OT - World Cup Seeding, Friday

[DarthGrumpy]

In my opinion, the only sports organization more corrupt and dysfunctional than the NCAA is FIFA. How else can one explain how Qatar beat the US and Australia to host the World Cup in 2022? How is a World Cup going to be played in 120 F temps? What is Qatar with a population of 3 million going to do with 6x +40,000 seat stadiums after it is over (New York City with 8 million people has 3 - Met Life, Yankee, and Citi)?
Tomorrow, this great organization will select the seedings for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil (assuming that Brazil can actually finish all of their stadiums on time).
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/fifa-damages-world-cup-seedings-121500861--sow.html
Based on the ‘pods’ selected by FIFA, #13 US (these rankings are a joke, too) will likely (+50%) end up in a ‘Group of Death.’ Once such scenario has the US in a pool with Brazil, the Netherlands, and Ghana. Damn.
What does everyone think?
Of course, it will get worse. When the US gets to play a game, the US will likely have a referee assigned from a country in the Middle East or Latin America that have various reasons to have an anti-American agenda.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Qatar, and Russia, each bought FIFA. No secret!

 

[bobbygt]

In order for the US to take that next step in world soccer, they're gonna have to get through one of these groups of death at some point. That projection (Brazil, Netherlands, Ghana), would be scary indeed. Brazil and the Netherlands are not only top ten teams, but they don't expect to be beaten by inferior opponents, and that confidence is a pretty strong advantage in soccer.

On the other hand, the US can't just hope to luck out by getting a group like 2010, or hoping for a situation like 2002 where the top team in their group was both overrated and never had much world cup success (Portugal).

I don't think they're quite there yet, but as a country that now qualifies for every world cup, the expectation should be to get past the first round (while hoping for some breaks) even in a daunting group.

 

[SubbaBub]

I ran 10 simulated draws 4 looked passable for the US, 4 looked improbable, and 2 were tossups. So...50% chance of getting out of the group.

Only one would I have considered easy.

We are looking for Greece or Switzerland from pot 1, a weaker african team from pot 2, and not one of the stronger european teams from pot 4.

We really get hosed by being in the same pot as Asia.

Avoid Brazil, avoid the euro powers and we have a shot.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Qatar, and Russia, each bought FIFA. No secret!

Agreed; but, at least Russia is a country. Qatar does not even qualify as a decent size city in most places.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Agreed; but, at least Russia is a country. Qatar does not even qualify as a decent size city in most places.

Sure, but corrupt on par or worse!

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

So, how did winning CONCACAF help the US' World Cup seeding? BOHICA'd!

 

[CTPride]

Germany Portugal and Ghana are you kidding me

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Germany (#2), Portugal (#5), Ghana (#24) and the US (#13) has to travel to Manaus. Yeah, that's fair. What's next, our games will be officated by Refs from Mexico/Jamaica/Costa Rica?

 

[ZooCougar]

Grant Wahl described Manaus as an outpost in the rain forest. Lol

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Grant Wahl described Manaus as an outpost in the rain forest. Lol

Not so unusual for Grant Wahl to talk out of his Manaus, but he's pretty much spot on with the description.

Jesus Cristo, how the heck did the US, CONCACAF World Cup qualifying winner, end up in arguably in the group of death? To top it off, the US will encounter easily the WC's longest, first-round, travel itinerary. All the better to spit in FIFA's face, go Yanks!

 

[ZooCougar]

Not so unusual for Grant Wahl to talk out of his Manaus, but he's pretty much spot on with the description.

Jesus Cristo, how the heck did the US, CONCACAF World Cup qualifying winner, end up in arguably in the group of death? To top it off, the US will encounter easily the WC's longest, first-round, travel itinerary. All the better to spit in FIFA's face, go Yanks!

Unbelievable. Only supposed to be one seed between 1-8 per group. Yet some how we end up with #2 and #8. And this stupid rule about there being no more than one SA team per group.

They are verging on NASCAR and WWE levels of staged entertainment.

 

[Da_Aisijimo_Gou]

Unbelievable. Only supposed to be one seed between 1-8 per group. Yet some how we end up with #2 and #8. And this stupid rule about there being no more than one SA team per group.

Oh, and how do lower performing CONCACAF teams the US earned more qualifying points than end up in equivalent or less competitive brackets? If FIFA was interested in playing funny games, one might think there'd be some incentive to soothe USSF feelings over Qatar and Russia mysteriously being awarded the next World Cups and encourage further interest in the US hosting an upcoming WC.

If FIFA truly wants soccer to grow in a very large, affluent market with big companies already investing a lot of money in the sport, there's no doubt the funny "selection balls" might be rigged more for than against the US. Of course, everything with FIFA is above board.

Beat Ghana, Portugal, and Germany, then ...

 

[meyers7]

Unbelievable. Only supposed to be one seed between 1-8 per group. Yet some how we end up with #2 and #8.

They seeded them from the rankings from Oct. Portugal was #14 then.

And this stupid rule about there being no more than one SA team per group.

Same rule applies for all (except UEFA) confederations. No more then one CONCACAF, AFC, CAF, CONMEBOL per group. For UEFA, it's no more than 2, because they have 13 slots in the WC.

FIFA likes to divide the groups up geographically. Why? Probably just want teams from different regions to play each other??

On the other hand great theatre for the USA this time. Plenty for the media. Klinsman vs Germany, USA gets another shot at Ghana after they've knocked us out the last 2 WCs, and Portugal for revenge and they have Ronaldo. Lot's of good stories there.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

FIFA divides them by geography so that each local Federation feels important and keeps paying FIFA the bucks. If it was fair, each team would be seeded.
If the October 2013 FIFA rankings were used (as suspect as they are), this what the groups would look like if each team was seeded with the top 8 seeds being paired inversely with the next 8 and then the next 8 followed by the final 8 inversely.
A) Spain, Bosnia, Ivory Coast, Cameroon
B) Germany, Greece, Croatia, Australia
C) Argentina, Portugal, Russia, South Korea
D) Colombia, USA, France, Iran
E) Belgium, Chile, Ecuador, Japan
F) Uruguay, Brazil, Ghana, Honduras
G) Switzerland, England, Mexico, Nigeria
H) Netherlands, Italy, Costa Rica, Algeria
The US pool looks better on paper that the actual draw, especially as France ‘appears’ to be weak this time around. Iran would be political dynamite though. The downside is if the US advanced, they likely would face either Portugal or Argentina in the Round of 16. In the actual drawn, if the US advances, they likely will face Belgium or Russia next.
Overall, US’s actual pool (Group G) has an average Oct-13 FIFA ranking of 13, which is a tad lower that Group D at 14 (Costa Rica, England, Italy, Uruguay) and less than 50% of the 2 pools with the highest average ranking - 28 (Pool A, Pool H).
The overall average ranking of each pool is 21; but the spread is 15 in the actual draw (13-28) and only 4 in the full seeded model (19 - 23). Defiantly more fair; but, FIFA has no interest in fair.

 

[meyers7]

FIFA divides them by geography so that each local Federation feels important and keeps paying FIFA the bucks. If it was fair, each team would be seeded.

Agreed. Although, they've always seeded the host, so Brazil would have been seeded anyway. (USA was seeded in 1994)

But if the FIFA (Coca-Cola) rankings were used, as suspect as they are, it would probably be fairer.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Just an update on the one sports organization that has a bigger ego and is more corrupt that the NCAA…
http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/worldcupcentral/id/729?cc=5901

 

[meyers7]

Just an update on the one sports organization that has a bigger ego and is more corrupt that the NCAA…
http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/worldcupcentral/id/729?cc=5901

Be awesome if they took the "nuclear" option and awarded it to the US. I'd still be young enough to get to a few games. I prolly wouldn't even be dead yet.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Be awesome if they took the "nuclear" option and awarded it to the US. I'd still be young enough to get to a few games. I prolly wouldn't even be dead yet.

The US is one of a small number of countries (US, UK, Germany, Italy, France, Spain) who have the stadiums and infrastructure already in place that could host the tournament on short notice. That said, no way does the nuclear option happen because that means FIFA would admit to making a mistake and FIFA makes no mistakes. Just watch the officiating in most World Cup games.

 

[meyers7]

The US is one of a small number of countries (US, UK, Germany, Italy, France, Spain) who have the stadiums and infrastructure already in place that could host the tournament on short notice. That said, no way does the nuclear option happen because that means FIFA would admit to making a mistake and FIFA makes no mistakes. Just watch the officiating in most World Cup games.

Yea, I know. It'll never happen.