World Cup seedings
 

I know this is a largely American board, but I'm surprised we haven't heard anyone complaining about the World Cup seedings just announced, with the US and Holland being left out of the top 8 seeds.

Top seeds are:

Germany
Brazil
England
Spain
Mexico
France
Argentina
Italy

I was under the impression England was less than impressive in qualifying

Their coach was under some heat there for a while

Really only because of the loss to Northern Ireland, who they were supposed to steamroll.

Personally, I think Holland should have gone into the seeding instead of France.

I think the seeds are fine...

Lets go S.Korea! w00t~ Hopefully 2002 wasnt all about homefield... Let's show a strong showing :D

PS - anyone want to recommend a good soccer game?.. Is FIFA good? or Winning Eleven? ... Pro Evolution Soccer seems to be made by Konami also :hmm:
thx

I was too disappointed that South Africa didn't even qualify for the World Cup to bother following anything up. The only saving grace is that we don't have to qualify for 2010 since it's being held here. :thumbsup:

As far as the seedings go, they look fine to me. I prefer rooting for the underdogs anyways.

I think Italy is a bit questionable. Their current world ranking doesn't really warrant it, it is only due to performance in the last 2 world cups that they are there.

Some people (myself included) have had it in for Sven since the day he was signed.

I'd have no objection to a FIFA ruling which stated that the manager must be a citizen of the country he (or she) is in charge of.

Regarding the thread topic, I must admit I was slightly surprised to find out we were the second top seeded team for 2006 but I can't really think of any team (besides Brazil) who are much better than us right now.

Fifa 2005/2006/etc. is pretty good - I never much liked Winning Eleven or Pro Soccer Evolution.

I'm pretty excited about the World Cup seeds, I just wish I could get myself to Germany to watch the games.

Pro Evolution 5 is the best footie game I've ever played... and I've played a lot of footie games.

Pro Evo/Winning Eleven is fantastic.

I found it odd that the dutch weren't top seed

They didn't qualify for the last world cup, which was a factor in the seedings.

Thanks, didnt mean to lead the post away... i'll look into WE9..

As for the actual World Cup.. this post got me looking into it more.. and its got me psyched up!
Cant wait for June 9th heh..

It definitely seems crazy for Mexico to be seeded and not USA. We'll beat them four times out of five in a neutral location. What is the rationale behind that one? Anyway, it's not the seeds that count, it's the draw, and winning, heh. I'm really tempted to try to get to some of our World Cup matches as part of a larger trip to Europe, but it's difficult with how bad I am at planning things this far in advance when the US Soccer Federation is about to start selling tickets.

I agree 100%. Unless the game is played in front of 100,000+ projectile tossing fans at high altitude Azteca, Mexico chances of beating the US are minimal. I'm willing to bet that the same is true for Holland too. The US or the Netherlands should definitely have been a #1 instead of Mexico.

There are a handful of teams that could beat Mexico on most days.. but things like this happen almost every World Cup.. Things like this unfortunetely happen..

Here are the draws the the World Cup, with the latest world rankings next to the country's name.

Group E - with Italy, the US and the Czechs all in there looks like the "Group of Death" this year, in that a good team is going to bow out in the first round. Group D also looks tough for Portugal, Mexico and Iran. England drew an OK pool while France and Spain are laughing their butts off, having the easiest road of the seeded teams to the second round.

Group A:

Germany (16)
Costa Rica (21)
Poland (23)
Ecuador (37)

Group B:

England (9)
Paraguay (30)
Trinidad & Tobago (51)
Sweden (14)

Group C:

Argentina (4)
Ivory Coast (41)
Serbia/Montenegro (47)
Netherlands (3)

Group D:

Mexico (7)
Iran (19)
Angola (62)
Portugal (10)

Group E:

Italy (12)
Ghana (50)
USA (8)
Czech Republic (2)

Group F:

Brazil (1)
Croatia (20)
Australia (49)
Japan (15)

Group G:

France (5)
Switzerland (36)
South Korea (29)
Togo (56)

Group H:

Spain (6)
Ukraine (40)
Tunisia (28)
Saudi Arabia (32)

You have all these footballer dudes standing around playing with balls, a real sausage fest, then suddenly out of nowhere Heidi Klum looking unbelievably hot.
http://www.calfx.org/klum.jpg
:O :P~~~ I'm not sure if these smileys can properly express the shock.

But oh, yeah, right, the draw. I never realized Czech Republic were considered to be that good. They didn't qualify for 2002 and barely for 2006. Of course the FIFA rankings are crap, but they wouldn't get that high by losing.

(Thanks to the AP for the pix please don't sue me)

We got France, Switzerland, and Togo.. I think Korea can get back in to the bracket :D... I mean Switzerland has been getting better and better.. but I think we can beat them, and I'm sure we can beat Togo... France is still a very old team despite having good players.. My goal is for Korea to at least get into the Quarters this yr.. hoping and wishin'~