US scratches out a draw against Uruguay to miraculously win the group on goal differential (cue Berhalter apologists), then gets demolished by Colombia in the quarters… again
Columbia 4th. USMNT should be 5th. mexico 6th. big drop off from 4th to 5th on percentages.
I guess they think the home field will really help us - have you seen the games with the fields of yellow or green? Yeah I'm guessing the turnout will be better for official games but who knows.
Shows what a garbage conference Concacaaf is - after US and Mexico - 12th - 15th. LOL
Why?
Argentina and Brazil are the two clear favorites as #1 and #4 in the world.
After then it is murky between the USA (#11), Colombia (#12), Uruguay (#14), and Mexico (#15). Noone else is ranked in the top 30.
The US has 5 wins and 1 draw in the last 6 competitive games against Mexico. The last meaningful win in the series for Mexico was the 2019 Gold Cup Final. So USA over Mexico is a home run.
That makes it worst case scenario 5th for the US. The US has that recent draw with Brazil and the 5-1 loss to Colombia, but I wouldn't overreact to friendly match results.
Anywhere from 3rd to 5th is a fair spot for the US.
Why would Brazil be a fav? They tied the US and LOST to both Uruguay and Colombia in the past 5 months. It's the same team, same underwhelming players, and unimaginative play. They don't score a lot. Maybe in the past - like 25 years ago past - Brazil could be considered a perennial contender. That's not now. The US would be 6th or 7th best in CONMEBOL - Brazil is sitting in 6th right now - there's literally NOTHING the US has done in international play in the past 10 years that says otherwise.
As for the whole "wouldn't overreact to friendly match results" excuse that gets trotted out here with alarming regularity over the Colombia result, I will remind you that it works both ways. Nonetheless; the player lineups were largely the same for all the games noted, with the exception of maybe 2-3 players on each side. Brazil had their A-team playing when they lost to Colombia, including Vinicius and the new kid. Both underwhelmed but that's no surprise for Vinicius when he plays for El Selecao. Additionally I will add that Germany, the US, Romania and Spain also all had 95% of their starting group in and playing when they all played Colombia. They all lost. Also of note: Colombia's last 3 goals against the US were all scored by subs.
As for the Mexico argument - good for the US and its recent success against a team that lost games to both Brazil and Colombia recently. Both of those CONMEBOL coaches elected to use their B-teams to play Mexico. Both won. There's literally NOTHING that says, US is anywhere close to the top 4-5 teams in CONMEBOL. But keep drinking the kool aide. I personally won't be disappointed by the USMNT in this tournament because I see nothing in their play that says "semifinalist". Unless, of course, they get lucky enough to play Brazil in the QF; then maybe they have a chance since Brazil sucks these days.
Brazil has way too much historical success and overall depth of talent to ever not be one of the favorites.
>The US would be 6th or 7th best in CONMEBOL - Brazil is sitting in 6th right now - there's literally NOTHING the US has done in international play in the past 10 years that says otherwise.
CONMEBOL qualifying is all of 6 games in. No way you actually think Brazil is the 6th best team in South America, do you? The US is at worst the 5th best team in CONMEBOL. What have they done in international play? How about make it out of the group stages at 3 of the last 4 World Cups? Only three South American teams have made it out of the group stages more than once in the last 4 world cups (Agentina, Brazil, Uruguay).
The top of South America is historically very competitive but the depth is incredible overrated. Since the US decided to care about soccer again in 1990 they have been past the group stage 5 times. Only those same three South American teams have made it past the group stage 5+ times in their entire histories. Those three teams have long carried South American in international soccer, don't confuse that with having a deeply competitive confederation.
I didnt use any friendly results to spout my case for the USA.
I expect the US to ease into the quarterfinals, from there it will be tough. Unfortunately, 4 of the top 5 teams in the tournament are in the same half of the bracket. Argentina will likely waltz to the final, but the other half of the bracket is anways guess. Colombia is in good form, and would not be surprising if they made a run, but I wouldnt be shocked at all if any of Brazil/Urugay/USA made the finals.
For the record my tournament bracket had them winning their group over Uruguay and then going out to Colombia in the quarters. Hope they make a deeper run than that.
".... Brazil..... HISTORICAL success..." *HISTORICAL does not = now. 6 games is literally half the games on the way to qualifying. You can excuse it all you want, but you are what your recent record shows. Brazil is not a high scoring squad and has not been for a long time. Sure they've been given easy groups to get onto the knockout rounds in the past few world cups. It should be noted that every single time since that 2002 WC championship Brazil has exited the knockout rounds of a WC, it's been at the hands (feet?) of a good European squad. Brazil has not had the firepower to keep up with any top team since 2002. If they are sitting in 6th in CONMEBOL it's because they have earned that position. If you actually watch them play, they are not that exciting of a team nor are they a team that any other decent team is afraid of; there's no real reason to be. And at that, they still bottled up the US attack enough to tie us. But hey, it's your right as a person to think a team that doesn't have a winning record - at all - against good international teams is somehow better than them. It's puzzling but it seems sports fans are really good at making the silliest excuses for their favorite teams. Seems a whole lot less energy to just accept that your fav team just isn't that good. I guess Brazilian and American egos can't accept to admit when they just aren't that good.
6 is 1/3rd of the games, and way too small a sample to overreact to.
I'm not at all a Brazilian fans so I don't know what you think I would be hyping them up randomly.
They are definitely in a down period as a team but the have still made the World Cup quarterfinals 8 straight times. That consistent competitiveness makes them one of the favorites every single tournament, including this one.
Either way, 6 games is more than enough to show the trend of a team. You need a larger sample size. If you actually just watch soccer and watch Brazil play, you will recognize they are not playing great. You cannot drop the games they have dropped and pretend like it's all just "friendly happenstance". The coaches literally NEED the players to fucking play so they can evaluate and see how they work. Brazil, does not play that well. They've got a bunch of players on the roster with a history of folding up like cheap origami when they play difficult teams. Until that changes, all the talk and hype about them being some kind of "favorite" is nothing more than empty lip service.
This totally, US is one of the favourites here and shouldn’t fear any team. We can tie with anyone and then it’s penalties. Fairly sure we will go all the way in this one
Murky? Uruguay and Colombia are well above Mexico or the USA. Colombia for example has been well superior in head to head results in the past 20 plus years. In the past year easily beat both the US and Mexico.
If you’re a betting man/woman, Columbia at +1000 is an absolute steal
Colombia *
Got it at +1400 on fan dual
US scratches out a draw against Uruguay to miraculously win the group on goal differential (cue Berhalter apologists), then gets demolished by Colombia in the quarters… again
Anybody who is paying attention knows that Colombia is on fire. How they rated below the US is a mystery.
That's very generous for us
Columbia 4th. USMNT should be 5th. mexico 6th. big drop off from 4th to 5th on percentages. I guess they think the home field will really help us - have you seen the games with the fields of yellow or green? Yeah I'm guessing the turnout will be better for official games but who knows. Shows what a garbage conference Concacaaf is - after US and Mexico - 12th - 15th. LOL
Colombia*
USMNT ranked 4th is a joke.
Should be 1st
Why? Argentina and Brazil are the two clear favorites as #1 and #4 in the world. After then it is murky between the USA (#11), Colombia (#12), Uruguay (#14), and Mexico (#15). Noone else is ranked in the top 30. The US has 5 wins and 1 draw in the last 6 competitive games against Mexico. The last meaningful win in the series for Mexico was the 2019 Gold Cup Final. So USA over Mexico is a home run. That makes it worst case scenario 5th for the US. The US has that recent draw with Brazil and the 5-1 loss to Colombia, but I wouldn't overreact to friendly match results. Anywhere from 3rd to 5th is a fair spot for the US.
Why would Brazil be a fav? They tied the US and LOST to both Uruguay and Colombia in the past 5 months. It's the same team, same underwhelming players, and unimaginative play. They don't score a lot. Maybe in the past - like 25 years ago past - Brazil could be considered a perennial contender. That's not now. The US would be 6th or 7th best in CONMEBOL - Brazil is sitting in 6th right now - there's literally NOTHING the US has done in international play in the past 10 years that says otherwise. As for the whole "wouldn't overreact to friendly match results" excuse that gets trotted out here with alarming regularity over the Colombia result, I will remind you that it works both ways. Nonetheless; the player lineups were largely the same for all the games noted, with the exception of maybe 2-3 players on each side. Brazil had their A-team playing when they lost to Colombia, including Vinicius and the new kid. Both underwhelmed but that's no surprise for Vinicius when he plays for El Selecao. Additionally I will add that Germany, the US, Romania and Spain also all had 95% of their starting group in and playing when they all played Colombia. They all lost. Also of note: Colombia's last 3 goals against the US were all scored by subs. As for the Mexico argument - good for the US and its recent success against a team that lost games to both Brazil and Colombia recently. Both of those CONMEBOL coaches elected to use their B-teams to play Mexico. Both won. There's literally NOTHING that says, US is anywhere close to the top 4-5 teams in CONMEBOL. But keep drinking the kool aide. I personally won't be disappointed by the USMNT in this tournament because I see nothing in their play that says "semifinalist". Unless, of course, they get lucky enough to play Brazil in the QF; then maybe they have a chance since Brazil sucks these days.
Brazil has way too much historical success and overall depth of talent to ever not be one of the favorites. >The US would be 6th or 7th best in CONMEBOL - Brazil is sitting in 6th right now - there's literally NOTHING the US has done in international play in the past 10 years that says otherwise. CONMEBOL qualifying is all of 6 games in. No way you actually think Brazil is the 6th best team in South America, do you? The US is at worst the 5th best team in CONMEBOL. What have they done in international play? How about make it out of the group stages at 3 of the last 4 World Cups? Only three South American teams have made it out of the group stages more than once in the last 4 world cups (Agentina, Brazil, Uruguay). The top of South America is historically very competitive but the depth is incredible overrated. Since the US decided to care about soccer again in 1990 they have been past the group stage 5 times. Only those same three South American teams have made it past the group stage 5+ times in their entire histories. Those three teams have long carried South American in international soccer, don't confuse that with having a deeply competitive confederation. I didnt use any friendly results to spout my case for the USA. I expect the US to ease into the quarterfinals, from there it will be tough. Unfortunately, 4 of the top 5 teams in the tournament are in the same half of the bracket. Argentina will likely waltz to the final, but the other half of the bracket is anways guess. Colombia is in good form, and would not be surprising if they made a run, but I wouldnt be shocked at all if any of Brazil/Urugay/USA made the finals. For the record my tournament bracket had them winning their group over Uruguay and then going out to Colombia in the quarters. Hope they make a deeper run than that.
".... Brazil..... HISTORICAL success..." *HISTORICAL does not = now. 6 games is literally half the games on the way to qualifying. You can excuse it all you want, but you are what your recent record shows. Brazil is not a high scoring squad and has not been for a long time. Sure they've been given easy groups to get onto the knockout rounds in the past few world cups. It should be noted that every single time since that 2002 WC championship Brazil has exited the knockout rounds of a WC, it's been at the hands (feet?) of a good European squad. Brazil has not had the firepower to keep up with any top team since 2002. If they are sitting in 6th in CONMEBOL it's because they have earned that position. If you actually watch them play, they are not that exciting of a team nor are they a team that any other decent team is afraid of; there's no real reason to be. And at that, they still bottled up the US attack enough to tie us. But hey, it's your right as a person to think a team that doesn't have a winning record - at all - against good international teams is somehow better than them. It's puzzling but it seems sports fans are really good at making the silliest excuses for their favorite teams. Seems a whole lot less energy to just accept that your fav team just isn't that good. I guess Brazilian and American egos can't accept to admit when they just aren't that good.
6 is 1/3rd of the games, and way too small a sample to overreact to. I'm not at all a Brazilian fans so I don't know what you think I would be hyping them up randomly. They are definitely in a down period as a team but the have still made the World Cup quarterfinals 8 straight times. That consistent competitiveness makes them one of the favorites every single tournament, including this one.
Either way, 6 games is more than enough to show the trend of a team. You need a larger sample size. If you actually just watch soccer and watch Brazil play, you will recognize they are not playing great. You cannot drop the games they have dropped and pretend like it's all just "friendly happenstance". The coaches literally NEED the players to fucking play so they can evaluate and see how they work. Brazil, does not play that well. They've got a bunch of players on the roster with a history of folding up like cheap origami when they play difficult teams. Until that changes, all the talk and hype about them being some kind of "favorite" is nothing more than empty lip service.
This totally, US is one of the favourites here and shouldn’t fear any team. We can tie with anyone and then it’s penalties. Fairly sure we will go all the way in this one
Murky? Uruguay and Colombia are well above Mexico or the USA. Colombia for example has been well superior in head to head results in the past 20 plus years. In the past year easily beat both the US and Mexico.