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***Official 2014 World Cup Thread*** (2 Viewers)

A tie today was the best outcome for the US. We will get a result vs. Portugal.
Yeah, not sure I understand the handwringing by some, seems like the best possible result for the US. A win and they're in. A tie and their chances are still great. Even a loss doesn't eliminate them.

 
I've got a freakin' buzz -- like watching a half-dozen buzzer beaters during March Madness. Such a great tournament. Loving every second of this.

 
It's still early, but this has the potential to be one of the truly great sporting events in modern sports history. Thrilling play through nearly every game so far.

 
Unfortunate that Germans couldn't pull out the win too, but will take the 4 goals

Late game, went with Bosnia -0.75 and over 2.5 for a unit each

Tough to bet against a team with their life on the line, but Bosnia pretty solid squad, and I'm not that high on Nigeria this World Cup.

 
A tie today was the best outcome for the US. We will get a result vs. Portugal.
Disagree, we wanted Ghana out by tomorrow. Now a tie is less helpful with Angry Germany looming Thursday and Ghana basically even on goal differential.

IMO now the US needs 5 points minimum, 4 no longer gets it done
4 would still get it done. But we will get 6. Portugal isn't going to win tomorrow. And a tie was the best possible result because now the US has a shot to win the group.

 
That Germany-Ghana game has to rank up there as one of the best this year so far. That first half was great even if it was 0-0. Was rooting with the Brazilians for Ghana. USA has the group on a silver platter. I agree this was the best scenario but I would have liked a Ghana win.

 
I've got a freakin' buzz -- like watching a half-dozen buzzer beaters during March Madness. Such a great tournament. Loving every second of this.
Wait till tomorrow, it's going to be crazy tense. The pressure is just starting to turn up.
 
Michael Ballack: Klose has scored 70 goals for Germany and I don't think any, maybe one or two, were outside the box.

Ruud van Nistelrooy (laughing): There's nothing wrong with that, Mike.

:lmao:

 
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I think the tie was the worst result for the U.S.

However, you can't deny that the win vs Ghana was a terrific result, Ghana is good. Even though the U.S. was pretty well dominated, they got the 3 points and that's all that counts.

But, gonna be real tough for the US to get points against Germany in the last game if the Germans need a result to move on. German lineup will be a disaster for the US, they will not be able to keep the Germans off the board, and I don't think the US will have much success scoring against them.

 
And was it just me, or was that just unbelievably d-bag-like for the German coach to kick that ball back onto the field when the Ghana player went to grab it for the throw in near the end? Seems like he should see some sort of punishment for that move.

 
I think the tie was the worst result for the U.S.

However, you can't deny that the win vs Ghana was a terrific result, Ghana is good. Even though the U.S. was pretty well dominated, they got the 3 points and that's all that counts.

But, gonna be real tough for the US to get points against Germany in the last game if the Germans need a result to move on. German lineup will be a disaster for the US, they will not be able to keep the Germans off the board, and I don't think the US will have much success scoring against them.
If the goal is to win the group, it was the best possible result. If the goal is to finish second in the group, it was also the best possible result.

 
"Germans report that Muller is uninjured."

I think they're basically saying that a huge gash is nothing that will keep him from playing. Another Teutonic, "Clint will have to shake it off, I broke mine 3 or 4 times" moment.

 
I think the tie was the worst result for the U.S.

However, you can't deny that the win vs Ghana was a terrific result, Ghana is good. Even though the U.S. was pretty well dominated, they got the 3 points and that's all that counts.

But, gonna be real tough for the US to get points against Germany in the last game if the Germans need a result to move on. German lineup will be a disaster for the US, they will not be able to keep the Germans off the board, and I don't think the US will have much success scoring against them.
If the goal is to win the group, it was the best possible result. If the goal is to finish second in the group, it was also the best possible result.
The goal is to advance to the knockout stage.

If you think this is the best possible result, we'll just have to agree to disagree.

 
Another game to watch tomorrow is the Belgium - Russia game.

If Belgium wins, the second place in the USA group will play Belgium.

If Russian wins, tomorrow, they most likely will win the group because they play Algeria on Thursday. Not saying Algeria is an easy win but...

If the above holds true, USA is looking at playing Belgium or South Korea if USA can get passed the group round.

 
And was it just me, or was that just unbelievably d-bag-like for the German coach to kick that ball back onto the field when the Ghana player went to grab it for the throw in near the end? Seems like he should see some sort of punishment for that move.
could he have gotten carded?
 
And was it just me, or was that just unbelievably d-bag-like for the German coach to kick that ball back onto the field when the Ghana player went to grab it for the throw in near the end? Seems like he should see some sort of punishment for that move.
could he have gotten carded?
Ref could have carded him, and IMO if Germany had been leading he probably would have, but since Germany was really intereted in winning the game he actually hurt his own team by wasting time.

 
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I think the tie was the worst result for the U.S.

However, you can't deny that the win vs Ghana was a terrific result, Ghana is good. Even though the U.S. was pretty well dominated, they got the 3 points and that's all that counts.

But, gonna be real tough for the US to get points against Germany in the last game if the Germans need a result to move on. German lineup will be a disaster for the US, they will not be able to keep the Germans off the board, and I don't think the US will have much success scoring against them.
If the goal is to win the group, it was the best possible result. If the goal is to finish second in the group, it was also the best possible result.
The goal is to advance to the knockout stage.If you think this is the best possible result, we'll just have to agree to disagree.
Why do you think the tie is a bad thing for the US?
 
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I think the tie was the worst result for the U.S.

However, you can't deny that the win vs Ghana was a terrific result, Ghana is good. Even though the U.S. was pretty well dominated, they got the 3 points and that's all that counts.

But, gonna be real tough for the US to get points against Germany in the last game if the Germans need a result to move on. German lineup will be a disaster for the US, they will not be able to keep the Germans off the board, and I don't think the US will have much success scoring against them.
If the goal is to win the group, it was the best possible result. If the goal is to finish second in the group, it was also the best possible result.
The goal is to advance to the knockout stage.If you think this is the best possible result, we'll just have to agree to disagree.
Why do you think the tie is a bad thing for the US?
We want as few teams as possible "in it" on the last day. Now Ghana can still leapfrog us if w tie/lose to Portugal.

If Germany wins, we only need a tie to advance and leaving us without a must win game three

 
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Purely by odds, the US is a 4/1 dog to beat Portugal outright, and it's close to 3/1 that they'll draw.

US is a decent size dog vs Portugal, so getting a point would be a terrific result.

Should Germany had beat Ghana, Ghana would have been eliminated, and if the US drew vs Portugal, Germany would have been through.

This fact alone would have allowed Germany to sit some starters (i.e. Muller who may or may not be hurt, etc....) in the final game as they would not need any points to advance. The US will obviously be a dog in the final game also, but it's a bit easier to play against a team that may be playing for nothing when the game means everything to you.

As it stands, the Germans will need points no matter what happens in the US/Portugal game in order to advance.

Obviously all of this is moot if the US beats Portugal, but just looking at the odds, the outright win would be a dream result, maybe not realistic.

There are other reasons, but this is the most simplistic way to lay out my argument.

None of this should come into play for the US team, as they should be focused on the opponent not the other results, I'm just saying if you're a fan of the team, the German draw was not the best result

 
Because without today's point Ghana would be out if the US ties Portugal tomorrow.

And Portugal's goal difference is -4. So even a US loss and a Portugal win in the final game (where both would have four points) could still have put the US through.

Ghana's GD is only -1 right now though, so it's far more likely that they can catch us if they get to four points. Having them be completely out with a US draw tomorrow would have been helpful.

 
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A tie is not the best result for the US.

Lets' say we tie Portugal.

You have Germany and us at 4 and Ghana and Portugal on 1.

Now if were Mexico and if Germany didn't have a specific incident of playing for a convenient tie in their history I might by that happening. I don't see it.

And if we lose, pretty much any Ghana win will knock us out. In that scenario we cannot beat them on goal difference (but Ghana can beat us) and we almost certainly won't have a chance to outscore them.

Also let's say we lose to Portugal, so it's Germany 4, US and Portugal 3, and Ghana 1

If we tie and Ghana wins Portugal the same stuff applies - we'll be out.

-QG

 
I think the tie was the worst result for the U.S.

However, you can't deny that the win vs Ghana was a terrific result, Ghana is good. Even though the U.S. was pretty well dominated, they got the 3 points and that's all that counts.

But, gonna be real tough for the US to get points against Germany in the last game if the Germans need a result to move on. German lineup will be a disaster for the US, they will not be able to keep the Germans off the board, and I don't think the US will have much success scoring against them.
If the goal is to win the group, it was the best possible result. If the goal is to finish second in the group, it was also the best possible result.
The goal is to advance to the knockout stage.If you think this is the best possible result, we'll just have to agree to disagree.
Why do you think the tie is a bad thing for the US?
We want as few teams as possible "in it" on the last day. Now Ghana can still leapfrog us if w tie/lose to Portugal.

If Germany wins, we only need a tie to advance and leaving us without a must win game three
Not true. If Germany wins and we tie Portugal, Portugal could still tie us with a win against Ghana. Of course their four goal loss gives an advantage.

 
And if we lose, pretty much any Ghana win will knock us out. In that scenario we cannot beat them on goal difference
Actually a draw against Portugal leaves us +1 to Ghana's -1. So a one goal loss for the US, and a one goal win for Ghana would see it go to goals scored (IIRC).

 
The worst possible result by far would have been a Ghana win. A German win would have been a slightly better result for us than the tie.

 
Not sure I can even watch this next game after the intensity of Germany-Ghana. This feels like it belongs on the undercard.

 
The only slightly positive thing about getting a draw against Portugal tomorrow is that a draw against Germany gets both teams through with Germany winning the group.

We had talked about how 5 points could be the magic number earlier in the thread and it looks to be playing out that way.

 
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Updated :

Confederation Records So Far*: W-D-L (points per game)

South America: 9-1-2 (2.3)

Africa: 1-2-5 (0.6)

UEFA: 5-3-6 (1.3)

Concacaf: 4-1-2 (1.9)

Asia: 0-3-4 (0.4)

*Europe vs Europe excluded

 

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