's anything special. McBride has scored more goals this year than he has, playing against the same competition, with probably less time on the pitch.

That leaves Ghana. What can you say here? If you don't beat Ghana you aren't going through, so there's little point analyzing them. It's a must win for the other three teams, plain and simple.