2022 World Cup

[Plano Minuteman]

Great to see the US qualify. Would like to hear from the soccer experts out there on what they think our chances in the world cup are! Personally, I feel like we're pretty solid at goalie and midfield. I think our weaknesses are at the back 4 and we absolutely need a center forward would could close better. Pepi was looking like that guy for a few games, but don't know what happened. Pulisic definitely needs some help up there, seems like he's pushed around a bit too much. He's like our Gretzky, but needs a Messier.

[e_parade]

It'll be easier to say what might happen once we find out what group we're in. Being the #3 from CONCACAF might not end up with a promising group for us...but at the same time we'd likely still have a decent chance to make it to the knockout stages since we're still in Pot 2. If we can end up in the group with Qatar it would be a better shot, since that'll likely be the weakest group.

Beyond that? Match-up dependent. If we end up winning our group, we'd have a better shot of moving on, but our odds of winning a group (outside of being with Qatar) aren't exactly great. If we move on it'll most likely be due to coming in second in our group.

Canada might get screwed after being able to win CONCACAF, since they're in Pot 3 (meaning they'll be seeded with 2 more highly ranked teams).


Goaltending is good. Matt Turner is a legit star. Pulisic is also a legit star. Not many people in the rest of the team are all that consistent, but it could be worse.

[Plano Minuteman]

Good point about it largely depends on who we get in the group. Pretty good sign that we beat Qatar in the Gold Cup with basically our 'B' team.

What other Pot 1 teams do you think we match up well with? England seems stacked but they always seem to have some issues in the WC for some reason.

[e_parade]

England wouldn't be too bad, but I'd prefer a match-up against Portugal for sure. Outside of Qatar they'd likely be the best bet to be able to beat from a Pot 1 squad.

Definitely want to avoid Brazil and likely France as well.


We could have some crazy bad luck as well, thanks to who has the ability to qualify through Pot 4 at this point: Costa Rica and Wales. They could both qualify, and give any group a tough Pot 4 opponent, on top of everything else.

[e_parade]

Well, we're with England. So you got your decent match-up there. It will be interesting to see how the rest comes out.

And we just ended up with Iran, which isn't necessarily good. They're a highly ranked team from that region and one of the better teams out of Pot 3, could almost not be worse.

[e_parade]

Okay, so with the European playoff being the one we're stuck with, we need to hope it's not Wales that wins there. Scotland is probably preferred, but Ukraine would be good as well.

[Plano Minuteman]

Ukraine would be hard to root against right now, with what's going on there. Wouldn't be surprised to see them, though.

I hadn't realized that Iran had risen to #21 in the FIFA rankings. Wow.

At least, if the US happens to get out of Group B, they'd probably be matching up with a group A team. Netherlands wouldn't be horrible to face in the round of 16.

[inthescoop]

Group A
-Qatar
-Ecuador
-Senegal
-Netherlands

Group B
-England
-Iran
-USA
-TBD Ukraine/Wales/Scotland

Group C
-Argentina
-Saudi Arabia
-Poland
-Mexico

Group D
-France
-Denmark
-Tunisia
-TBD

Group E
-Spain
-Germany
-Japan
-TBD

Group F
-Belgium
-Morocco
-Canada
-Croatia

Group E
-Brazil
-Switzerland
-Serbia
-Cameroon

Group H
-Portugal
-Ghana
-South Korea
-Uruguay

[Plano Minuteman]

Group B final spot will be decided on Sunday. The last 20 minutes or so of today's match was super entertaining. I'll hold off on saying who won it though, just in case it'd spoil it for someone. Looking forward to seeing who ends up in the U.S's group.

[Plano Minuteman]

Alright, Group B is decided - Wales, United States, Iran, England.

Mon Nov 21 - vs. Wales.
Fri Nov 25 - vs. England.
Tues Nov 29 - vs. Iran.

I wasn't too impressed with Wales yesterday, had it not been for some stellar goalkeeping, they would've gotten drubbed by Ukraine. However, I have a hard time seeing this US team score much vs. Wales.

I think the US will tie Wales and England, and will defeat Iran.

Here's how I see the group going:

England 7pts
United States 5
Wales 2
Iran 2

I'm hoping to be in Mexico City on Nov 21, for the 49ers game (and climbing Orizaba and Itza beforehand) so will have to give some forethought on how to see the Wales match. Something tells me, I won't have to look too hard to find a spot to watch it in Mexico.

[e_parade]

I'd say Wales is the best bet for a win. This Iran team is no joke, so we might have a tough, essentially elimination game with them to end the group stage.

Starting off with a win against Wales would be huge though, if we managed that.

[Plano Minuteman]

Interesting about Iran. I wonder if they'll have a pretty good crowd in Qatar?

[e_parade]

An Iranian coworker of mine expects a VERY large crowd from Iran to be there.

[inthescoop]

It's still an absolute joke that the World Cup will be in Qatar.

[e_parade]

Agreed. Just shows how corrupt the political body of FIFA can be when a country like Qatar can win it, especially when there were 4 other extremely competent countries bidding for the same one (USA, Japan, South Korea, and Australia).