It's all about the group you're in. Poland is still competing with Ecuador and Costa Rica, while we are competing with Italy and Ghana.
It's not a matter of winning (sure Poland and Germany have easier opponents), it's the fact that they must win by x number of goals. The USA has no such burden to win by a certain number of goals, just win.
Exactly. It was foreseeable that the US team wouldn´t come too far. The Czechs and Italians would be hard to beat also for the German team! No need to feel bad.
And Poland? Well, it was predictable that they lose against us - but I thought they´d win against Ecuador and Costa Rica. Now Germany needs to win against Ecuador: we´ve never won all three games in the first round before, and the last world cups we started with two victories were 1974 and 1990! :-)