The World Cup Draw Results Are In

The USA are in trouble. Sound the alarms. Move the national security color to orange. We do not have an easy road out of the first round of the World Cup. Nothing like some of the other groups. One group has a team in it from Togo. Anyone ever heard of it? I never have till now.

We got grouped with Italy, Czech Republic, and Ghana. The top two teams after a round robin make it to the second round. To non-soccer fans those countires don't sound too threatening. But we're playing them in futbol, not American football unfortunately. Here's some reasons why we're in a tough group.

Czech Repulic is ranked #2 in the world. Three time champion Italy is #12. The USA is #8.
USA is 0-3-2 all time against Italy. They have never faced Czech Republic
Ghana is arguably the best African team in the tournament
The USA typically do not play well on European soil (tournament is in Germany)

Does that sound like a uphill sprint to you? There is nothing the rest of the world would love the USA to lose in the first round. However this USA team is not imidated by international soccer. Every tournament since the 1990 World Cup the USA has improved. In the 2002 World Cup, the USA made it to the round of 16. Impressive cause no one predicted it. Now there's many more players playing international soccer on 1st division teams in Europe. There's much more international experience, which is so important. There's still alot of time to prepare till the tournament starts in June. But so far the USA got placed in a very challenging situation.

What do you think?

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