Here’s the games. This is just a fantastic draw for the USA - not just the teams they play, but where and when. They USA’s training camp will be smack dab in the middle of the triangle that is Rustenberg/Joburg/Pretoria, and they’re all within driving distance.
EDIT - Huh, those dates didn’t show up before in your quote. Strange… oh well.
BTW, all of our matches have 10 am kickoff, Sunday, Friday, Wednesday. Might interfere with work, but at least most folks in the USA won’t have to get up at 0 Dark 30 to watch.
For the SPI rankings:
Best #4 Group H with Switzerland at 31.
Best #3 Group G with the Ivory Coast at 9(!).
England are so not the second weakest seeds. South Africa and Argentina are both definitely worse, and we’re at least on a par with both Germany and the Netherlands on current form.
The first game’s on a Saturday isn’t it?
Am I correct in thinking that if it’s 10am in SA it’ll be 8am here in Dublin? Not sure if they have daylight savings time over there.
I have a sneaking suspicion the most interesting group is going to be Group B. It’s the only group where you can say that any team can win it–or finish last. You’ve got the mercurial Argentinians under Maradona, the always-threatening Super Eagles, the Greeks who can pull off whopping upsets or just not show up at all, and the South Koreans who always seem to surprise whether they win or lose. A cracker of a group.
I generally agree with ShibbOleth’s analysis but I think Switzerland will take 2nd in group H and I wouldn’t bet the farm against Australia reaching the second round.
Yes, I messed up. It’s a Saturday. It will be winter in South Africa, so even if they have Daylight Savings they won’t be on it.
Anyway, the 10 am is Eastern USA. Assuming you’re in Dublin, Ireland, then I think it’s probably going to be 3 pm in the afternoon (1500).
I’m not sure which nation you’re referring to in the 1st question, but if it’s the US and/or England, yes, it’s Saturday.
From what I’m looking at (wiki), no matches start earlier than 13:30 local time. I’m in the US Central time zone, so it looks like the US will be playing at 09:00, and 13:30. Nothing too bad, and I won’t have to rise at the crack of dawn for the US matches.
The USA plays on Saturday the 12th, Friday the 18th and Wednesday the 23rd. According to the US National Team Blog, the games are at 2.30pm, 10am and 10am - all times Eastern Standard Time.
:smack: and :smack: again. That’s what I get for posting on cough syrup.
Those timings work out well for me anyway…
Alright, joint third weakest then. The way I see it is:
Spain
Brazil - Italy - Netherlands
England - Germany - Argentina
South Africa (although the host factor will undoubtedly come in)
No DST. South African Standard Time is GMT+2 year-round.
I’d do it like this:
Spain - Brazil: Both cakewalked through qualifying, and Brazil won the Conf. Cup, fwiw, and each have superb talent.
Germany - England - Holland: Each strolled through qualifying, though Holland probably had the easiest group. England are a different team with Capello.
Italy - Argentina: Italy had some struggles in qualifying, and have been overly impressive in friendlies, and Argentina was this close to not even making it. Take away Messi, and they look far less formidable than the other seeded teams. I’d expect each of the other 6 could make him look human in the 2nd round or later.
Can’t agree (edit: i.e. with Ximenean). I’d go:
Spain
Brazil
Italy - Netherlands - England - Germany
Argentina
South Africa
Host factor or no, South Africa simply aren’t good enough. I don’t think we’ve got enough information to separate the middle seeds. Argentina are dire (although obviously have the raw materials to come good), and thus don’t deserve equal billing with teams that passed through qualification almost entirely unscathed.
Ok, I’m fairly happy with this. I’m not saying it’s easy for the dutch, but if they can’t manage this group, they have no business being there in the first place. I am very happy we play Cameroon last though, I remember how Ivory Cost’s strength gave us problems in Germany (2006) and I have the feeling it might be similar with Cameroon. If we have any form going we should be able to beat both Denmark and Japan and thus already be qualified (virtually) by the time we play Cameroon. For those who don’t know, we played Japan a couple of months ago and we were absolutely terrible, but still won 3-0. The last time we played Denmark (competatively) it was the same score (Euro 2000) but we did have some home advantage. The best thing is that we finally haven’t drawn the group of death!! If you look back at all World and Euro tournaments from 2000 onwards (except 2002, when we didn’t qualify:rolleyes:), we have always been in the group of death.
What my second mothercountry (quite literally) is concerned, I’m less happy. England, USA and Algeria doesn’t seem like a group they would expect to prevail in. On the other hand, I thought the same about a qualifying group with Poland and the Czech Republic and then the playoff with Russia. They might also benefit from the schedule. They play England last, so if they (the English) have done enough by then (certainly not impossible), there might be something to get from that game, as happened against the Ukraine in the final qualifier after England had already qualified. So maybe frustrating the US into a draw, then beating Algeria with a final game against the (home and dry) English…
78, if I recall it correctly. Although they didn’t qualify to the 1982 finals. 86 was in Mexico, 90-ban, 94, 98, 2002 and 2006 they always qualified and went to the next stage.
It was really funny by the way how the pundits on the BBC were already looking ahead to the tough game they might have when they win their group and play the second from group D (Germany, Serbia, Ghana or Australia). They even started with stuff about not playing Argentina (and several others) till the final if each team wins there group 
But seriously, for us Dutch winning the group will give us Paraguay, New Zealand or Slovakia). Quarterfinals here we come!!!*
Why was Mexico banned in 1990?
I’ve done my way-too-early prediction, and I’ve got it like this:
FRA, MEX, ARG, NIG, ENG, USA, GER, GHA, NED, CAM, ITA, PAR, BRA, IC, ESP, and CHL making it out of the groups (the 1st listed as group winner).
NED, BRA, NIG, ENG, ARG, GER, CAM, and ESP to the quarterfinals (though I think Ivory Coast would be a hell of a match for Spain, especially if Drogba maintains his form).
ENG, BRA, GER, and ESP into the semis.
Brazil over England, and Germany over a worn out Spanish team (my scenario has them playing Chile, Ivory Coast, and Cameroon in succession).
Brazil wins it for the 6th time, defeating Germany again. I feel like, if that happened, it’d be the (edit: 3rd!) second time in a row a German team that is good, but not great, would just get good match-ups and put in “professional” performances to just keep advancing.
Down here people are extremely happy with our group: they claim our rivals are pretty weak.
I’m not surprised the Argentinians don’t see themselves as “weak.” 