I don't really follow soccer/football at all, but I would really like the American sports media to quit using the term "Group of Death" every 4 years. The U.S. is mediocre at best at futbol and it doesn't have anything to do with random/semi-random pairings.
It's always the Group of Death for us, though. When you're an open bag of Gummy Bears and the potential pool of combatants includes a kindergarten class, a preschool class, and three stuffed Pooh bears, unless you draw three Poohs, it's going to be the group of death for you.
ReplyDeleteIf we're not any good, then lots of people who don't have an alternate rooting interest won't care, like the Tour de France and LeMond and Armstrong stopped winning, so it's necessary to make it lots of other people's fault that we aren't good and don't care much.
I disagree. Part of the reason it's called the Group of Death is because the U.S. is in it. Germany's one of the best teams in the world and Portugal has arguably the best player in the world. Also, in 2010 the U.S. weren't in the Group of Death even though we had to play England.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. Particularly because the REAL group of death is group D: England, Italy, Uruguay and Costa Rica.
DeleteI am amused to learn there's an extremely detailed Wikipedia page for the term of the day:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_death
I really think you are selling the US team to short. They are not excellent, but they have a great coach, some good players, and a great team spirit/solidarity. Their record in the world cups is not too bad either, to the point that seing the US side coming out of their group never surprises anyone.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, I do not see the USA coming out of this group (Germany and Portugal are just too strong), but I agree with J.S. Boc: the presence of the US team almost defines which one is going to be the group of death.
So anyway, good luck to the US Team (they are going to need it)!
The US has been better the last few years, but I didn't think we were near the caliber of the perenially good or the best teams. Given that, us losing in any bracket doesn't seem like an overwhelming surprise. On the other hand, I didn't realize "group of death" was a term of art and not just our media in hype mode, so you take my comments for what they're worth (little).
ReplyDeleteI'm co-signing with Hap on this one.
DeleteGot to admit, I saw the group the US team is in and laughed out loud. Good luck guys.
ReplyDeleteI don't fancy England's chances through group D, to be honest, but we usually do far better than we deserve given the shocking state of English football.