Former World Player of the Year and arguably the best player in the world, Ronaldo with Portugal; super power Germany; and the end of the road for the US the past two World Cups, Ghana. That’s whom the United States will face in this year’s World Cup group stage.
Yes, the US is in the group of death. Looking at the original pots, though, it’s not a surprise. In this year’s World Cup, the 32 teams that qualified to compete in Brazil were separated into four pots of eight teams each. The first pot was ranked by FIFA as the top seven teams plus host country, Brazil. The rest of the pots, however, were grouped by region.
The United States was put into pot 2, easily the least competitive pot. Based off of that, you would assume that the US would have a good chance at moving on to the next round. That’s where the next step comes in. After the pots are chosen, one team from each pot is randomly put into a group of four, creating eight groups. So in reality, being in the easiest pot (region) hurt the US in the end.
On the day of the draw, Group G began to take shape. Germany was chosen as the team from pot 1, then the US from pot 2, and Ghana from pot 3. At this point the US looked to be in decent shape. The US looked to have a very solid chance to defeat Ghana and finish second to Germany, resulting in America moving onto the next stage. As the teams from group 4 were selected it came down to Russia, Bosnia, and Portugal.
Russia and Bosnia were ranked far below the US and were definitely the hopeful choice of US fans. Then Bosnia came off the board. It was down to either Portugal and Ronaldo or a much less talented Russia. To the dismay of all US fans, Portugal came off the board next to compete in Group G with the United States.
As it turns out, not only did the US get a terrible draw in the group of death, they also have the longest travel route throughout Brazil. The schedule sets it up for the US to face off with Ghana on June 16th. If the US hopes to move on, they must defeat Ghana, which they haven’t been able to do the past two World Cups. From there on the US will need a little luck and most likely a draw against Portugal.
The US has a chance and that’s all you can ask for. Soccer has come a long way in America and this is another chance for it to continue.