Posted on 06/21/2006 10:33:27 PM PDT by soccer_maniac
The U.S. national team goes into Thursday's Group E finale against Ghana (9:55 a.m. ET, ESPN) knowing that it must come up with a win to have any chance of moving to the Round of 16.
All four teams in Group E, including the USA, still have a chance to advance. The U.S. must beat a tough Ghana side to have any chance of moving to the knockout phase. Should Bruce Arena's team be able to secure three points against the Africans, whom they meet at 9:55 a.m. ET on ESPN, they will need Italy to beat the Czech Republic in a simultaneous match, which can be seen live on ESPN2. The U.S. is not mathematically eliminated with a Czech draw or win, but will need a big victory over Ghana to avoid being eliminated on goal difference.
(Excerpt) Read more at mlsnet.com ...
Incidentally, why was your complaint "official"...? Do you work for FIFA? I should imagine they will file it with all the other whine mails they get from disgruntled losers.
The same person who let you in, Jim Robinson.
... and why do you think I care what you think?
Why do you think anyone cares that you don't care what they think about?
Interesting gay projection, wasn't it. The more obnoxious amongst us frequently drag gratuitous homosexuality references into these threads. One can only speculate about the reason for their obession.
Yes, I'm not sure what to read into his gay fantasies - I suppose Berlin is a good place to be should he wish to act upon them.
It looks to me that the seeds in this group were thus
Italy 1
USA 2
Czech Republic 3
Ghana 4
http://eur.i1.yimg.com/eu.download.yahoo.com/fifa/fu/finaldrawpot1.pdf
Thanks for the info. I was looking at the official FIFA rankings. Of course this is going to change soon :)
Apr 06
Rank Team +/-Rank
1 Brazil 0 827 -3
2 Czech Republic 0 772 -7
3 Netherlands 0 768 -6
4 Mexico 2 758 0
5 USA -1 756 -4
5 Spain 0 756 -3
7 Portugal 1 750 -3
8 France -1 749 -5
9 Argentina -1 746 -7
10 England 0 741 -3
http://worldsoccer.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.fifa.com/en/mens/statistics/index/0%2C2548%2C109508%2C00.html%3Farticleid=109508
Yeah -- I like their explanation better than the NCAA basketball committee's, but it still leaves me wondering. I see that the top 8 seeds got dispersed in the 8 groups.
Then the #9 seed gets in with the #8, the #10 gets in with #7, and #11 gets in with #6, in nice serpentine fashion, but then it goes haywire after that. The #12 seed gets in with the #1 seed (and it's not like they're trying to separate teams from the same continent), then #13 goes in with #4, #14 goes in with #1 as well, #15 goes in with #2, and then #16 goes in with #8.
I think they forgot to add the zero to USA and Mexico's rankings.
btt
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