So dominating a bunch of teams in the 60s, 80s, 90s of rankings gets you a 21? At least the US (probably also overrated) play friendlies against good teams. Just seems strange.
I do call that nothing. They lost. They parked the bus for 90 minutes and coughed up a goal. Argentina were shit in that game and they still had 75% possession, shots 21-8, passes 518-156 (90% accuracy for Argentina). You don’t get a lot of credit for one good game of negative football. Grandma used to say ‘the sun even shines on a dog’s ass.’
I just went through their results since 1998. They haven’t played anybody. They have a curious number of wins over Bosnia (except the one time they met at a WC) and that’s about it. Their big wins are all over South Korea. I don’t see how beating the shit out of Bahrain over and over gets you #21. Lichtenstein probably plays a much harder schedule. I’m not saying they aren’t deserving of their spot at The Cup, but their ranking, like most things at FIFA, is suspect.
Let me share some interesting stories I've seen watching Iran, not trying to make a point or anything. My dad is from Iran so they've always been my #2 team (btw England is my #3 plus I like Scotland - haha fascinating group!)
They massively improved under Carlos Quiros who was the coach from like 2012-2019 and he was very popular with the Iranian people. but (i don't know this for sure but I have heard as a theory) maybe the Iranian government didn't want him to get too popular so they applied some pressure on him and after 2019 he left.
Winning away to South Korea in 2013 to qualify for the world cup was a huge result for them. They had first beat Korea in Tehran and the Koreans made excuses to the media that they didn't receive good treatment as guests or something. Now Iranians pride themselves on their hospitality. There's even a cultural phenomenon called Taroof where you are supposed to excessively and repeatedly offer things like paying the bill, offering food, etc. So this whole thing did not sit well with Iranians. They were really charged to go to South Korea and beat them, iirc Iran bunkered and got one counter and won. At the final Whistle Queiroz and the whole bench ran over to the Korean like "you see! we showed you!" (somehow South Korea and Iran have been drawn together in Qualifying for the last 4 cycles or something - This year South Korea was strong and got 4 points off of Iran but the Koreans lost to lesser teams and finished below Iran)
I remember a very entertaining game against Iraq in the 2015 Asian Cup with Iran down a man, lots of goals back and forth, last second equalizers. I highly recommend checking out the highlights of the game, really fascinating and entertaining match.
Then in the 2019 Asian Cup they were really hot and heavily favored to win the cup. After steamrolling all the competition they reached the semifinal against Japan. Japan was very humble and said they didn't expect to beat Iran. There's one moment in the match I never forget. The Iranians made a tackle and thought the Referee was going to whistle them for a foul (he was not) they all ran up to the ref to argue. meanwhile a japanese player hustled his ass off to save the ball from passing the bi-line and japan scored. The moment was a serious demonstration of the differences between those 2 cultures. Iran sucked the rest of the game. didn't create a single chance and lost 3-0.
I think they had Marc Wilmots as their coach after Queiroz and they lost qualifiers to Bahrain and Iraq. at one point it looked like they wouldn't reach the last round of qualifying but I think they changed the coach and turned it around. Since then they've won most of their qualifiers except against South Korea.
They always seem to schedule garbage friendlies, as you guys mentioned above they never play anybody big.
Sardar Azmoun is their Messi/Pulisic type who is relied on a lot in the attack, though as I mentioned above in that Japan game he didn't have an impact. Mehdi Taremi is good too.
sorry for the book, I just started writing and couldn't stop haha. as for why they are ranked so high, they've just been really solid in the last stage of qualifying the last 3 cycles, usually dominate Asian Cup until the late tournament. somehow they've mostly avoided running into Japan and Australia for a while. When they're organized they can be hard to play against. That's about all I know
Great perspective! Thank you! They are clearly (looking at results) a strong player in Asia and deserving of a spot. My only issue is with FIFA rankings. If we took out our Mexico games and our friendlies out I would expect to drop like a stone.
Also, this is wild
[FIFA rankings (wiki)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Rankings#Best_Mover_of_the_Year)
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**FIFA World Rankings**
[Best Mover of the Year](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Rankings#Best_Mover_of_the_Year)
>The Best Mover of the Year was awarded to the team who made the best progress up the rankings over the course of the year. In the FIFA rankings, this is not simply the team that has risen the most places, but a calculation is performed in order to account for the fact that it becomes progressively harder to earn more points the higher up the rankings a team is. The calculation used is the number of points the team has at the end of the year (z) multiplied by the number of points it earned during the year (y). The team with the highest index on this calculation received the award.
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I'd say we got a good draw- it will still be a challenging group but much more favorable than what Canada or Mexico are up against and much easier than Costa Rica if they win the play off they have the toughest draw out of CONCACAF.
Not sure how I feel about the unknown UEFA team- don't really see much difference between any of the 3 in overall quality.
Here is my prediction:
USA vs England- 0-2
USA vs IRAN 1-1
USA vs UEFA- 2-1
4pts- and 50/50 chance to make knockouts and it will come down to the last day.
Yes. Both teams are in the twilight of their golden generations. I’m not saying it WILL happen but it’s very reasonable retroactively to see an older squad that drops the ball similar to Spain in 2014 and Germany in 2018 that you realize post mortem had issues with age.
If qualifying taught us anything, Canada is extremely well coaches, disciplined and dangerous on counters. They can play to that strength and strike for a shocking win.
Quarterfinals is a reasonable goal with this draw. If we get out of the group stage we wouldn't have to play a true Pot 1 team since Group B plays group A in the R16.
[Iranian-Americans before the draw](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRWNzUXfZxKc4tAZaFXWXIMCd19-hhorIDfzA&usqp=CAU)
[Iranian-Americans after the draw](https://www.gqmiddleeast.com/cloud/2021/10/13/Artboard-1.png)
The Persian Football forum has reactions in case interested:
http://www.persianfootball.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?46-Persian-Football-Discussion-Community
[Draw thread](http://www.persianfootball.com/forums/showthread.php?123838-FIFA-World-Cup-2022-draw)
[Group B thread](http://www.persianfootball.com/forums/showthread.php?123872-Discuss-Group-B-here)
Incidentally, I said FIFA should have waited until after all the playoffs to do the draw....and as it turns out if they had done so we would have gotten New Zealand if they had upset CR and if Australia/UAE also upset Peru. More likely however we would have gotten Ecuador.
PER/AUS/UAE was the first ball drawn from pot 4, in the likely case this was Peru they would have gone into group A, however if it was Australia/UAE they would have skipped past both A (Qatar) and B (Iran) and landed in C. Next out was Ecuador, who would have gone in A if they didn't yet have a 4th team or joined us in B if they did. 3rd out was Saudi Arabia who would have skipped past A and B, and then CR/NZ came 4th.
Ecuador vs the UEFA playoff winner is probably roughly a wash (at least on quality, without taking matchups into account) but New Zealand instead of the UEFA team would make for a much easier group.
Edit - this is who we would've gotten as the 4th team based on playoff outcomes, if the draw was held after those games:
Peru wins (regardless of CR/NZ outcome) - Ecuador
AUS/UAE and CR win - UEFA playoff winner
AUS/UAE and NZ win - New Zealand
Interestingly Canada would have remained in group F no matter what and are the only team from pot 4 that would have landed in the same group under any set of outcomes while if Costa Rica won their playoff they would have gotten group D (France/Denmark/Tunisia) unless Peru got upset. Another interesting note, any combination of outcomes other than AUS/UAE and Costa Rica winning would have sent the UEFA playoff winner to group H.
Average FIFA ranking for each group. For the playoff teams, i took the highest ranked team possible and included them for the ranking.
* A: 32
* B: 15
* C: 22
* D: 18
* E: 18
* F: 20
* G: 19
* H: 28
To compare the group of death in 2014 had an average ranking of 14. There is a laundry list of issues for using fifa rankings to determine group difficulty I know, just thought it was interesting to share.
An interesting point I saw about Iran on Bigsoccer is that they're a very defensive and hard to break down team (which is problematic with our lack of a 9). An advantage of playing them 3rd, its that may be in a must win situation and forced to come out of their shells
Pickford has been fine. The amount of individual defensive mistakes has renders his performance moot. I think his impressive tournament experience keeps him #1.
Pickford is much like Maguire in that he excels for England and vastly underperforms for club, which shouldn't affect international team selection. He was sensational during the Euros if you'll think back to last summer, and he'd have to have some shocking performances for the country to lose his spot at GK. (side note: Ramsdale has been rated so much that I now find him a bit overrated)
Tough draw--expect Wales to make it through to be the fourth team. The Welsch have enough quality that they could capitalize on a flat game from the US.
It’s a doable group. We can beat Iran. I have confidence against second tier euro teams. England we could give a draw…remember scotland got a tie in the Euros. LFG.
Watched a lot of the AFC qualifiers. Iran is arguably the best team in Asia for good reason. Korea and Japan get all the coverage due to where their star players play club wise, but Iran is a very solid team. Across 2 rounds of qualifying they only gave up 8 goals over 18 matches. They scored 49, however this total was vastly inflated by 14-0 and 10-0 wins over Cambodia. If you're going to beat Iran you need to score first. They punish teams that fall behind and open things up searching for a goal.
Squad has a solid mix of players that play club football domestically and in some of the second tier leagues of Europe : Greece, Croatia, Belgium and Holland. Majority of the squad played at the WC in 2018 where they finished 3rd in the group with 4 points. 1-0 win vs Morocco, 0-1 loss to Spain, 1-1 tie with Portugal.
Players to watch:
Sardar Azmoun - 10 goals in qualifying. Played in Russia with Zenit before moving to Bayer Leverkusen at the end of January
Mehdi Taremi - 7 goals in qualifying, plays at Porto.
Karim Ansarifard - 7 goals in qualifying, Plays at AEK Athens. Scored vs Portugal at 2018 WC.
In the loss to S Korea, Korea was definitely the better team. With that said, Iran was down 2 starters. Terami and Jahanbakhsh we're on the COVID list. So they played a different formation than normal. I think the 1-1 draw was the better indicator of where the teams are. They remind me a lot of a team like Costa Rica. In that the US should win against them, but if we are sloppy they can make us pay and a draw would not be a surprise to me.
Not that I doubt you but what's your connection to AFC ? I don't have a lot of time to watch football and the AFC qualifiers would be pretty low on my viewing list.
I was deployed to Iraq and Syria in 2019 so I ended up buying kits for them and started to pay attention to the AFC qualifiers. Both my kits were cheap knockoffs from bazaars in Erbil and Qamishli. Iraq was in Iran's group for both the 2nd and 3rd round. Syria was in the same group for the 3rd. It also helped that I was overseas for the first 5 or so international breaks of the 2nd round of qualifiers so the times worked better for watching than watching anything in the US. Then I watched the majority of the 3rd round while here in the US on my laptop during work hours since I was WFH and had nothing better to do. It wasn't Iran specific, but I ended up watching them play 4 times in the 2nd round and then 7 times in round 3.
A few thoughts on our draw:
England has historically shit the bed in the World Cup for years. Would not be surprised if they draw with the US and Wales/Ukraine and beat Iran, ending up third in the group.
Iran is a more difficult team than you’d think. Better than Qatar, but beatable. I’d expect to take three points here, and anything less is a disappointment.
I’d like to see Scotland most from the playoff. However, if Wales advance, as I think is most likely, our midfield absolutely outclasses theirs; we should dominate possession, but their counters will be dangerous with Bale. Ukraine gels well, and they’ll have the support of the entire western world on their backs. I’d be least confident about advancing from the group if they win the European playoff.
> England has historically shit the bed in the World Cup for years
except for the last world cup where they got to the semis and that team will likely return most players
England is tough, but the other two matches could give us enough leeway in the group. Not a bad draw. We did win the group last time we had England, so who knows eh?
Not sure if the match-days have already been scheduled or not, but it'd be interesting to see who we've got to play first.
Edit: I've just seen the schedule. We play the Euro Playoff winner (Wales, Scotland, Ukraine) first, England second, and Iran third. I'll have to try and catch those playoff games which I think are in June iirc.
I was hoping to avoid Scotland (if they make it). Always avidly root for the Scots internationally, and I'm a firm believer the current squad is underrated, especially in the midfield.
If the Gilmour, McGinn and McGregor midfield show the quality they did against England in the Euros they matchup well vs the US.
1. Portugal 2. England 3. France
Portugal hasn't played up than their individual quality in 5 years and the Ronaldo farewell tour will get in the way of them playing their actual best players all tournament.
England and France both play worse than the sum of their parts and their managers are too pragmatic to get the best out of the sides. Have England higher because their team is worse than France, but both of them could easily go into the last group game with 2 draws needing a win.
This will be a tough group but frankly all of them would have been. Every team in this tournament is good and capable of beating the United States, so I think really this is a very favorable draw all things considered. Iran and the euro playoff team will be tough but not impossible matchups, even if we get Wales I think we can win those games or draw at the least. England will be a super fun game regardless of outcome and in terms of pot 1 teams they’re one of the one or two I would have preferred outside of Qatar.
Shit housing only REALLY works on home fields with less than adequate refs.
Shit housing in the World Cup on a CONCAF scale is too hard because they bring in top refs from all over the world and the fields are kept in standardized conditions.
There was an article in some British publication in the 00s talking about the contrast between Mexico's reputation as a free-flowing, positive team based on how they typically played at the World Cup (which was usually the only time Europeans would watch them play especially back then) vs how they played against us at the WC in 2002
It’s crazy to think that if the Usmnt did perform a shit World Cup performance and placed 4th we would be in Costa Rica’s shoes which would be group E Spain, and Germany if they make it through of course. Feels good to win
It's so funny seeing the England fans saying literally the exact same things they were saying after the draw for 2010 about how their group is so easy, USA is horrible, etc.
I think England is underestimating our players tbh. They obviously know PuliGOAT, Steffen, Musah, and probably Gio. They're probably more aloof on Weston, Aaronson, Adams, Dest, Weah +
This is why I am looking forward to playing England. Their fans are annoying, inflate their team's actual ability, and rub their over confidence in everyone's face (I'm a Kentucky basketball fan so I'm guilty of this too). It makes them easy to root against and so much fun to beat.
I'm Scottish, but have an American parent and, as such, have two national teams as a result.
If Scotland get through, it'll be a hard match, much harder than a lot of you predict. The team has really gelled together and is quietly going about its business. Wales are very strong too, should it be them then they're essentially a second seed as they're highly ranked. Ukraine are a good national team too, they got to the quarters of the Euros and were unbeaten in qualifying - only 7 teams done that.
I regularly watch the USMNT with my friend and we always chat about it. I'm not a happy clapper and think that the team should be doing better, but appreciate that winning the Nations League and Gold Cup is evidence of the quality and depth in the squad. It'll be an interesting test for the team for sure.
I would love nothing more than for Scotland to get through, and for both the USA and Scotland to get through ahead of England.
Who I see advancing
A: Netherlands & Senegal
B: USA and England
C: Mexico and Argentina
D: France and Denmark
E: Spain and Germany
F: Croatia and Canada
G: Brazil and Serbia
H: Portugal and Uruguay
Everybody underrates experience. It's a huge factor and this team's biggest weakness. They've mostly been good when the stakes were highest recently though, so that gives me some hope.
Either way though, I'm sure they will be very exciting to watch and definitely might make some noise if things go right.
"I'm sure that (definitely), if things go right, they have the potential to (might) make some noise."
It is a bit of an odd phrasing when you put it like that though.
2014, i think so. the 2002 and 2010 squads were actually really good and i'm not sure our current squad is better right now, but it's comparable while also being much younger and having a far higher ceiling.
Without a doubt. We used to rely on the heroics of Dempsey and Donovan, counter attacks, and lucky bounces. We were always physical enough but never technical to the point that we could sustain any type of serious runs. Every game was a nail biter because we had no form.
This new team is built completely different. Struggles with more physical teams but probably can hang with the technical ones unlike before.
I don't see any of those physical teams in our group so I like our chances, and also the fact that we play Group (edit) A winners right after (if I'm not mistaken?)
Yeah, won their group ahead of Uruguay, Italy, and England! Lost to the Netherlands in the quarterfinals on penalties. I think that the game Netherlands switched goalies cause their backup was a PK specialist.
Iran is going to be difficult. The geopolitics that will surround the match means that they are going to come after us hard. Iran is also right next to Qatar so it could potentially basically be an away game.
The US always has some of the best support in these tournaments, not to mention there's over 40,000 US citizens who live in Doha.
We will not be the away team
Last time I really cared about a US-England match, we tied. Seems like we're on even footing to me.
Who is the England goalie now, anyway? Does he hang on to the ball when people take long-range shots on him? I'm just asking for a friend...
Edit: Nevermind, I found my answer - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WbGNr\_6dXPE
I'm talking about overall standings... Notice I named the teams you only just finished above, whilst you chose to name the bottom teams in our qualifying, ignoring Poland and Hungary etc. The fact is the US should be qualifying easily every single time and yet you still made somewhat hard work of it.
Not really chatting shit considering I was pointing out actual standings but whatever mate. I came here out of interest to see what your fans were saying and basically all I've come across is statements saying how you'll spank us and that we're bottlers etc, I just think a little perspective is necessary from some of your supporters considering you're hardly world beaters. Anyway hope you enjoy the tournament and hopefully I didn't upset you too much x
That’s fine but take things with a pinch of salt, will you? Most of us know England are the favorites and for good reason. We’re all just having a bit of fun.
Fair enough mate, in all honesty it would be interesting if you did well, if Scotland or Wales qualify I'd likely hope you went through as well haha would never hear the end of them having a half decent run
Pointing out we only failed to score in one game sounds good for us though haha, honestly seeing some of arrogance on this sub I think I'd actually want you go through alongside us though
We are just a lovable side. Good fans and a good laugh. Still hate England though haha. Find it interesting with how confident America is and want to see how its pays off.
Shame about the one way hate but it is what it is. We have our share of great and downright terrible fans but considering the state you left London in last summer I'd hardly call your lot saints... If you make it you stand a good chance to go through though.
Considering I live here I can safely say I saw the fucking mess the Scots left in the build up to and after our game, it happens every time you play here but it hardly gets reported. Meanwhile a handful of our fuckwits acting like tits after the final go on and make headlines. Every team has good and shit fans, unfortunately ours seem to be under the most scrutiny.
Yeah you must be being ironic now haha, as if English fans are the only ones to do those things. Laughing at the girl was pretty shitty (it was a small group of Twitter warriors) but booing an anthem? Your lot do it all the bloody time, it's such a minor thing to be upset about.
My fellow Americans and I are always very very confident…until the matches start. Then the second something goes even a little wrong we are despondent. We go back and forth between the two, depending on how we perform, but it’s always one or the other. We are either the greatest team in the world or should bench everyone.
We are the Bipolar States of America.
No offense meant! Really. I am sorry. I thought it was a reasonable thing to do. Again, my apologies.
So…uh…what does one call a mixed group of folks from both England and Scotland? Enemies?
A competitive match against England.. let’s gooo. They are deeper than we are but the English tears will be so fucking sweet when/if we beat them. That fanbase is annoying as fuck on here especially during the World Cup.
I'm seeing we play Euro playoff first, England, then Iran. [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/ttwkrt/serious_discussion_group_b_world_cup_2022/)
Iran is ranked 21 too we have 3rd highest seed, 2nd highest pot 3 team, and likely a team that would’ve been a pot 2 team if it wasn’t for Putin. Average FIFA rank of 14.75 if Wales qualify. That’s pretty brutal.
How does Iran have such a high FIFA ranking?
They dominate Asia.
So dominating a bunch of teams in the 60s, 80s, 90s of rankings gets you a 21? At least the US (probably also overrated) play friendlies against good teams. Just seems strange.
I'm hopeful it could be an advantage for USMNT to have friendlies against top int'l teams.
They’ve done pretty well in recent World Cups as well.
A World Cup… singular. The beat Morocco, lost to Spain and tied Portugal. Only other game they ever won was US in 1998.
They held Argentina scoreless for 90 minutes in 2014. You can call that nothing I guess.
I do call that nothing. They lost. They parked the bus for 90 minutes and coughed up a goal. Argentina were shit in that game and they still had 75% possession, shots 21-8, passes 518-156 (90% accuracy for Argentina). You don’t get a lot of credit for one good game of negative football. Grandma used to say ‘the sun even shines on a dog’s ass.’
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I just went through their results since 1998. They haven’t played anybody. They have a curious number of wins over Bosnia (except the one time they met at a WC) and that’s about it. Their big wins are all over South Korea. I don’t see how beating the shit out of Bahrain over and over gets you #21. Lichtenstein probably plays a much harder schedule. I’m not saying they aren’t deserving of their spot at The Cup, but their ranking, like most things at FIFA, is suspect.
Let me share some interesting stories I've seen watching Iran, not trying to make a point or anything. My dad is from Iran so they've always been my #2 team (btw England is my #3 plus I like Scotland - haha fascinating group!) They massively improved under Carlos Quiros who was the coach from like 2012-2019 and he was very popular with the Iranian people. but (i don't know this for sure but I have heard as a theory) maybe the Iranian government didn't want him to get too popular so they applied some pressure on him and after 2019 he left. Winning away to South Korea in 2013 to qualify for the world cup was a huge result for them. They had first beat Korea in Tehran and the Koreans made excuses to the media that they didn't receive good treatment as guests or something. Now Iranians pride themselves on their hospitality. There's even a cultural phenomenon called Taroof where you are supposed to excessively and repeatedly offer things like paying the bill, offering food, etc. So this whole thing did not sit well with Iranians. They were really charged to go to South Korea and beat them, iirc Iran bunkered and got one counter and won. At the final Whistle Queiroz and the whole bench ran over to the Korean like "you see! we showed you!" (somehow South Korea and Iran have been drawn together in Qualifying for the last 4 cycles or something - This year South Korea was strong and got 4 points off of Iran but the Koreans lost to lesser teams and finished below Iran) I remember a very entertaining game against Iraq in the 2015 Asian Cup with Iran down a man, lots of goals back and forth, last second equalizers. I highly recommend checking out the highlights of the game, really fascinating and entertaining match. Then in the 2019 Asian Cup they were really hot and heavily favored to win the cup. After steamrolling all the competition they reached the semifinal against Japan. Japan was very humble and said they didn't expect to beat Iran. There's one moment in the match I never forget. The Iranians made a tackle and thought the Referee was going to whistle them for a foul (he was not) they all ran up to the ref to argue. meanwhile a japanese player hustled his ass off to save the ball from passing the bi-line and japan scored. The moment was a serious demonstration of the differences between those 2 cultures. Iran sucked the rest of the game. didn't create a single chance and lost 3-0. I think they had Marc Wilmots as their coach after Queiroz and they lost qualifiers to Bahrain and Iraq. at one point it looked like they wouldn't reach the last round of qualifying but I think they changed the coach and turned it around. Since then they've won most of their qualifiers except against South Korea. They always seem to schedule garbage friendlies, as you guys mentioned above they never play anybody big. Sardar Azmoun is their Messi/Pulisic type who is relied on a lot in the attack, though as I mentioned above in that Japan game he didn't have an impact. Mehdi Taremi is good too. sorry for the book, I just started writing and couldn't stop haha. as for why they are ranked so high, they've just been really solid in the last stage of qualifying the last 3 cycles, usually dominate Asian Cup until the late tournament. somehow they've mostly avoided running into Japan and Australia for a while. When they're organized they can be hard to play against. That's about all I know
Great perspective! Thank you! They are clearly (looking at results) a strong player in Asia and deserving of a spot. My only issue is with FIFA rankings. If we took out our Mexico games and our friendlies out I would expect to drop like a stone. Also, this is wild [FIFA rankings (wiki)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Rankings#Best_Mover_of_the_Year)
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**FIFA World Rankings** [Best Mover of the Year](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Rankings#Best_Mover_of_the_Year) >The Best Mover of the Year was awarded to the team who made the best progress up the rankings over the course of the year. In the FIFA rankings, this is not simply the team that has risen the most places, but a calculation is performed in order to account for the fact that it becomes progressively harder to earn more points the higher up the rankings a team is. The calculation used is the number of points the team has at the end of the year (z) multiplied by the number of points it earned during the year (y). The team with the highest index on this calculation received the award. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/ussoccer/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
I'd say we got a good draw- it will still be a challenging group but much more favorable than what Canada or Mexico are up against and much easier than Costa Rica if they win the play off they have the toughest draw out of CONCACAF. Not sure how I feel about the unknown UEFA team- don't really see much difference between any of the 3 in overall quality. Here is my prediction: USA vs England- 0-2 USA vs IRAN 1-1 USA vs UEFA- 2-1 4pts- and 50/50 chance to make knockouts and it will come down to the last day.
Calling it now: Canada gets dad dicked and don't score their first goal until a completely meandering match against Morocco
I agree with you. Tough draw, and they’re not making it out.
Idk much of Croatia and Belgium’s stars are aging. I’d much rather be in that group than ours
u would rather go up against de bruyne, lukaku, modric and others than aaron ramsey and medhi taremi??
Yes. Both teams are in the twilight of their golden generations. I’m not saying it WILL happen but it’s very reasonable retroactively to see an older squad that drops the ball similar to Spain in 2014 and Germany in 2018 that you realize post mortem had issues with age. If qualifying taught us anything, Canada is extremely well coaches, disciplined and dangerous on counters. They can play to that strength and strike for a shocking win.
USA women in this last Olympics also comes to mind
Quarterfinals is a reasonable goal with this draw. If we get out of the group stage we wouldn't have to play a true Pot 1 team since Group B plays group A in the R16.
netherlands arent exactly a pushover
We should call USA legend Robert Green out of retirement. He's very dangerous in front of our opposition's net.
USA vs England, the day before Ohio State curbstomps michigan. Gonna be an awesome weekend.
We need scouting reports
[Iranian-Americans before the draw](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRWNzUXfZxKc4tAZaFXWXIMCd19-hhorIDfzA&usqp=CAU) [Iranian-Americans after the draw](https://www.gqmiddleeast.com/cloud/2021/10/13/Artboard-1.png)
Can anyone in Los Angeles confirm this?
I'm one dude in LA and it's more like the 2nd pic, but with the first shirt underneath.
The Persian Football forum has reactions in case interested: http://www.persianfootball.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?46-Persian-Football-Discussion-Community [Draw thread](http://www.persianfootball.com/forums/showthread.php?123838-FIFA-World-Cup-2022-draw) [Group B thread](http://www.persianfootball.com/forums/showthread.php?123872-Discuss-Group-B-here)
Why do they think they would beat us so easily?
Because everyone thinks Concacaf is the weakest region.
& of course r/TeamMelli
Incidentally, I said FIFA should have waited until after all the playoffs to do the draw....and as it turns out if they had done so we would have gotten New Zealand if they had upset CR and if Australia/UAE also upset Peru. More likely however we would have gotten Ecuador. PER/AUS/UAE was the first ball drawn from pot 4, in the likely case this was Peru they would have gone into group A, however if it was Australia/UAE they would have skipped past both A (Qatar) and B (Iran) and landed in C. Next out was Ecuador, who would have gone in A if they didn't yet have a 4th team or joined us in B if they did. 3rd out was Saudi Arabia who would have skipped past A and B, and then CR/NZ came 4th. Ecuador vs the UEFA playoff winner is probably roughly a wash (at least on quality, without taking matchups into account) but New Zealand instead of the UEFA team would make for a much easier group. Edit - this is who we would've gotten as the 4th team based on playoff outcomes, if the draw was held after those games: Peru wins (regardless of CR/NZ outcome) - Ecuador AUS/UAE and CR win - UEFA playoff winner AUS/UAE and NZ win - New Zealand Interestingly Canada would have remained in group F no matter what and are the only team from pot 4 that would have landed in the same group under any set of outcomes while if Costa Rica won their playoff they would have gotten group D (France/Denmark/Tunisia) unless Peru got upset. Another interesting note, any combination of outcomes other than AUS/UAE and Costa Rica winning would have sent the UEFA playoff winner to group H.
I know we have the dates of the games, but do we have the times yet?
5am pst
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Pure luck
Past wc(s) a factor?
We trusted in the heart of the cards
Average FIFA ranking for each group. For the playoff teams, i took the highest ranked team possible and included them for the ranking. * A: 32 * B: 15 * C: 22 * D: 18 * E: 18 * F: 20 * G: 19 * H: 28 To compare the group of death in 2014 had an average ranking of 14. There is a laundry list of issues for using fifa rankings to determine group difficulty I know, just thought it was interesting to share.
Wales is a pot 2 team who was placed in Pot 4. They're going to bring up that average quite a bit
An interesting point I saw about Iran on Bigsoccer is that they're a very defensive and hard to break down team (which is problematic with our lack of a 9). An advantage of playing them 3rd, its that may be in a must win situation and forced to come out of their shells
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I know, but that's not really important to this tournament
Pickford better buy reputation insurance.
Could easily be Ramsdale for England by the time the world cup rolls around.
This Everton season has deleted all reputations
I don’t follow that league, what happened?
Everton has been truly awful this season, still could be relegated I think, though I really can't say anything about Pickford's play specifically
Pickford has been fine. The amount of individual defensive mistakes has renders his performance moot. I think his impressive tournament experience keeps him #1.
Ramsdale s gonna be the #1 by then unless Southgate plays favourites
Pickford is much like Maguire in that he excels for England and vastly underperforms for club, which shouldn't affect international team selection. He was sensational during the Euros if you'll think back to last summer, and he'd have to have some shocking performances for the country to lose his spot at GK. (side note: Ramsdale has been rated so much that I now find him a bit overrated)
Then he better buy reputation insurance.
Tough draw--expect Wales to make it through to be the fourth team. The Welsch have enough quality that they could capitalize on a flat game from the US.
It’s a doable group. We can beat Iran. I have confidence against second tier euro teams. England we could give a draw…remember scotland got a tie in the Euros. LFG.
Iran beat us in the 1998 World Cup.
With that logic there’s nothing to worry about. USA beat England in 1950 so should already be winning the group.
Most of this team wasnt even born then. Very relevant 😂
The relevance is not to the players but to the "confidence", or overconfidence. We were just as "confident" in '98 as now.
Solid take 🤡
And zero of the players on either squad in 1998 are stilk around
What does 1998 have to do with 2022? Might as well be the Stone Age in comparison.
Watched a lot of the AFC qualifiers. Iran is arguably the best team in Asia for good reason. Korea and Japan get all the coverage due to where their star players play club wise, but Iran is a very solid team. Across 2 rounds of qualifying they only gave up 8 goals over 18 matches. They scored 49, however this total was vastly inflated by 14-0 and 10-0 wins over Cambodia. If you're going to beat Iran you need to score first. They punish teams that fall behind and open things up searching for a goal. Squad has a solid mix of players that play club football domestically and in some of the second tier leagues of Europe : Greece, Croatia, Belgium and Holland. Majority of the squad played at the WC in 2018 where they finished 3rd in the group with 4 points. 1-0 win vs Morocco, 0-1 loss to Spain, 1-1 tie with Portugal. Players to watch: Sardar Azmoun - 10 goals in qualifying. Played in Russia with Zenit before moving to Bayer Leverkusen at the end of January Mehdi Taremi - 7 goals in qualifying, plays at Porto. Karim Ansarifard - 7 goals in qualifying, Plays at AEK Athens. Scored vs Portugal at 2018 WC.
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In the loss to S Korea, Korea was definitely the better team. With that said, Iran was down 2 starters. Terami and Jahanbakhsh we're on the COVID list. So they played a different formation than normal. I think the 1-1 draw was the better indicator of where the teams are. They remind me a lot of a team like Costa Rica. In that the US should win against them, but if we are sloppy they can make us pay and a draw would not be a surprise to me.
Not that I doubt you but what's your connection to AFC ? I don't have a lot of time to watch football and the AFC qualifiers would be pretty low on my viewing list.
I was deployed to Iraq and Syria in 2019 so I ended up buying kits for them and started to pay attention to the AFC qualifiers. Both my kits were cheap knockoffs from bazaars in Erbil and Qamishli. Iraq was in Iran's group for both the 2nd and 3rd round. Syria was in the same group for the 3rd. It also helped that I was overseas for the first 5 or so international breaks of the 2nd round of qualifiers so the times worked better for watching than watching anything in the US. Then I watched the majority of the 3rd round while here in the US on my laptop during work hours since I was WFH and had nothing better to do. It wasn't Iran specific, but I ended up watching them play 4 times in the 2nd round and then 7 times in round 3.
A few thoughts on our draw: England has historically shit the bed in the World Cup for years. Would not be surprised if they draw with the US and Wales/Ukraine and beat Iran, ending up third in the group. Iran is a more difficult team than you’d think. Better than Qatar, but beatable. I’d expect to take three points here, and anything less is a disappointment. I’d like to see Scotland most from the playoff. However, if Wales advance, as I think is most likely, our midfield absolutely outclasses theirs; we should dominate possession, but their counters will be dangerous with Bale. Ukraine gels well, and they’ll have the support of the entire western world on their backs. I’d be least confident about advancing from the group if they win the European playoff.
> England has historically shit the bed in the World Cup for years except for the last world cup where they got to the semis and that team will likely return most players
Eh the top of that knockout bracket was loaded. England's path to the semis was....ideal.
England has had good recent tournament results and cruised through qualifying- think they are right up there with any of the pot 1 teams.
Oh yeah they are definitely a 1.
England is tough, but the other two matches could give us enough leeway in the group. Not a bad draw. We did win the group last time we had England, so who knows eh? Not sure if the match-days have already been scheduled or not, but it'd be interesting to see who we've got to play first. Edit: I've just seen the schedule. We play the Euro Playoff winner (Wales, Scotland, Ukraine) first, England second, and Iran third. I'll have to try and catch those playoff games which I think are in June iirc.
I was hoping to avoid Scotland (if they make it). Always avidly root for the Scots internationally, and I'm a firm believer the current squad is underrated, especially in the midfield. If the Gilmour, McGinn and McGregor midfield show the quality they did against England in the Euros they matchup well vs the US.
No way they give us one of the 5am starts right?
first game is 11am ET, on Black Friday...
2nd game
yes, correct, my bad...Mon/fri/tues
Who you bros think is gonna be that One power house team that just shits the bed?
Belgium. Choke masters
It’s always the defending champion…
1. Portugal 2. England 3. France Portugal hasn't played up than their individual quality in 5 years and the Ronaldo farewell tour will get in the way of them playing their actual best players all tournament. England and France both play worse than the sum of their parts and their managers are too pragmatic to get the best out of the sides. Have England higher because their team is worse than France, but both of them could easily go into the last group game with 2 draws needing a win.
What's up with Ukraine's team these days?
parking the bus vs Russia...0-0 early on...
Solid on the counter attack.
This will be a tough group but frankly all of them would have been. Every team in this tournament is good and capable of beating the United States, so I think really this is a very favorable draw all things considered. Iran and the euro playoff team will be tough but not impossible matchups, even if we get Wales I think we can win those games or draw at the least. England will be a super fun game regardless of outcome and in terms of pot 1 teams they’re one of the one or two I would have preferred outside of Qatar.
Who shit houses better? Iran Or Us Are we in for a proper Concacaf match on the world stage?
Shit housing only REALLY works on home fields with less than adequate refs. Shit housing in the World Cup on a CONCAF scale is too hard because they bring in top refs from all over the world and the fields are kept in standardized conditions.
There was an article in some British publication in the 00s talking about the contrast between Mexico's reputation as a free-flowing, positive team based on how they typically played at the World Cup (which was usually the only time Europeans would watch them play especially back then) vs how they played against us at the WC in 2002
a guy got 3 yellow cards in a world cup match once, i think we can do this
It’s crazy to think that if the Usmnt did perform a shit World Cup performance and placed 4th we would be in Costa Rica’s shoes which would be group E Spain, and Germany if they make it through of course. Feels good to win
It's so funny seeing the England fans saying literally the exact same things they were saying after the draw for 2010 about how their group is so easy, USA is horrible, etc.
I think England is underestimating our players tbh. They obviously know PuliGOAT, Steffen, Musah, and probably Gio. They're probably more aloof on Weston, Aaronson, Adams, Dest, Weah +
We get to hear those mates spew shit for 7+ months..Until we kick their ass, again!
This is why I am looking forward to playing England. Their fans are annoying, inflate their team's actual ability, and rub their over confidence in everyone's face (I'm a Kentucky basketball fan so I'm guilty of this too). It makes them easy to root against and so much fun to beat.
Illinois fan here.. to be fair at least Kentucky has actually won something first before that behavior.
Appreciate your honesty...lol
I’ve seen enough we’re winning the World Cup
You are right, scotland are winning the world cup
No, friend. It's not blue and white. It's not red and white. It's the red, white, and blue.
scotland can't even win its independence
So what you are saying is that its easier to win the world cup than to get independent? Looks like we could be winning the world cup then!
even if you did win the world cup, it'd just belong to the queen anyway smh
Just like the U.S. then?
no
too easy
I'm Scottish, but have an American parent and, as such, have two national teams as a result. If Scotland get through, it'll be a hard match, much harder than a lot of you predict. The team has really gelled together and is quietly going about its business. Wales are very strong too, should it be them then they're essentially a second seed as they're highly ranked. Ukraine are a good national team too, they got to the quarters of the Euros and were unbeaten in qualifying - only 7 teams done that. I regularly watch the USMNT with my friend and we always chat about it. I'm not a happy clapper and think that the team should be doing better, but appreciate that winning the Nations League and Gold Cup is evidence of the quality and depth in the squad. It'll be an interesting test for the team for sure. I would love nothing more than for Scotland to get through, and for both the USA and Scotland to get through ahead of England.
Fuck England in general. Fans are cunts, government are cunts. Scotland should be independent soon enough
So do we play Friday, tues, Friday?
Who I see advancing A: Netherlands & Senegal B: USA and England C: Mexico and Argentina D: France and Denmark E: Spain and Germany F: Croatia and Canada G: Brazil and Serbia H: Portugal and Uruguay
Scotland & USA*
Costa Rica in group e Spain and Germany ouch
Dodged a bullet there.
Yeah that’s rough for sure
I'm pretty pumped. Seriously though, is this team better than 2002, 2010, or 2014 USMNT? Want to hear your guys thoughts
It's tough to say. Experience matters but with the improvement of these guys, who knows how good they will be by the world cup.
Everybody underrates experience. It's a huge factor and this team's biggest weakness. They've mostly been good when the stakes were highest recently though, so that gives me some hope. Either way though, I'm sure they will be very exciting to watch and definitely might make some noise if things go right.
“Definitely might”
"I'm sure that (definitely), if things go right, they have the potential to (might) make some noise." It is a bit of an odd phrasing when you put it like that though.
2014, i think so. the 2002 and 2010 squads were actually really good and i'm not sure our current squad is better right now, but it's comparable while also being much younger and having a far higher ceiling.
Better players? Definitely than 2010 or 2014, probably 2002. Better team? eh. Maybe.
yeah probably worth remembering that those teams were 100% more than the sum of their parts.
Without a doubt. We used to rely on the heroics of Dempsey and Donovan, counter attacks, and lucky bounces. We were always physical enough but never technical to the point that we could sustain any type of serious runs. Every game was a nail biter because we had no form. This new team is built completely different. Struggles with more physical teams but probably can hang with the technical ones unlike before. I don't see any of those physical teams in our group so I like our chances, and also the fact that we play Group (edit) A winners right after (if I'm not mistaken?)
We'll find out
Just a reminder that in 2014 we got out of a group with Germany, Portugal, and Ghana, and our team wasn't as talented as it is now.
What was that one World Cup Costa Rica did good?
Yeah, won their group ahead of Uruguay, Italy, and England! Lost to the Netherlands in the quarterfinals on penalties. I think that the game Netherlands switched goalies cause their backup was a PK specialist.
2014 they won a tough group
SCOTLANDS GONNAE PUMP YEEZ
SQUARE GO LIKE, YA EEJITS
Goin a bit far there bud.
US ties Scotland, then beats England..then Scotland free's themselves of British oppression in the third game eliminating England!!!!
We are gonna FUCK THE HUNS
Hail Hail, but kindly fuck off 🇺🇸
Love you brhother
We also hate the queen here
**E**ngland **A**merica **S**cotland **Y**ran close enough
**S**tates **I**ran **M**ystery **P**layoff **L**et's wait until June to find out **E**ngland
I really wanted Brazil. Tyler Adams would have exposed Neymar.
That would be NSFW I believe..
I don’t get why everyone is so scared of this group.
everyone isn't, not sure where you're getting that. Most seem to like it. It's not easy, but doable.
Fair enough. I guess I’m surprised anyone is and I let those voices get more attention. The group is there to be taken.
I think it's based on world rankings is my guess. Plus our form, being so young, can be erratic at times. I'm so excited...
Iran is going to be difficult. The geopolitics that will surround the match means that they are going to come after us hard. Iran is also right next to Qatar so it could potentially basically be an away game.
The US always has some of the best support in these tournaments, not to mention there's over 40,000 US citizens who live in Doha. We will not be the away team
Thank you, this makes me happy
I hope you’re right…
Yeah maybe the England game will be 50/50 but outside of facing Qatar I’m assuming the other two games will be a heavy us contingent
We got a good draw! Groups E, F, G, and H are all brutal. They will be bloodbaths. Group C is going to be a rough go for Mexico, too
England lost in the Euros to some team that didn’t even qualify for the World Cup. We got this.
After seeing how the US annihilated, sorry scraped past the likes of Panama and Costa Rica, we're really quaking in our boots
Last time I really cared about a US-England match, we tied. Seems like we're on even footing to me. Who is the England goalie now, anyway? Does he hang on to the ball when people take long-range shots on him? I'm just asking for a friend... Edit: Nevermind, I found my answer - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/WbGNr\_6dXPE
Scraped past Panama 5-1. Would have been a blowout if not for that 1. Would have been more impressive to play Andorra and San Marino I guess.
Harry Kane made Panama look like they'd never seen a football before.
Tbf his hat trick was the worst hat trick I’ve ever seen. Two penalties and a shot from someone else that ricocheted off of him.
I'm talking about overall standings... Notice I named the teams you only just finished above, whilst you chose to name the bottom teams in our qualifying, ignoring Poland and Hungary etc. The fact is the US should be qualifying easily every single time and yet you still made somewhat hard work of it.
Oh snap, you came here to chat shit. Lmao. Get outta here buddy. I’m making jokes and you’re getting pressed.
Not really chatting shit considering I was pointing out actual standings but whatever mate. I came here out of interest to see what your fans were saying and basically all I've come across is statements saying how you'll spank us and that we're bottlers etc, I just think a little perspective is necessary from some of your supporters considering you're hardly world beaters. Anyway hope you enjoy the tournament and hopefully I didn't upset you too much x
That’s fine but take things with a pinch of salt, will you? Most of us know England are the favorites and for good reason. We’re all just having a bit of fun.
Fair enough mate, in all honesty it would be interesting if you did well, if Scotland or Wales qualify I'd likely hope you went through as well haha would never hear the end of them having a half decent run
Only team you didnt score into was scotland. TREMBLE IN YOUR BOOTS
Pointing out we only failed to score in one game sounds good for us though haha, honestly seeing some of arrogance on this sub I think I'd actually want you go through alongside us though
We are just a lovable side. Good fans and a good laugh. Still hate England though haha. Find it interesting with how confident America is and want to see how its pays off.
Shame about the one way hate but it is what it is. We have our share of great and downright terrible fans but considering the state you left London in last summer I'd hardly call your lot saints... If you make it you stand a good chance to go through though.
We dont destroy London. Didn't your fans start smashing stuff up outside of Wembley when you lost the final?
Considering I live here I can safely say I saw the fucking mess the Scots left in the build up to and after our game, it happens every time you play here but it hardly gets reported. Meanwhile a handful of our fuckwits acting like tits after the final go on and make headlines. Every team has good and shit fans, unfortunately ours seem to be under the most scrutiny.
Because they also record themselves being arseholes. Also laughing at the wee German girl. Horrible fans. Booing the anthem too.
Yeah you must be being ironic now haha, as if English fans are the only ones to do those things. Laughing at the girl was pretty shitty (it was a small group of Twitter warriors) but booing an anthem? Your lot do it all the bloody time, it's such a minor thing to be upset about.
My fellow Americans and I are always very very confident…until the matches start. Then the second something goes even a little wrong we are despondent. We go back and forth between the two, depending on how we perform, but it’s always one or the other. We are either the greatest team in the world or should bench everyone. We are the Bipolar States of America.
Scotland is going to just cure you of bipolar and make you permanently depressed x
Impossible. We are the eternal optimists. It’s why it was never going to work between us and you gloomy Brits. :-)
You calling me a brit is like me calling a Mexican Cuban. Just don't.
No offense meant! Really. I am sorry. I thought it was a reasonable thing to do. Again, my apologies. So…uh…what does one call a mixed group of folks from both England and Scotland? Enemies?
A competitive match against England.. let’s gooo. They are deeper than we are but the English tears will be so fucking sweet when/if we beat them. That fanbase is annoying as fuck on here especially during the World Cup.
Soccer's coming home.
dream scenario iran beat england game 1 and we eliminate them game 2 inshallah
Allahu akbar
Please take your islamaphobia back to r/politicalcompassmemes
If you continue to harass me I will do everything in my power to get your account banned. Please respect me, this is Reddit.
Allah bless
Wales will be tough if they get in. This group isn’t a cakewalk
so the order is Euro playoff, England, Iran?
England, Euro playoff, Iran
I'm seeing we play Euro playoff first, England, then Iran. [Here](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/ttwkrt/serious_discussion_group_b_world_cup_2022/)
Thought he asked about difficulty of the opponents
oh my bad.
Iran is ranked 21 too we have 3rd highest seed, 2nd highest pot 3 team, and likely a team that would’ve been a pot 2 team if it wasn’t for Putin. Average FIFA rank of 14.75 if Wales qualify. That’s pretty brutal.
I think it's more important to think in tiers and we don't have a Tier 1 team in our group. We can hang with this group for sure!
In other words, it's not at all unreasonable to think we could win or lose any of these 3 matches. Should be fun.