Tough Road Ahead

how i consoled myself after the draw

You know the expression it could have been worse?  Well in this case...I'm not sure that it could have.  Germany.  Portugal.  Ghana.  USA.  Does that seem like a fair group to you?  I mean, their rankings according to ESPN Soccer Power Index are 4, 16, 24 and then us at 17.  How's that for parity?

Look, do I think we have no chance? No.  We can def compete with Ghana and Portugal.  But I mean some of those other groups are soooo easy!  I mean we already had a group with Germany and Ghana...and the only three really hard European teams that were there to get were England and Portugal.  And wouldn't you know somehow England winds up in a group with Italy, Costa Rica and Uruguay while Portugal joins us?  I mean come on!  Those were the two groups that were already the hardest..so hey, how about we just increase their difficulty by adding one more competitive team?  Then, on top of that, the US has the longest travel schedule.  So yeah...I'm not sure how much worse it realistically could have been for them.

But, with all that, this draw does raise the possibility something cool really happening.  I mean, if the US makes it out of that group?  How big of a deal would that be!  We wouldn't luck into the elimination rounds.  We would have to earn it.  And you know what...after calming down and getting a few drinks into my system...I'm calling it.  We are definitely make it out of the group stage.