Today's World Cup draw in South Africa turned out to be a great one for the USA, as they have been matched up with England, Algeria and Slovenia. The USA has never played Algeria or Slovenia, and they pulled one of the World Cup's biggest upsets in 1950 against England.A second round berth looks like a definite possibility for the Americans. They will open the World Cup Finals against England in Rustenberg on June 12th. The US will play Slovenia on June 18th and Algeria on June 23rd. South Africa will open the tournament on June 11th against Mexico.
Looks like the infamous "Group of Death" is Group G: Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Portugal.
Here is the complete draw from earlier today:
GROUP A
South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France
GROUP B
Argentina, Nigeria, South Korea, Greece
GROUP C
England, United States, Algeria, Slovenia
GROUP D
Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana
GROUP E
Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon
GROUP F
Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia
GROUP G
Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Coast, Portugal
GROUP H
Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile
Well, I'd expect we could go 2 - 1, maybe 2 - 0 - 1. England is tough, of course.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the same thing, Suldog. Just hope the USA is overconfident when playing Algeria and Slovenia, which happen after the England match.
ReplyDeleteIt is great because typically we start out slow - since England is the game in a sense that we least need to win it is good (let's try to get a tie or keep goal differential low in that one and then let's try to get 4 points)
ReplyDeleteFirst time we will be favored to advance to knockout phase
You're right about that, Rick. And the pressure will be on the US for the first time since 1994 to advance...
ReplyDelete