Group of Death

Sporting Goods

Well, it looks like the US has ended up in the toughest group in the World Cup, being paired up with Italy, Czech Republic, and Ghana.

Ghana is a good African side, but the Czech Republic is currently ranked second in the world, and Italy 12th. A group's tougness can really be measured by its top three teams, since only two go through. So, the US will have to either send Italy or the Czech Republic home early. What a disappointment as I sat with my coworkers and watched the draw come up - we had been strongly hoping against being put in group B, C or E, and almost squeaked through before seeing the US name get dropped down to E.

Italy always finds something to complain to FIFA about - I would say being picked as a number one seed and then being put in a group with two of the top 8 ranked teams in the world will give them a great chance to bitch.

What is very cool is that we can already see who we're playing and when:
Monday June 12, noon, US vs Czech Republic
Saturday June 17, noon, US vs Italy
Thursday June 22, 10am, US vs Ghana

I wouldn't be surprised if that Thursday game leaves us needing a win, and a win from the Czech Republic over Italy, for us to go through.

But for more bad news, if we come in second in the group, we are likely playing Brazil in the round of 16. So to have a chance to get as far as we did in 2002, we really need to win our group. Anything can happen, but yikes!