Twice, some people forget that Matt Jones miracle, I presume you mean the Iowa game. And we won't talk about kick 6.
Giving up a goal on the very last play after you completely dominate the entire game does not look good to me right now. And playing in the Amazon, 3 days rest. Advantage Germany. US has to feel let down right now and I just hope they can shake it off. Jurgen took a shot at FIFA on his way out of the stadium, hopefully he can get at least a draw against his motherland. But the US wins the group with a win.
To me, USA beating Germany would be akin to - dare I say - Miami (OH) beating LSU. It can happen, I just can't conceive it. What scares me more about Thursday is the same Amazon/3 days rest advantage to Germany, also goes to Ghana against Portugal. If it comes to goal differential, we're more secure against Portugal right now. The good news is that Germany knows it only needs a draw against us. If the game goes into the second half tied, you really could see both teams relax, knowing neither needs a win to advance.
I wonder what Müller's status is. My only question to the teams relaxing in the 2nd half if the game is tied is could the 2nd place in this group immediately get Brazil in the knockout round, or how does that work out, is the knockout round reseeded?
We are in group g and will play group h in the next round. Group H winner will be belgium or algeria. Belgium most likely. While they're a very good side, they're not quite as tough as playing a Brazil or Argentina or Germany. So if we can manage to get through, we may have a chance. 538 puts us at 76% to advance but I'm with mctiger, I think it's closer to 50/50.
Ok then that's not nearly as bad as playing a South American team in the knockout 1st match. I hope Germany is off their game, they looked completely outpaced by Ghana, maybe the Yeltsin kid would be a good 2nd half sub against a slow German team, he was huge against Portugal. I just hope the states aren't too dejected after giving up the Hail Mary.
Ghana for sure outpaced Germany but was pretty shocking was that Germany seemed to keep possession most of the game unlike the US vs Ghana. I am hoping that we had a case of the 1st game gitters with this young team. Zusi and the other subs seemed to help in that area vs Portugal.
Germany is definitely a possession team. Hell the first half of the Ghana match was pass after pass after pass behind center line, they'd get it across then go back and continue to pass and pass and pass some more. I think the US has the better athletes, and the faster team, but how are they going to be after a match in the amazon and on 3 days rest, and giving up a Hail Mary. If Bradley doesn't turn the ball over, or Gonzales cuts off the man in the box, or hell if Howard comes out for the punch, the US is on easy street and can probably rest a few guys.
Since both Germany and the US advance with a tie, I'm assuming it's against some sort of rule to just have everyone show up on the field but not kick the ball for 90 minutes? One more stupid question while I'm at it. Does the entire format of the World Cup increase the odds that a team will win that is not technically one of the best 3-5 teams in the world? With the randomness of the group pairings, the small amount of games in group play, and the general nature of soccer when it gets to single elimination (i.e. only a few goals in a game so better team doesn't always win); I would think that sometimes the 10th best team in the world (for example) wins it all based on the format. IMO, the NBA, NFL, college football, and MLB champs are almost always the best team. The college basketball champ is not always the best team (because of format, similar to my question about the World Cup).
16 teams advance so yes, a hot team can sneak in there but I would argue that one of the top 3 teams or so wins the world cup every year. The Giants got hot and won the super bowl a few years back. it happens in every sport but generally at the world cup, it's a very good team that wins. You can't luck your way into it. That's why Jurgen said we have no chance.
