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World Cup 2014 Brazil
- Thread starter crzdcolombian
- Start date
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US has to tie or beat Portugal to knock them out. If they are going to play anti football to get a tie? Then go attack Germany !! You sure? That sounds like an awful idea. Unlucky to get a goal that early on but Portugal is very very beatable. Germany showed they are human yesterday.
GO TEAM USA
No super team at this WC. France is just looking godlike because they have a super weak group.
US has to tie or beat Portugal to knock them out. If they are going to play anti football to get a tie? Then go attack Germany !! You sure? That sounds like an awful idea. Unlucky to get a goal that early on but Portugal is very very beatable. Germany showed they are human yesterday.
GO TEAM USA
No super team at this WC. France is just looking godlike because they have a super weak group.
The strategy lasted 5 minutes, but US clearly wanted to park the bus. Huge misstep cost them dearly.
Wow.. I can't believe the US is about to knock out Portugal! The commentator just said this game breaks the US TV viewing audience for a national team sporting event. Amazing.
Unless Ghana just phones in the last match, I still think the US is likely to advance the way they're playing.
Bigger than any Olympic basketball final involving the USA? I'm surprised by that. Not that I can find viewing figures.
Other than that, the USA doesn't really do global team sports: Olympic ice hockey, the Ryder Cup, a bit of rugby union, and... that's it?
They should be. 4th ranked in the world and somewhat on the outside looking in. They did not look good today
Here's the scenarios that allow the US to advance past the group stages...
http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2014/6/22/5832970/world-cup-tiebreaker-rules-usa-germany-group-g
http://www.sbnation.com/soccer/2014/6/22/5832970/world-cup-tiebreaker-rules-usa-germany-group-g
Man this Group G... Its so exciting! and so unfair! So far the way they've been playing, I think Germany and Ghana should move on. Portugal is not playing so well this year, but they barely managed to stay in the game. BARELY! And US, I know they aint great, but they're my team, and I want them to move on! We just need a tie with Germany (against all odds) or for Ghana and Portugal to tie. Its a shame that these games are all during the daytime on weekdays :[
I've been questioning a lot of these 5-6 minute injury times for a while now. What I didn't know was that you can add on to injury time after you announce the injury time.
All the euro teams are getting way too much time. Its very questionable. Yea ref can stop the game when ever he feels like
Germany still wins the group with a tie or a win so I'm hopping they left off the gas and play it conservative. US gets in with a win or tie too so, uh, gentlemen's agreement anyone?
Both Ghana and Portugal are in must territory (Portugal having a huge goal differential to make up) so I expect that match to be very fast paced. Here's to a narrow Portugal victory.
I don't understand why people worry ( for the US).
They are qualified.
They go on if they win the next game, they go on if they tie, and they likely go on if they lose by one. Actually, same goes for germany, but in their case even losing by 2 could be safe ( depending on the ghana-portugal final result)
But make no mistakes, There are no real alternative 'scenarios'.
The US will tie germany and both teams will qualify, with germany winning the group. Everyone is happy (well, except ghana and portugal).
Someone earlier posted the "scandalous" austria-germany game in 82. This is the same, only more obvious, because ANY tie works. They'll put in a fake effort for a few minutes, but the result is guaranteed.
WC 82, West germany - austria 1-0 both qualified, algeria eliminated
EC 04,Sweden- denmark 2-2, both qualified, italy eliminated
Wc 14 germany-usa 0-0 (or any tie), both qualified, ghana/portugal eliminated
They'll deny it, act all offended, but it will end up in a tie. Book it.
If i were a betting man, i would put a large sum on the tie.
Most obvious would be a 0-0, since it doesn't require any active fixing, just " saving energy", but it might look blatant. So maybe they'll go for an unspoken 1-1 ( with the us scoring first: if the us wins 1-0, they almost certainly both go, with the us first)
The only way for fifa to save face, is if portugal and ghana tie as well, or if portugal wins by 1. But if ghana is winning by more than 1, germany and the US will quickly switch to the "safe tie" mode
It sounds horrible, and in fact it is, but it is built-in in this format to possibly get to situations like this. Maybe if there is an outrage they'll change the format again, like after the algeria scandal (however nothing happened after the scandinavian fix).
Have groups of 3 where only the winner goes through, and the problem is fixed.
They are qualified.
They go on if they win the next game, they go on if they tie, and they likely go on if they lose by one. Actually, same goes for germany, but in their case even losing by 2 could be safe ( depending on the ghana-portugal final result)
But make no mistakes, There are no real alternative 'scenarios'.
The US will tie germany and both teams will qualify, with germany winning the group. Everyone is happy (well, except ghana and portugal).
Someone earlier posted the "scandalous" austria-germany game in 82. This is the same, only more obvious, because ANY tie works. They'll put in a fake effort for a few minutes, but the result is guaranteed.
WC 82, West germany - austria 1-0 both qualified, algeria eliminated
EC 04,Sweden- denmark 2-2, both qualified, italy eliminated
Wc 14 germany-usa 0-0 (or any tie), both qualified, ghana/portugal eliminated
They'll deny it, act all offended, but it will end up in a tie. Book it.
If i were a betting man, i would put a large sum on the tie.
Most obvious would be a 0-0, since it doesn't require any active fixing, just " saving energy", but it might look blatant. So maybe they'll go for an unspoken 1-1 ( with the us scoring first: if the us wins 1-0, they almost certainly both go, with the us first)
The only way for fifa to save face, is if portugal and ghana tie as well, or if portugal wins by 1. But if ghana is winning by more than 1, germany and the US will quickly switch to the "safe tie" mode
It sounds horrible, and in fact it is, but it is built-in in this format to possibly get to situations like this. Maybe if there is an outrage they'll change the format again, like after the algeria scandal (however nothing happened after the scandinavian fix).
Have groups of 3 where only the winner goes through, and the problem is fixed.
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I'm hoping the US can get at least a tie with Germany, but if not a Portugal win is good too.
The scenarios for both the us and germany to qualify are so many and involve all the most likely match results, that they would have to be complete idiots to mess this up. And with a german coach to boost
Just like they were qualified until Portugal scored a must-have goal in the final seconds of the 95th minute of the match.
No team has qualified until they've qualified.
Ghana and Portugal are both in dire need of a win (Portugal needs a blow out), and the US is always one stupid mistake away from giving up a goal, so Ghana winning and the US losing isn't a farfetched option and the US only has a 1 GD lead over Ghana. If Germany goes up do you really think they'll 'play down' so the US can tie it? I could see the Germans playing less aggressively (I'm hoping they'll play less aggressively) but I don't seem intentionally letting the US score.