France-Germany World Cup Quarterfinal Match: How They Got Here and Game Background

Germany vs France in the Quarterfinals of the 2014 FIFA World Cup from the Estadio do Maracana in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil:

How They Got Here:

Germany were good enough in a very difficult group G with the United States, Portugal, and Ghana to finish atop their quartet in the first stage of the World Cup for the 7th straight competition, but like many of the other top teams in this year's tournament, they have yet to hit their true stride and show all of their quality. The Germans began the tournament with a 4-0 smacking of Portugal in their most complete performance of the World Cup to continue their dominance over the nation from the Iberian Peninsula. Although they did get a lot of help from the Portuguese because of the ridiculous Pepe red card in the 37rd minute, they already had a 2-0 lead before Pepe ruined any chance of a comeback with his headbutt of Thomas Muller. Muller scored a hat-trick in the game, the 7th in German history at the World Cup and the first since Miroslav Klose scored 3 against Saudi Arabia in a group match in 2002. In their second group game against the Black Stars, Die Mannschaft struggled with the speed of the Ghanaian wingers like Kwadwo Asamoah, Christian Atsu, and Andre Ayew, especially in the fullback positions, and they also did not have that same interchanging of runs going forward from the front three of Mesut Ozil, Mario Gotze, and Thomas Muller that they did in their first match. Although Klose tied Ronaldo's record mark of 15 World Cup goals and joined Pele and Uwe Seeler as the only players to score in four different World Cups with his game-tying score in the 71st minute on the biggest Klose goal you will ever see, the Germans dropped points in their second group match for the 4th time in the last 5 competitions with their 2-2 draw (tied Spain 1-1 in 1994, tied Yugoslavia 2-2 in 1998, tied Ireland 1-1 in 2002, beat Poland 1-0 in 2006, lost to Serbia in 1-0 in 2010). Germany dominated possession against the United States, out passing the US 748 to 356 and having nearly 70 percent of the ball, and got the 1-0 victory to secure first place in the group because of a beautiful Thomas Muller finish in the 2nd half, but the Germans did not show the cutting edge going forward that all their ball possession in the midfield often warrants. In the round of 16, it seemed as if Germany had the easiest match of any of the group winners against the very surprising Algeria out of group H, but the Fennec Foxes nearly pulled off the shocking upset as they did in the 1982 group stage against Die Mannschaft. Germany were held scoreless for 90 minutes for the first time in a round of 16 contest and if it weren't for Manuel Neuer practically playing sweeper, they could have went down in regulation with Saphir Taider, Sofiane Feghouli playing balls over the top to Islam Slimani and El Arbi Hillel Soudani due to Germany playing such a high line in defense. Germany, however, were able to recover behind overtime goals from substitute Andre Schurrle and Mesut Ozil, who Joachim Low really seems to trust, to help them move on to the quarters with a 2-1 victory over the African nation.

Meanwhile, France have taken a complete 360 from the debacle of a World Cup that they had in 2010 with Raymond Domenech at the helm and have actually looked like a true team at this World Cup (maybe not taking Samir Nasir wasn't such a bad idea because chemistry is as important as anything at the world's biggest international tournament). Aside from possibly Colombia, no team has looked as strong as France through the group stage and round of 16, which shouldn't be too surprising because France firmly follow the pattern of doing really well at one World Cup and then flopping at the next (champions in 1998 in France, out in the group stage without a goal in 2002 in South Korea/Japan, runners-up in 2006 in Germany, and eliminated in the group stage without a win in 2010 in South Africa). Much like the Germans, the French got a lot of help from a red card in their first group game, as midfielder Wilson Palacios was shown his second yellow card in the 45th minute on a push in the back to Paul Pogba in the box and Honduras, who were already very under-matched coming into the game, had to play an entire half with 10 men. France hit Los Catrachos for 3 goals and Karim Benzema scored 2 of them, becoming the first French player to have multiple goals in a World Cup game since Zinedine Zidane scored twice against Brazil in France's 3-0 victory in the 1998 final. Even without Frank Ribery, who was not able to play for Les Blues because of a lingering back injury, the French looked dangerous going forward because of their ability to keep the ball in the middle with Matuidi, Cabaye, and the powerful Pogba and then spread the ball wide to their speedy wingers with Griezmann and Valbuena. In their second group match, France showed just how devastating their counter-attack can be against an attacking opposition, as Les Blues knocked off Switzerland 5-2 from the Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador. Using both Olivier Giroud and Benzema up front, the French scored their most goals in a World Cup match since they beat Paraguay 7-3 all the way back in the 1958 cup in Sweden behind a hat-trick from Just Fontaine. To finish out the group stage, the French were a little lackluster in their 0-0 draw with Ecuador to secure the top place in group E, but Didier Deschamps made several changes in his lineup to keep the squad fresh for the knockout stage such as bringing in Bacary Sagna, Lucas Digne, Morgan Schneiderlin, and Moussa Sissoko to start. In the round of 16, France met Nigeria for the first ever time in a competitive match and the Super Eagles had a very impressive performance that did cause Les Blues some real trouble, and if it weren't for Laurent Koscielny having a terrific game in the back, Nigeria could have made their first ever quarterfinal appearance. France were quite fortunate on several occasions in the game, specifically Patrice Evra not getting called for a penalty kick for holding Peter Odemwingie in the first half or Blaise Matuidi not getting sent off for his tackle on Ogenyi Onazi, but the introduction of Antoine Griezmann changed the game and allowed France much more width going forward for crosses into the box. The French were able to avoid their first regulation loss in the knockout stage since all the way back in 1986.

Germany-France Background:

Despite Germany winning the European Championships in 1972 in Belgium over the Soviet Union 3-0, in 1980 in Italy over Belgium 2-1, and in 1996 in England over Czech Republic 2-1 and France taking the the European continental crown in 1984 in France over Spain 2-0 and in 2000 in Netherlands/Belgium over Italy 2-1, the teams have never met in Europe's biggest competition. Although they have only played three previous times in the World Cup and never in World Cup qualifying (they were in the same group in qualifiers all the way back in 1934 but since Germany beat Luxembourg 9-1 and France beat the Red Lions 6-1, they both had already qualified and did not have to play each other), they have been apart of some of the most exciting contests in the history of the competition. In the 1958 cup in Sweden, West Germany and France played in the third place match, which is a glorified exhibition match because it really means nothing, but the French won the game 6-3 behind four goals from World Cup top scorer Just Fontaine, who finished the competition with a record 13 goals and at least one goal in each of France's 6 games (the only other player to score a goal in 6 consecutive World Cup matches is Jairzinho for Brazil, who did so when the Canarinho won the cup in 1970 in Mexico). In the 1982 semifinals from Seville, West Germany and France played one of the best games in the history of the tournament that featured 4 goals in a 16 minute span from the 92nd to the 108th minute mark (the other World Cup games I would consider up there with the West Germany-France game from 1982 would be the West Germany-Hungary title match in the 1954 finals, the Portugal-North Korea contest in the 1966 quarterfinals, the West Germany-England game in the 1970 quarters, the Italy-West Germany battle in the 1970 semifinals, the Italy-Brazil game in the second round of the 1982 cup, and the Argentina-England game in the second round of the 1998 cup). After 90 minutes, the teams were tied 1-1 and despite France scoring two goals in the first extra time period, West Germany came back with two goals of their own in extra time to tie the game at 3, which Die Mannschaft would eventually win in the first ever World Cup penalty shootout because of a goal from Horst Hrubesch after a miss from Maxime Bossis. In the World Cup four years later in 1986 from Guadalajara, West Germany beat France once again in the semi-finals, this time 2-0 behind goals from Andreas Brehme in the 9th minute and Rudi Vollerin the 89th minute. Despite the fact that the bordering countries in Europe have not played each other too often in major tournaments, they are football powerhouses with France making it to at least the semifinals every year they have made it past the group stage (quarterfinals in 1938 in France, 3rd place in 1958 in Sweden, 4th place in 1982 in Spain, 3rd place in 1986 in Mexico, champions in 1998 in France, and runners-up in 2006 in Germany) and Germany making their ridiculous 16th consecutive quarterfinals appearance since 1954 (No other team has ever made it to more than 6 straight quarterfinals in World Cup history).

The Very Positive Performance By The United States Should Not Be Lost In Their Disappointing Tie With Portugal

It is the 94th minute and there are just 40 seconds left in the match from the steamy Arena da Amazonia in Manaus, Brazil between the United States and Cristiano Ronaldo and 10 other guys (Joao Moutinho is a very good player so maybe Ronaldo, Moutinho, and 9 other guys). Michael Bradley takes the ball down from the air on the top of his right foot and is 60 or 70 yards away from the United States goal where Tim Howard is patrolling in the back with the always disciplined Kyle Beckerman roaming in front of the defense, three fullback on the field with DeMarcus Beasley, Fabian Johnson, and DeAndre Yedlin, and three half backs in the game with Matt Besler, Geoff Cameron, and recent substitute Omar Gonzalez. Portugal has Nani on one wing, who will likely do a few step overs and then lose the ball, Eder at the center forward position, who is another largely ineffective striker in the Portuguese revolving door of front-men with Hugo Almeida and Helder Postiga, and Cristiano Ronaldo on the other wing, who has had a poor game for 94 minutes against the United States defense. By all considerations, the most reliable and steady player on the United States over the past four years has the ball at his feet with a fleet of defenders as large as the Spanish Armada behind him and the clock dwindling down in the game and on Portugal's massively disheartening World Cup, which would officially eliminate the nation that came in 4th in 2006 and made the semis of the 2012 Euros in the group stage for the first time since 2002 and effectively send Ronaldo home after just two games where he could watch Neymar and Messi steal all the glory, something a primadonna like Ronaldo surely would not be able to stand.

The United States is 40 seconds away from winning two consecutive games at the World Cup for the first time since the inaugural tournament was held in Uruguay in 1930 when they beat Belgium and then Paraguay 3-0 behind four goals in two games from Bert Patenaude (scorer of the first hat trick in World Cup history against Paraguay), a time when the competition had just 13 teams, Herbert Hoover was President of America, the Empire State Building was not yet complete, air conditioning was not even invented, and prohibition was still in place.

The United States is 40 seconds away from advancing to the knockout stage in consecutive World Cups for the first time ever and becoming just the 4th team outside of Europe and South America, along with Mexico (1994, 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014), Ghana (2006 and 2010), and Nigeria (1994 and 1998), to do so (the US made it past the group stage in 1930 in Uruguay, 1994 in the US, 2002 in Japan/South Korea, and 2010 in South Africa, but never in consecutive tournaments with the team losing their only game in the 1934 cup in Italy to the host nation 7-1, going out without a point in 1998 in France with losses to Germany, Iran, and Yugoslavia, and not having a victory in 2006 in Germany that included a 3-0 loss to Czech Republic and a 2-1 defeat to Ghana).

The United States is 40 seconds away from getting just their second win over a European opponent in the last 16 World Cups after just one win, nine losses, and three ties over that span (the US lost to Czechoslovakia, Italy, and Austria in 1990, tied Switzerland but then lost to Romania in 1994, lost to Germany and Yugoslavia in 1998, beat Portugal but then lost to both Poland and Germany in 2002, lost to the Czech Republic and then tied Italy in 2006, and finally tied both England and Slovenia in 2010).

The United States is 40 seconds away from getting their biggest soccer victory since the Red, White, and Blue pulled off the "Miracle on Grass" by beating a stacked English side 1-0 in the 1950 World Cup in Belo Horizonte, Brazil (I do understand, however, that others would argue that the biggest win by the US is when they beat Trinidad and Tobago 1-0 in a CONCACAF qualifier in 1989 behind Paul Caligiuri's "Shot Heard Round The World" to get the squad into the 1990 World Cup for the first time in 40 years, but it is just a matter of semantics).

The United States is 40 seconds away from becoming America's most beloved team since Abbott and Costello, since Ab and Mary, since the 1992 Dream Team.

The United States is just 40 seconds away, which is all the time you need to be able to determine that James Harden is just atrocious defensively (the fact that Harden got two votes for NBA all-defense is the most comical thing that has happened in the association since the Pacers traded Gerald Green, Miles Plumlee, and a lottery-protected first round pick for the aging Luis Scola with the Suns).

But as the San Antonio Spurs learned in game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals, it can all crumble way to easily in the final 40 seconds. Michael Bradley takes a touch down on the top of his cleats to settle the ball and is facing the United States goal with four Portuguese defenders coming to surround him, one on each side, but all of them a fair distance away on his first touch. At this point, any soccer fan understands what Michael Bradley needs to do, which is first off to not loose the ball because that will spring a Portuguese counter attack in their desperation period in stoppage time, but also to try and bring the ball down in the corner to waste time and end the match. Bradley's first touch takes him too far backwards, so attempting to bring the ball into the corner is not a legitimate possibility because of the limited options he has around him and the Portuguese players coming on to him.

Nonetheless, after Bradley takes his rather poor first touch, he then looks around for a second, tries to take the ball with the outside of his right foot towards the Portugal goal, and is pushed off the ball by the bigger Eder, for despite his finishing problems, is a very strong player. Immediately after Bradley takes his first touch back towards his own goal, a clearance anywhere would have worked, whether it be towards the Portuguese defense or preferably even into the stands at this late point in the game (you might as well give the Brazilians a ball since the tournament is costing them billions and they are getting nothing back in return, which is FIFA in a nutshell, the most corrupt organization since the Federal Reserve Bank).

However, Bradley not only neglected the chance to just launch the ball anywhere down the field on his first touch, but in the 94th minute of a World Cup match, he took way too long to do anything on the ball in the middle of the field and gave it away at a crucial point in the game. In the game against Ghana less than a week earlier, Bradley made a similar mistake by trying to play a ball forward that eventually went right to the Black Stars goalie Adam Kwarasey instead of just playing the ball into the corner and running the time out in the game as it was reaching its final few seconds, a mistake that would not hurt the US in their 2-1 win against Ghana, but would be a costly blunder in their match against Portugal.

After Bradley loses possession because of the strong challenge by Eder to push him of the ball, Beckerman is caught a little too high up the pitch and cannot prevent the ball from quickly getting back up the field towards the US net. Nani takes two touches and then spreads the ball out to the right, as surprising as that sounds, you did read it correctly because in the dying moments Nani actually decided to not do any moves or scissors but actually just play it quickly out wide after just two touches, which is a rare sight in itself and is almost as surprising as the goal to come by "A Seleccao." At that moment, every fan of the United States gave out a collective groan because Cristiano Ronaldo was isolated in a one on one situation with a lot of room in front of him against DeMarcus Beasley. For the entire game, the United States had done an incredible job of not giving Ronaldo time, sending multiple bodies towards him when he had the ball, and making sure he did not have a lot of space in behind to run in, but somehow in the 94th minute of the game, Ronaldo ended up in a one on one with Beasley (this reminded me of how Iran worked so hard for an entire game to stop Messi by crowding his space and then in the 93rd minute with the score tied at 0, they let him get on to his deadly left foot and score an incredible goal for the Argentinian victory).

The speedy Ronaldo, 7-time UEFA Team of the Year member, 2-time Ballon d'Or winner, and a player that has 252 total goals in 246 games with Real Madrid in all competitions, up against Beasley, a player so old that he was apart of the 2002 US World Cup squad, so obviously Beasley has to give Cristiano some space in fear of getting beat down the line or even more dangerously into the middle. This allows Ronaldo to pick out the cross he likes because Beasley does not have any cover to try and make a challenge since he is on an island with Ronaldo with no other help from his US teammates, which I still don't understand how that actually happened. Ronaldo puts in a picture perfect cross that displays his true world class brilliance into a spot in the box that makes sure that if a Portuguese player gets a head on it, the ball is going into the goal, but also a position where Tim Howard cannot come out of the net to punch it away. When Ronaldo picks up the ball, there is only one player in the vicinity of the box, who is Silvestre Varela.

Varela began his run on the midfield line when Nani picked up the ball and was just a little bit in front of Fabian Johnson. It is the 94th minute of the game, so why Johnson is not running as hard as he can to get back in behind Varela is still beyond me. Not only does Johnson continue to only jog backwards and let Varela get ahead of him for an impending cross, who isn't even sprinting yet, but he doesn't communicate at all to Geoff Cameron about the Portuguese player coming on behind him. Ronaldo puts in his incredible cross, Cameron doesn't see Varela behind him at all, which is mainly Johnson's fault for not saying anything but also on Cameron for not looking around the box for any incoming players, and the substitute heads home, past Tim Howard for a shocking 2-2 draw between the national sides.

Portugal's Second Goal Against The US

There have been very few games more gut punching than that US-Portugal fixture in the second slate of contests in group G from the middle of the Amazon in Brazil (I'm looking at that, of course, from a United States perspective although the result still does not really help the Portuguese in the grand scheme of things because they will need their biggest miracle since "The Miracle of the Sun" to make it out of the group stage for their third World Cup in a row and try to have their best finish in the competition with an all-time great player like Ronaldo since they got 9 goals in 6 games from Eusebio and also had Jose Augusto, Jose Torres, Mario Coluna, and Vicente in their team and finished 3rd in the 1966 cup in England). 

In 1965, the Philadelphia 76ers were on the precipice of winning the Eastern Conference Finals after facing elimination at home in game 6 against the Boston Celtics, and were set to return to their first NBA Finals since they were the Syracuse Nationals and beat the Fort Wayne Pistons in 7 games all the way back in 1955 behind the play of Dolph Schayes and Paul Seymour. A team led by Wilt Chamberlain and Hal Greer was on the verge of helping the 76ers finally beat the Celtics and Bill Russell, who had knocked the team from the playoffs in the Division Finals in 1957, 1959, and then again in 1961. Down by one point with 5 seconds left in game 7 and with a terrific chance of getting to the NBA Finals to play the much weaker Los Angeles Lakers, Greer's inbound pass from under the Celtics basket was stolen by John Havlicek and tipped to Sam Jones for the Celtics victory in one of the most agonizing losses you will ever see a team suffer in any game, let alone to in an Eastern Conference Finals win or go home battle of such grave magnitude. 

"Havlicek Stole The Ball"

Meanwhile, the Buffalo Bills have not been in the playoffs for 14 straight seasons, which is the longest active post-season drought in the NFL, and have only finished over .500 once in that span (2004), which is entirely because they are still heartbroken over the shocking music city miracle in the AFC Wild Card Game in 2000 against the Tennessee Titans, who would go on to make their only Super Bowl appearance to date before losing to the Rams and Kurt Warner 23-16 in Atlanta. The Bills were up 16-15 on the Titans with 16 seconds left before Frank Wycheck threw a much disputed lateral (it was a lateral to be fair) across the field to Kevin Dyson, who would take the ball all the way from his own 25-yard line into the Bills end zone for the most jaw dropping touchdown in NFL history, which is the most tragic thing that has happened to Buffalo they learned Donald Trump was attempting to buy the team and precisely run it into the ground. 

"The Music City Miracle"

Among many other heart-breakers in sports, the Phillies were just a half-inning away from getting a chance to play in a game 7 against the Toronto Blue Jays from Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia for the chance to win their 2nd World Series in franchise history to go along with the one that they won in 1980 by beating the Royals in 6 games behind the pitching of NL Cy Young winner Steve Carlton and the hitting of NL MVP winner Mike Schmidt (19 times in MLB history a pair of teammates have won the Cy Young and MVP in the same season including in 1957 when Hank Aaron and Warren Spahn did so with the Braves, in 1961 when Roger Maris and Whitey Ford accomplished the feat with the Yankees, in 1967 when Carl Yastrzemski and Jim Lonborg did so with the Red Sox, in 1990 when Rickey Henderson and Bob Welch did it with the A's out in Oakland, and most recently in 2013 when Miguel Cabrera and Max Scherzer did so with the Tigers). Philadelphia was up by a run with closer Mitch Williams on the mound and after walking Rickey Henderson and eventually letting up a single to Paul Molitor, Joe Carter hit a walk-off three run home run off Williams to give the Blue Jays their second straight World Series (the Yankees won from 1936 to 1939, 1950 to 1953, 1961 to 1962, 1977 to 1978, and 1998-2000, the A's three-peated from 1972 to 1974, and the Reds went back-to-back in 1975 and 1976 as the three other ballclubs to win multiple championships in a row since 1930) and break the hearts of every sports fan in the City of Brotherly Love once again.

Joe Carter's Walk-Off Home Run

The feeling of complete disbelief that so many US fans and players felt following Varela's header goal on essentially the last touch of the game for Portugal is just as crushing as everybody involved with the 1964-1965 76ers, the 1999-2000 Bills, and the 1993 Phillies felt following their respective teams calamitous losses in such significant games to the Celtics, Titans, and Blue Jays. It was literally right there for the United States to qualify for the round of 16 after just two games and two wins over very formidable sides like Ghana and Portugal, which would have been an absolutely heroic effort for a team that was expected by so many to finish dead last in the group of death. No matter how you want to look at it, the last goal of the game was truly devastating because of all the errors that the US made on the final exchange that may come back to haunt them forever if they don't get a result against Germany. However, unlike most other heartbreaking contests, the USMNT still has a terrific chance to accomplish everything they could have wanted from the group stage of the World Cup. The 76ers had to wait a full year to get back to the Division Finals after their tragic game 7 loss to the Celtics, and when they did, they lost to Boston once again anyway, this time in 5 games because of John Havlicek averaging 25.4 points per game in the series including scoring 32 in the clinching game 5. The Bills have still not been able to recover from the music city miracle, maybe more so because of their horrendous QB play from Kelly Holcomb, J.P. Losman, Trent Edwards, and Ryan Fitzpatrick since 2000, but the game definitely plays a part in the curse over the Bills, and the Phillies had to wait a full season just to get back to a strike shortened MLB year and went without a playoff appearance all the way until 2007, where they were promptly swept by the Colorado Rockies in the NLDS 3-0. 

However, the United States have an outstanding chance to quickly rebound from their rather devastating tie against Portugal and do something that the 76ers, Bills, and Phillies never had a chance to do, which is come out the very next game and put that heartbreak immediately to rest. While the other teams in this discussion were right out of the post-season after their crushing blows, the US have as good of a chance as ever to make it into the knockout stage. With a victory over Germany from the Arena Pernamuco in Recife, the United States would top group G on 7 points and would almost certainly get to play either Algeria (they will be happy to not see Landon Donovan back on the field if that matchup happens) or the Fabio Capello led Russians (Capello is getting paid nearly 12 million dollars a year to coach Russia, more than double what any other coach is making, so he better make it to the knockout stage for the first time since Russia were still the Soviet Union and did so in the 1986 cup in Mexico), which gives the United States a terrific chance to make their 2nd quarterfinals appearance since 2002. A tie against Germany would still ensure the United States a place in the final 16 with a likely game against Belgium, a very talented side that has not looked great as of yet with their late 2-1 win against Algeria and a lackluster 1-0 victory over Russia at the Maracana in Rio (the two were supposed to play a close door friendly in Sao Paulo before their opening matches but Belgium cancelled because of traffic, you don't here that everyday, so the contest may still go on but this time from the Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador). The United States could even lose to the Germans and still make the round of 16 with a Portugal-Ghana tie while a Portugal or Ghana win might still not be enough for those sides to advance, especially for Portugal, who need to make up a huge goal differential to come in second. 

Whether it be Havlicek stealing the ball, the music city miracle, Joe Carter's walk-off home run, or some other memorable heartbreaking moment like Bill Buckner's error in game 6 of the 1986 World Series for the Red Sox, Isiah Thomas's inbounds pass to Bill Laimbeer that was stolen by Larry Bird in game 5 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals, or Kentucky losing to Duke on Christian Laettner's buzzer beater in the 1992 Elite Eight, every team in the world faces a few agonizing defeats over the years. 

However, for as disappointing as it was to give up that last goal, and it was truly an unacceptable goal to allow in the final seconds of the game, people have to remember that the US did not actually lose that match against Portugal. As much as it feels like America did in fact lose that game, an actual defeat by the Stars and Stripes would have been catastrophic after an opening game win against Ghana behind the heading prowess of John Brooks and the Yanks did get a positive result from each of their first two games against two of the top sides in the World Cup. In fact, the United States is one of just five teams along with Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and the Netherlands to avoid a loss in both of their first two games in each of the last two World Cups, which doesn't make up for their very disastrous end to the game against Portugal but does show the progress of the national team and, more importantly, that if they continue to play as they have in their first two games, they should be moving on to the final 16 teams in the World Cup. The unsatisfactory ending of the US game against Portugal, and trust me I'm still as upset as everybody else about the play of the team in the final minute, should certainly not take away from the entirety of their performance against "A Seleccao," which was full of quality and positive signs for the rest of the tournament.

In their first game against Ghana from the Arena das Dunas in Natal, the United States played a ton of defense against the Black Stars and had very little of the ball. Ghana out passed the US 456 to 275, had at least 60 percent of the ball possession, and had 38 crosses into the US box as compared to the 8 that the Red, White, and Blue managed to get into the box of the Nsoroma Tuntum. Some of the ball dominance that Ghana had throughout the 90 minutes can be pointed to the fact that the US was playing with a lead from such an early stage in the game. 

As great as it was for Clint Dempsey to score in his 3rd different World Cup (he scored against Ghana in the 2006 group stage and versus England, thanks to Robert Green's gaffe, in the 2010 group stage as well) and net a goal 30 seconds into the match, the 5th fastest World Cup score of all-time (the only goals that were faster were when Hakan Sukur scored 11 seconds into a match for Turkey against co-hosts South Korea in the 3rd place game in 2002, when Vaclav Masek of Czecholsovakia scored 16 seconds into a group stage game against Mexico, when Ernst Lehner netted a goal for Germany against Austria 25 seconds in the 3rd place game in 1934, and finally in a 1982 group stage match when 27 seconds into the contest Bryan Robson of England scored against France), the goal put the US in defensive mode for way too long in the match. After any team scores a goal in a game, the natural reaction is to try and hold onto that lead and do everything you can to prevent a goal promptly coming back the other way by letting your guard down. Nonetheless, it is exceedingly difficult to play such a defensive style without any of the ball and be successful for the entirety of a match and the US were way to dependent on maintaining their lead rather attacking a shaky Ghanaian back four of Daniel Opare, who was benched against Germany, John Boye, who let Desmpey get behind him on the first goal, Jonathan Mensah, and Kwadwo Asamoah, who is absolutely tremendous going forward but not great when you make him defend.

Now, aside from the fact that the US were attempting to protect their one goal advantage for as long as they could and not pushing as many guys forward as they normally would, they were also very poor in keeping the ball and there is no way around that, even with the excuse that they were inclined to let Ghana have the ball and were intent on staying compact in the back. I know it seems like I am picking on Michael Bradley, but for as good of a player as he is in distribution, he was downright terrible against Ghana and it was the worst game I have seen from him play in a US shirt. His passing accuracy was just 65 percent in the opposing half and he was constantly giving the ball away and being careless in the midfield. 

Alejandro Bedoya played for 77 minutes and was virtually non-existent in the game and completed just 12 passes all match long despite being picked ahead of the creative Graham Zusi in an outside midfield role, who was deservedly apart of the MLS best XI in 2012 and 2013 and scored against Jamaica and Panama in World Cup qualifiers. Meanwhile, although Jozy Altidore received as much criticism as Billy King when he made the Gerald Wallace trade for scoring just 1 goal in 30 league games with Sunderland in the EPL and not scoring at all for the US in 2014 until the United States' final pre-World Cup friendly against Nigeria, he is such an important piece to the Yanks. With his 6-1 frame and his commanding presence up front, Jozy provides terrific hold up play for the USMNT when he is on the field in the lone striker role. Altidore's big body and physical nature up top allows the Stars and Strips to give him the ball so that they can get their opponents out of their third of the field because he is so good in his holdup play and allows the US an outlet whenever they need to keep the ball for a little bit and do not have enough bodies forward right away to mount an attack. When Jozy went out of the game in the 23rd minute due to a hamstring strain, it killed the United States because Aron Johansson is a much different player than Jozy and does not provide that same holdup play. Since Klinsmann did not change up the formation and kept Johansson up front on his own, the team was not able to have any sustained possession because they were unable to relieve the pressure from Ghana without that big body up front to track down some loose balls.

Despite all of the things that went wrong for the United States in their opening match to go along with their poor play in keeping possession of the ball, they were able to scratch and crawl their way to a 2-1 victory, which showed their true character and mettle, something every team in a World Cup needs to have in order to be successful because every game does not go according to the same blueprint and you have to adjust to each unique circumstance in the frenzy of the one-month tournament. The biggest concern for Jurgen Klinsmann going into the tournament was his defense, something he did not have to worry about at all when the West German team he played on in 1990 won the World Cup and conceded just 5 goals in 7 games in route to their last title on the world stage. With a back four of Beasley, Cameron, Besler, and Johnson that had very little experience playing with one another, especially since at one time not long ago it seemed as if Omar Gonzalez and even Clarence Goodson or Timothy Chandler could possibly be apart of that US quartet in defense, that doubt and worry over the defense was certainly warranted. In their friendly against Turkey (granted Chandler played rather than Beasley), the US back line looked very shaky to say the least and there was wide too much space in behind them to attack and if the Wolfs had a little more quality than just Borussia Dortmund midfielder Nuri Sahin (they really missed captain Arda Turan and Galatasaray striker Burak Yilmaz), they could have hit the US for a lot of goals because they had so many opportunities around the box. 

However, just a little more than two weeks after that very worrying display in the back, the US defense miraculously looked way more in touch with one another against Ghana and turned in a really solid performance in the match. After the match against Ghana, Klinsmann had to have gained an immense amount of trust in his defense for their spectacular play in keeping the Ghanaian offense down for so long and having an incredible 44 clearances away from their third of the field. While some of that can be attributed to the Black Stars lacking creativity going forward and just floating in too many crosses from all areas of the pitch, the US back line surprisingly looked to be as stout as any other team in the competition, which is what you need in a World Cup and was a great sign going forward, especially when the US were destined to turn in a better all-around performance in the future.

US-Ghana Highlights

After playing one of their poorest games from an offensive standpoint in a long time, many teams would have folded right away, but the US remained very strong throughout the game. As good as the Stars and Stripes defense was against Ghana in one of those games where the team needed to have a lot of resolve because they were nowhere near their best and as extraordinary as it was to see the entire side display unmatched toughness and spirit with their late goal after Andre Ayew of Marseille equalized in the 82nd minute for the Black Stars, the US knew that they would not be able to make it out of the group stage relying on extreme grit and fortitude alone because it is very hard to sustain success when the other team has such much of the ball in games. 

However, the United States rebounded in a very big way against quite a strong Portuguese side and showed in their performance against one of the top European teams the quality of their entire squad and their ability to be a very dangerous team going forward in attack. As everybody saw versus Ghana, the US is more than capable of grinding out victories and being organized defensively in the back when they need to be, but they demonstrated against Portugal that they have the capacity to play a much more fluid, attacking style of soccer when it is called upon, which was a very positive sign for everybody involved with the Stars and Stripes. Ever since Jurgen Klinsmann took over in 2011, the United States have had some very impressive performances under the German manager including their 1-0 victory over Italy at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Genoa in 2012 for their first win over a World Cup title winning side since 2002, a 1-0 win over Mexico in 2012 at the Estadio Azteca, their first victory in the stadium after previously being 0-19-1 in Mexico City, and their 1-0 victory against Panama in the 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup Final, for their first confederation championship since they beat Mexico in the final 2-1 back in 2007. However, despite the fact that the US gave up that late goal to the Portuguese (it stinks that we have to say despite at all in this sentence), their performance in tough conditions in Manaus was about the best we have seen from the team since Klinsmann took over, which is a very positive sign for the progession of the US in the World Cup, especially in their upcoming match against Germany and once Klinsmann understudy in Joachim Loew.

For the most part, the back four was solid for the United States once again against Portugal and while it didn't quite match their showing against Ghana, it was still a very respectable and fine effort by Beasley, Cameron, Besler, and Johnson in the US defense. Let's put aside the egregious error that Fabian Johnson made at the end of the game just for now because you can only blame a guy so many times unless it is Matt Millen because then you can just go at it all day long if you like (if I didn't say it already, damn you Fabian Johnson on that last sequence in the game). For as difficult as it was for Fabian Johnson to get forward from his right back position against Ghana because of the Black Stars left back Kwadwo Asamoah from Juventus constantly shooting up the field and the very dangerous Andre Ayew on that side of the pitch as well, it was just as easy for him to tear up the right side of the field against Portugal and make them pay for leaving him so much space. Don't get me wrong, Johnson is a capable defender, as he showed against Ghana, because he kept Asamoah and Ayew in check for large portions of the game when the African side had their attack centered around those two very dynamic players, but he has a much larger impact on the game when he is allowed to be a big part of the US going forward and when he is providing width in attacking areas. 

In the game against Portugal, Paulo Bento set up his team in a 4-3-3 with Nani and Ronaldo as the two wingers in the front three. While Ronaldo was lined up in the formation on the left side for Portugal, his role was more so as a roamer throughout the pitch rather than on Fabian Johnson's side in particular, leaving Johnson wide open at times along the right. Since Nani and Ronaldo did very little tracking back (presumably Ronaldo by design and Nani by his laziness), there was a ton of room for Fabian Johnson to operate from his right back position and on that whole side of the field with the front three of Portugal not getting behind the ball and foolishly expecting the midfield three of Raul Meireles, Miguel Veloso, and Joao Moutinho to cover all that space. Johnson, who is going to Borussia Monchengladbach in 2014 after being with 1899 Hoffenheim for a while in the Bundesliga, showed why I think he is the most dangerous player for the United States because he is so fast and can just fly down the flanks of the field unlike any other player on the field in most instances. Johnson was given a lot of room to run into because of all the unoccupied space left by Ronaldo and he was able to use his quickness to cause the Portuguese defense all sorts of trouble, which is what Klinsmann wants in his system with fullbacks shooting forward to get into the attack so that they can put in crosses and give the US numerical advantages in the final third. Johnson was a menace for newly implemented left back Andre Almeida all game long, specifically in the first half before the Portuguese finally made some adjustments, because Johnson was much to quick for him and the Benfica man was given very little cover from his teammates for any help in defensive areas. 

For example, in the 10th minute Ronaldo was not marking anyone and was squeezing up high so when Zusi got the ball, Almeida had to step to him, so Zusi played the ball one touch back to Jermaine Jones, who was then able to hit the space behind Almeida and give the ball to Johnson in a dangerous area of the field. Although Johnson's shot was eventually blocked by Bruno Alves, the US were able to get their best player on the field in a one on one situation on the ball in the box, which is all you could ever ask for as a coach. Johnson took a pass from Clint Dempsey in the 32nd minute and had a rocket of a left-foot shot from outside the box that was just a little wide of Beto's goal, but was an alarming moment for the Portuguese and was another occurrence where the biggest threat for the United States was coming from their speedy right back. In the 55th minute, Fabian Johnson had another stroke of brilliance that had me saying that attacking fullbacks like Ricardo Rodriguez, Jordi Alba, Marcelo, Dani Alves, Leighton Baines, David Alaba, and Seamus Coleman should move over, which may have been me just getting a pretty big man crush but felt pretty genuine because of just how good his attacking presence was against Portugal. Once again it was Jones and Zusi combining to set up the very dangerous Johnson for an opportunity that really should have leveled the game at one if Michael Bradley had finished off the play. Jones picked up the ball and slotted it to Zusi, who had peeled off Miguel Veloso and played a terrific through ball in behind Almedia and into the path of Fabian Johnson. Johnson used his extreme quickness to stay in front of Almedia and then when Beto came out to try and take the ball from Johnson's feet, he slid a pass with his right foot perfectly to the streaking Michael Bradley coming from behind, who really should have scored right in front of net with only a defender on the line to block it away. Johnson used his pace to torture the Portuguese back four all game long and his rare dribbling ability for a full back should continue to be utilized by the United States because he provides one of the best options for the team going forward.

Although I love to praise the work of Fabian Johnson because I just think his attacking abilities are just outstanding, Matt Besler and the wily veteran DeMarcus Beasley also did a very good job of containing Ronaldo, Nani, and Eder for most of the game, which is another really good sing for the United States. As everybody has come to expect from Matt Besler ever since his emergence with the US National Team in 2013, he was the most reliable player in the back for the United States against the Portuguese and their attack that scored 24 goals in 12 UEFA qualifying games to get into the World Cup including 8 of which came from Ronaldo. The 2012 MLS Defender of the Year is the steadiest player in the US back four and whenever he has the ball, every fan of the Stars and Stripes should have a sense of calmness because Besler makes very shrewd decisions and is a very good passer from the left side of central defense. After leaving the game against Ghana at halftime with a hamstring injury, he looked more than fine versus Portugal, as he led the team with 12 clearances, 5 pass interceptions, and a 93.6 passing accuracy from the back. Besler's very long legs because of his length enabled him to make a lot of tackles against Eder up front and his height allowed him to command most of the aerial challenges in the box, including an important header away from Ronaldo in the 34rd minute. The Sporting Kansas City defender will have to continue to be the rock in the back for the United States as he has been for so many games in the recent months because his smart distribution from the center of defense sets the tone for the entire team.

Meanwhile, although DeMarcus Beasley does not have the legs he once did to run by people so effortlessly, he is still able to read the play very well from his left back position. His anticipation of where the ball is going to be played and where each player is on the field allows him to cover for his teammates whenever they get beat and keeps him in the right spot of the pitch for defensive support and as an offensive outlet if need be on the left side. Clearly, Beasley could not close down Ronaldo on the final play because he is just not that quick anymore, and there are very few guys in the entire world at any age who are that fast, but his overall ability to see the game a step ahead always shows itself on the field. Beasley is not a guy who is going to win the US a game anymore because he just doesn't have that in him at his age, and the attack from the fullbacks will almost completely come from the speedy Fabian Johnson on the right, but Beasley never neglects his defensive responsibilities. He is never going to cost the US anything because he is as astute a player as anybody on the pitch when it comes to where to be, where to play the ball, and who to mark, which allowed the 32-year old Beasley to have a very sound game against an attack that featured Nani and Ronaldo, two of the fastest players in world football.

The only worrying sign for the United States coming out of their match against Portugal could possibly be the play of Geoff Cameron in central defense, but I'm absolutely positive that Cameron is going to be fine and I'm not just saying that because I'm feeling optimistic about this team's chances against Germany and in the rest of the tournament. The first goal of the game for Portugal five minutes into the match was a harrowing mistake by Cameron and there is just no way around that. The first time ball into the box from Veloso went right off the left shin of Cameron as he was trying to clear the ball out of the box and fell perfectly to Nani right in front of the net for the goal to put the US in an early 1-0 hole. There is not much you can say about the score because the mistake is a brutal one from Cameron and is just about as disastrous of a clearance as you will ever see in a match, especially from a guy the game before that played so well and had 15 clearances from the center back role, way more than anybody else on the US team. I've heard people say since the end of the game against Portugal on Sunday night that since Cameron played primarily as a right back for Stoke City in the Premier League because of the presence of Marc Wilson and Ryan Shawcross in center defense for "The Potters" that he had not dealt with enough crosses in that role and that he was unprepared to deal with all the balls that come flying into the box as a half back during a full match. However, Cameron was more than likely the man of the match for the United States against Ghana and dealt with crosses from Christian Atsu, Andre Ayew, Daniel Opare, and Kwadwo Asamoah exceptionally well for the entirety of the match to keep the US in that game. As much as this is a cliche, sometimes things happen on the field and I'm sure Cameron will never slice a cross like that again for the United States in the center back role or so I can hope. On the goal in the final seconds of the game, while I understand that Cameron does have to turn his hips a little bit and locate any incoming runners, I put that goal more so on Fabian Johnson for not communicating with him and letting the big 6-3 center defender, who is very good in the air and is a dominating aerial presence, know that there is a man behind him coming in for the cross. Cameron was nowhere near his best against Portugal, but he is a good enough player to fix the mistakes he made against "A Seleccao."

Nani's Goal On Geoff Cameron's Mistake To Put Portugal Up 1-0

I fully expect Geoff Cameron to recover from his poor performance against Portugal and play a very strong game versus the Germans with his very reliable center back partner Matt Besler while DeMarcus Beasley will continue to read the game to perfection and allow Fabian Johnson to get forward from his right fullback role. It also helps the United States when you have a goalkeeper in net that can make some incredible saves like Tim Howard, who I would take over every other goalie in this year's competition except for Manuel Neuer of Germany, Thibaut Courtois of Belgium, Hugo Lloris of France, and the Guillermo Ochoa of Mexico against Brazil that was literally a brick wall. Despite Howard badly misplaying a Nani shot from distance and getting some major help from the post, his recovery to stay on his feet as he was losing balance and tip Eder's rebound attempt over the bar was world class and prevented Portugal from going into halftime with a 2-0 lead with all the momentum in the world, which is a kind of save that a team needs their top five goalkeeper to make once in a while to keep them in the game as Tim Howard did for the United States. Germany scored 36 goals in 10 qualifying games in UEFA against Sweden, Austria, Ireland, Kazakhstan, and the Faroe Islands, by far the most of any team in the confederation, and with attacking options on the field to begin the game of Mesut Ozil, Thomas Mueller, and Mario Gotze and Bastian Schweinsteiger, Andre Schurrle, Lukas Podolski, and Miroslav Klose coming off the bench, they are very dangerous. However, the US defense with Timmy Howard behind them has looked very strong, except for one bad Geoff Cameron mistake, and should not fear the German attack once so ever, especially after a solid performance against Ghana and then thwarting the dynamic attack of Portugal led by Ronaldo for most of the game.

Another positive from the game against Portugal for the United States was that they looked much more calm and composed in the midfield against the Portuguese than they did against the Ghanaians when they were utterly useless in the middle of the park versus Sulley Muntari, Mohammed Rabiu, and later on Kevin-Prince Boateng when he came on for Jordan Ayew and played down the center of the pitch for the Black Stars. Despite all he accomplished with the United States as their head coach from 2006 to 2011 including winning the Gold Cup in 2007 and taking the team to the round of 16 in the 2010 World Cup, Bob Bradley was often criticized for playing a very direct style of play and rallying on route one rather than the retention of the ball for success. Under Bradley, the US had so many games against less talented opponents where they either barely squeaked out a victory or lost the contest because they were not able to assert themselves on their inferior opposition since they did not have enough of the ball to do so. The team sat back way too much under Bradley and really never took the game to their opponents like they should have on so many occasions. When Jurgen Klinsmann was hired by the US in 2011 to be their national team coach, he brought a new fluidity to the side and stressed the importance of keeping the ball much more than Bradley ever did. Ever since Klinsmann took over, he has been much more prone to allow the US to have a real attacking nature in games rather than the more defensively disciplined style that Bradley employed. In their game against Ghana, we saw that the US can adapt and can still play that very organized style that they so often did under Bradley with maintaining their shape, but the great quality they showed going forward against Portugal and the freedom they had to do so, which you need in order to make a run in the World Cup, was a very obvious difference between the Bradley and Klinsmann era.

The United States midfield was just so much better as a whole against Portugal than in their display less than a week earlier against the Ghanaians in Natal, which is a very positive sign because so often matches are won and lost in the World Cup depending on which country controls that middle third of the field and is able to dictate the flow of traffic for the entirety of the game. In their match against Ghana, the United States midfield was not nearly poised enough on the ball and they had so many careless giveaways throughout the game, especially from Michael Bradley. Since they lacked the sense of calmness that you so often need in tight areas of the midfield, the US constantly tried to play balls over the top of the Black Stars defense, which led to the team giving the ball right back to Ghana after they had just had a long spill of possession. Since the US midfield of Kyle Beckerman, Jermaine Jones, Michael Bradley, and Alejandro Bedoya had such major problems in keeping the ball, 13.1 percent of the team's passes eventually wound up going long and not to feet, which is way too high of a number when attempting to enjoy some of the ball. This led to the United States having a very poor 58.6 passing accuracy in Ghana's half of the field, displaying the team's lack of composure in the midfield to do something productive with the ball.

But against Portugal, the US showed a real sense of confidence and equanimity in their midfield play and seemed to be much more comfortable in possession and in their combination play in the middle of the pitch, especially between Jones and Zusi. This allowed the United States to have continued pressure on the Portuguese back four, much more so than against Ghana, when they did not have enough of the ball to do so. The US fired off 15 shots against Portugal as compared to the 8 that they were able to muster against Ghana because of their sense of coolness on the ball to find openings in behind the Portuguese back four and also in front of them with players checking to the ball from high areas on the field. This was because the percentage of passes that went long from the US was only at 8.8 percent, high enough where the defense can't just squeeze everybody forward but still low enough where everything isn't a ball over the top, which enabled the US to have a much higher passing accuracy in the opposing half of 75.5 percent and kept them on the ball for scoring chances in the Portuguese third.

This is something I wrote before the World Cup about the United States midfield, specifically Jermaine Jones and Kyle Beckerman: "Klinsmann went with a center mid pairing of Jermaine Jones and Michael Bradley against Azerbaijan although I still think Bradley, who has the keys to the US offense with his distribution abilities, plays his best with Kyle Beckerman of Real Salt Lake playing in behind him. In Klinsmann's system, where the outside backs are encouraged to get forward and join the attack, especially a player that is accustomed to doing so like Fabian Johnson, the US need a strong defensive midfielder to cover for the attacking runs of any player from the back four, which Beckerman does a better job of than Jones. As Jones showed against Azerbaijan, he is pretty good with the ball at his feet in playing to the outside backs and he showed his strength in winning most of the 50-50 balls against the Azeris, but he is too wild and reckless to be that steady holding midfielder for the US team. Jones does have a pretty good strike on him, but it is a blessing and a curse because he can get in on the goals, but it forces Bradley to sometimes play too deep because Jones likes to go forward and join the attack. Since the US need Bradley as high up the field as possible so that he can be the creative engine of the team due to his vision being superb by any standards, Beckerman is more suited to play in the hole behind the midfield and in front of the defense and I am not just saying that because he has great deadlocks (ok, only partly). Much like how Shane Battier knows his role on the Heat to flop around a little bit on defense and stretch the floor for any threes, how Draymond Green will attempt to guard anybody on the floor from the 1 to the 5 to help the Warriors, or how if you get near Erik Karlsson or Jason Spezza Senators enforcer Chris Neil will let you know about it, Beckerman understands his role on the USMNT really well, much better than Jones, and would allow Bradley the freedom he needs in midfield to set up wingers Graham Zusi and Alejandro Bedoya, who I thought had way too many careless giveaways with nobody on him against Azerbaijan, and Dempsey and Altidore up front. Bradley did not take enough risks against Azerbaijan because he needs to be further up the field to be at his best."

Everything I said about Kyle Beckerman has held true in the first two World Cup games against Ghana and Portugal. It should not come as a surprise for anybody that has watched Beckerman play with Real Salt Lake, but the holding midfielder does his job for the team as well as you could ask for as a coach and he does not stray from it at all. In every sport, every team needs a guy that realizes he isn't a star player, but does all of the dirty work for a team, especially with all the 50-50 balls in the middle of the field in soccer and that is what Kyle Beckerman provides for the US team and why he has made the past five All-Star games in the MLS despite not scoring more than 3 goals in a season from 2009 to 2011. With the ball at his feet, Beckerman is very safe with it and always makes the easy pass forward or backwards, as 56 of his 61 passes against Portugal were short passes. Since Beckerman is so careful with the ball and always plays quickly and the way he is facing to not complicate things, he had a 90.2 passing accuracy for the game against Portugal, which is something you need from a player that is not in a creative role but you so rarely get because guys try to play the Hollywood ball over the top so often.

Without the ball, Beckerman shines on the field because he sits in front of the defense and reads the play so well from his deep-lying midfield role and is able to cover for his fellow midfielders and cut out a lot of passes that are trying to be thread through, as he had 4 interceptions against the Portuguese attack, the second most on the team behind Matt Besler. Beckerman rarely commits himself to far forward, so the US is rarely caught out in the back and their center defenders do not have to step to a player in front of them too often because Beckerman has that space under wraps. Also, since Beckerman covers so well, it allowed the very dangerous Fabian Johnson to get forward all game long against Portugal, something that was instrumental to the US attack in that game and was a direct result of Beckerman's discipline on the field to stay back and prevent Ronaldo and Nani from having yards of space in the middle of the field to attack.

Meanwhile, everything I said about Jermaine Jones has turned out to be completely wrong, especially after his wonder performance against Portugal to help the US get a point out of their fixture from Manaus although they should have had all three. I would honestly argue that through the United States' first two matches in the group stage, their best player for the tournament has been Jermaine Jones in the midfield and he has more than made up for the lack of quality that we have seen from Michael Bradley against Ghana and in front of goal and in the 94th minute of the game versus Portugal. Jones had one of the early goals of this World Cup in the 64th minute to help the US finally break through the Portuguese defense and get the equalizing goal to tie the score at one early on in the second half of the match. After a Graham Zusi corner kick was headed away off the front post by Eder, Nani being Nani had a terrible header (what a surprise) right out to Jermaine Jones, who was standing just above and to the left of the arc behind the box. The Besiktas midfielder collected himself, took a touch to the right, and curled the ball around Portuguese defender Ricardo Costa and into the far post past a helpless Beto for an absolutely filthy goal for the US. Along with Tim Cahill's volley goal for Australia against Netherlands, Messi's free-kick yesterday versus Nigeria, and possibly Robin van Persie's flying header goal against Spain and Iker Casillas, Jones's goal could be thought of as the best of the tournament, especially considering the magnitude of the goal and just how difficult it was to hit it around a player and bring it back in for a score.

Obviously, any time you score a goal like Jones, it makes any performance you put forth on the field a good one, but Jones played the best game for the US against Portugal even without that amazing goal. Jones was everywhere in the midfield and was constantly making challenges in the middle to win the ball back from Moutinho, Veloso, and Meireles, which was more so the aggressive and determined Jones than the wild and reckless Jones that I refereed to before the tournament began. Aside from his combative nature in winning 50-50 balls, which has always been there, Jones has been the best US player at linking play between the midfield and players running in behind the defense, which most people, including myself, thought would be the role of Michael Bradley. However, Jones has looked far better at connecting with his teammates when they are making runs forward and has been the main US option in taking the ball and making something happen from the midfield, as only Zusi created more chances than him for the US against Portugal.

Jermaine Jones's Goal Against Portugal

Finally, Clint Dempsey had a very good game up top for the United States against Portugal in the lone striker role, showing that the US can still manage to make some things happen going forward without the holdup play of Jozy Altidore, something they were unable to do against Ghana for almost the entirety of the game. In the 81st minute, Dempsey scored his 4th goal for the Red, White, and Blue in the World Cup, joining Bert Patenaude and Landon Donovan as the only US players to have more than 3 goals in the world's biggest international tournament (Patenaude had 4 goals in the inaugural tournament in 1930 and Donovan had two goals in the 2002 World Cup versus Poland in the group stage and Mexico in the round of 16 and three in 2010 with two in the group stage versus Slovenia and Algeria respectively and also the United States' lone goal against Ghana in the knockout stage). The finish by Dempsey was a very nice one because as the ball went out to Zusi, who was wide open to the left of the goal after Bradley's left foot shot from DeAndre Yedlin's cross was blocked, Clint waited patiently right on the six so that he could remain on-side with Bruno Alves on the ground and then went forward to finish the goal off his chest when the ball eventually came in from Zusi (that ball into Yedlin to set up the whole play was done by Jermaine Jones once again, which further emphasizes how important of a role he played when they US tied Portugal). Dempsey is typically at his best when he is playing off of a striker as a second forward player, as shown during his best year at Fulham in 2011-2012 when Matin Jol would play Andy Johnson, Bobby Zamora, or Pavel Pogrebnyak at the striker role and Dempsey in behind one of them, which helped Clint score 17 goals in 37 league games and 23 goals in all competitions for "The Cottagers" that season, the most for the team in the top division since Allan Clarke scored 24 league goals for them all the bay back in 1967-1968.

However, Dempsey looked very very comfortable playing up top on his own with Alejandro Bedoya and Graham Zusi on the wings and Michael Bradley and Jermaine Jones attempting to combine with the players going forward. The concern with Dempsey as the lone striker was that he would only check to feet when Bradley or Jones had the ball and that the Portuguese back four of Joao Pereira, Ricardo Costa, Bruno Alves, and Andre Almeida would not be stretched enough because Dempsey would not provide enough depth down the field for the US. But Dempsey was constantly making runs off the shoulders of Bruno Alves and Ricardo Costa and in behind the Portuguese defense, something that gave the US so much more space in the midfield to work with because Alves and Costa were not pressing as high as they would have if Dempsey did not make those runs over the top. Nonetheless, it was a team effort to get forward that really helped the US because Fabian Johnson was consistently shooting forward and Graham Zusi was running in behind from his left midfield spot as well to open up the field for the Yanks and give them the necessary space to operate. As the game went on, Dempsey began to get on the ball more and more after he had loosened up the Portuguese defense, which the US needs because he is such a dynamic player when he dribbles at people in the attacking third and is taking shots from distance to threaten the goalkeeper.

 

Clint Dempsey's Goal For The US Plus Some Random Reaction To It

There is no way around it, the United States missed a golden opportunity to advance to the round of 16 with the late goal by Varela from Portugal and they now have a very tough game against Germany ahead of them in their final group match from Recife. Since 1954, Deutschland's results in the World Cup are 1st in 1954, 4th in 1958, 7th in 1962, 2nd in 1966, 3rd in 1970, 1st in 1974, 6th in 1978, 2nd in 1982, 3nd in 1986, 1st in 1990, 5th in 1994, 7th in 1998, 2nd in 2002, 3rd in 2006, and 3rd in 2010, so it is safe to say that the Germans are a soccer powerhouse like few others. They have tons of quality in their midfield with Lahm, Kroos, Khedira, and Schweinsteiger, who looked very lively when he came on against Ghana and I think he will start in place of Khedira against the US, along with their dynamic front three system of Ozil, Muller, and Gotze although we could see Podolski, or Schurrle up there instead of Gotze for the game against the USA. Germany plays with four true central defenders in the back with Boateng on the right, Mertesacker and Hummels in the middle, and Howedes on the left, but Joachim Loew often instructs his fullbacks to stay back and not get forward, which should help the US because Germany often play very narrowly and in Klinsmann's 4-5-1, the midfield is very compact when the other team has the ball, which Germany will see a lot of with their talented stars. After showing their toughness and strength against Ghana and then turning in a really high level performance against a strong Portuguese side, there is no reason that the United States should not get a result from their match with Germany and move on to the final 16 to try to make some serious noise in Brazil.

2014 FIFA World Cup Group H and Group A Podcast - Belgium vs Algeria, Russia vs South Korea, and Brazil vs Mexico

 

  Brazil vs Mexico Highlights

Russia vs South Korea Highlights

A Massive World Cup Draw Analysis

There are few sporting events that seem so familiar to fans, yet at the same time feel so removed and distant. While this paradox is quite perplexing, it is the exact characterization that people around the world feel about the world's biggest international soccer tournament, the World Cup.

Ask any soccer fan and they can distinctly remember Zinedine Zidane's chipped penalty kick goal against Italy and then his subsequent red card in the infamous head-butt of defender Marco Materazzi to help the Italians win the 2006 World Cup, a tournament where the Azzurri allowed just 2 goals in 7 games (in comparison, when Italy won the World Cup in 1982 in Spain, they allowed a total of 6 goals). What soccer follower can't recall Siphiwe Tshabalala's goal for South Africa against Mexico to open up the World Cup in front of "Bafana, Bafana" in the first ever World Cup on African soil (South Africa did, however, fail to make the knockout stage, the first ever host country to do so). There isn't an American who can't give you the play-by-play of Landon Donovan's incredible 90th minute goal against Algeria to send the red, white, and blue past the group stage for just the third time since 1950 (the US also won their group for the first time since the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay with that goal). Any ardent soccer fan can recollect almost every moment of the classic 2010 final between Spain and the Netherlands, including Andreas Iniesta's goal in the 116th minute to cement Spain's world soccer dominance and their first every World Cup triumph (Spain won every game in the knockout stage 1-0, becoming the first team to not allow a goal past the group stage since the current format was initiated in 1986).

While these enduring moments will never be forgotten and seem so familiar to fans, the four year wait between World Cups has made it seem like an eternity since the players last took the field for the 2010 final in Johannesburg. It is this four year spell that makes the World Cup so much more tense and pressure filled than any other tournament because great players and nations may only get a few chances at a World Cup Trophy. For example, Turkey, who made the World Cup semifinals in 2002 before losing to eventual champion Brazil, have only ever made two World Cup appearances in their nation's history (1954 in Switzerland and that said year in 2002 in South Korea/Japan). Wales, who were in the World Cup quarterfinals in 1958 in Sweden, have not been back to the world's biggest international soccer tournament since their run nearly 60 years ago. Some of the world's greatest players like George Best of Northern Ireland, Ryan Giggs of Wales, George Weah of Liberia, and Alfredo Di Stefano of Argentina, Colombia, and Spain never even played in a single World Cup. The long interval and tension of the event makes fans salivating for the next World Cup to begin because the last one feels so far removed even if the memories will always remain.

With the World Cup draw finally unveiled and the tournament on the precipice of beginning, here is an analysis of each of the group in this year's tournaments.

(Note: Pot 1 of the draw were the seeded teams: Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland. Pot 2 were the non-seeded African and South American teams: Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Cameroon, Algeria, Chile, and Ecuador. Chile and Ecuador were drawn with one of the four European seeded teams so that two South American clubs were not in the same group to ensure geographic separation. Pot 3 were the non-seeded Asian and North American teams: Japan, Australia, South Korea, Iran, United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras. Pot 4 were the non-seeded European teams: Portugal, Italy, France, England, Netherlands, Croatia, Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Greece. However, Italy was moved to pot 2 to make each of the pots have an equal number of teams. Also, when Italy was put into pot 2, they were drawn with one of the four South American seeded teams to ensure that three European teams would not end up in the same group).

Group A: Brazil, Croatia, Mexico, Cameroon (5th Hardest Group According to the Cory Tell All Sports Index)

There have been six nations to win the World Cup as hosts: Uruguay in 1930, Italy in 1934, England in 1966, West Germany in 1974, Argentina in 1978, and France in 1998 (Brazil finished second in 1950, as did Sweden in 1958). Brazil's first step towards becoming the 7th nation to win on home soil became a little easier when their very manageable World Cup grouping was drawn in Bahia, as they should have no trouble with Croatia, Mexico, or Cameroon.

However, the Selecao are in a very unique position as the World Cup approaches, as Brazil has been a nation savaged by political strife, security issues, government corruption, and relentless public demonstrations over the past 12 months. In fact, millions of Brazilians took to the streets during the more than 2-week long Confederations Cup to protest the substantial government spending on the World Cup rather than the country investing the money in public transportation, hospitals, and schools. Brazilian police used tear gas, shock grenades, and missiles to somewhat subdue the violent demonstrators, who demanded an improvement in public services and an end to high prices and government inflation. The protests have created a very interesting paradox in Brazil. While many Brazilians are deeply unsatisfied that their country is leveraging millions of dollars on World Cup stadiums and preparations, football is life and religion in Brazil, and the fans remain coldheartedly behind the team on the actual field, just not the politics beyond the club. A variety of the Brazilian players even supported the protesters in their efforts to enact reform in the nation. Hulk said, "After seeing the people on the streets claiming for improvements, it makes me feel like joining them. They are doing the right thing... Brazil needs to improve." Neymar shared that sentiment when he stated, "I want a Brazil which is more just safer, healthier and more honest... It might seem demagogic on my part, but it isn't, to carry the flag of the protests which are happening in the whole of Brazil."

Anything less then walking away with their 6th World Cup would be an immense failure for a Brazilian team that is not only carrying the pressure of being the tournament favorite, but has the weight of an entire struggling nation on its shoulders. Nonetheless, Brazil definitely has more than enough quality to win on home territory in convincing fashion. While Brazilian football has become synonymous with skillfulness, imagination, and ingenuity over the years (think Garrincha, Ronaldinho), the back line is the real point of stability for the Selecao. With two of the best center backs in the world with Thiago Silva and David Luiz (when he stays disciplined) and two of the best attacking full backs in the world with Dani Alves and Marcelo, the Brazilian defense has looked very solid. A big reason that the Selecao allowed just 3 goals in their 3rd consecutive Confederations Cup victory was that whenever Alves and Marcelo provided width from the back, Luiz Gustavo would sit for the outside backs and provide any support for a possible counter-attack. While Luiz Scolari has certainly returned a sense of the creativity and free-flowing style that is analogous with Brazilian football, the strength of this team lies in their defensive aptitude, which was shown in their ability to high press Spain all around the field and stop their very effective passing style. Expect Brazil's pace to be too much for any of the other teams in this group.

Meanwhile, while Cameroon has been one of the most consistent African footballing nations (the team made four straight World Cups from 1990 to 2002 and its quarterfinal appearances in the 1990 World Cup in Italy has only been matched by Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010), it does not have once of its better squads as compared to tournaments in the past. Although the indomitable lions do have some European talent in Queens Park Rangers defender Benoit Asou-Ekotto, Barcelona midfielder Alex Song, and Chelsea striker Samuel Eto'o and should have some bright moments, expect to see an early exit for the Cameroonians.

If all things go as planned, it should be a dogfight between Croatia and Mexico for second place in this somewhat mild group.

The Mexicans certainly have the talent to be a sleeper in this year's competition, but they have been a dysfunctional and poorly managed team for the better part of a year. The national side have had four managers since September (Jose Manuel de la Torre, Luis Fernando Tena, Victor Manuel Vucetich, and Miguel Herrera) and have been under more scrutiny and criticism than arguably any other qualifier for the World Cup. While current manager Miguel Herrera only fielded Mexican club based players in the team's playoff against New Zealand, expect to see the likes of Javier Aquino, Andres Guardado, Giovani dos Santos, and Javier Hernandez back in the squad for Brazil.

While the Mexicans have the flair to make a run in this year's tournament, the Croatias have been a much more consistent side. The blazers, who are led by Darijo Srna and Luka Modric, could be at a severe disadvantage, however, because Mario Mandzkic faces disciplinary action for his red card in the 2nd leg of the team's playoff win over Iceland and Josip Simunic may be suspended for starting a fascist chant following the victory. The possible penalties against one of the team's best defenders and the Bayern Munich striker will be too much to overcome for the Croatians, as the Mexicans should move on with the hosts.

Group B: Spain, Netherlands, Chile, Australia (2nd Hardest Group in the CTASI)

Group B is one of the three quartets in this year's World Cup that can assert itself as the "group of death" with three teams in the top 15 of the FIFA World Rankings, including the defending World Cup Champions Spain, the 2010 World Cup runner-up Netherlands, and the ever-improving Chilean national team.

The first game of group B will feature a rematch of the World Cup title clash four years ago between Spain and Holland, which is the first time ever that the World Cup finals will be the first match of a group in the subsequent tournament. In fact, there have only been three World Cup rematches between the two finalists in any round of the following tournament, all of which interestingly involve West Germany. In 1966, England beat West Germany 4-2 in the title match of the World Cup on English soil behind the only hat-trick in World Cup finals history from Geoff Hurst, including two of which came in stoppage time. However, in the 1970 competition in Mexico, West Germany got their revenge in the quarterfinals, as Westdeutschland came back from a 2-0 deficit to beat England in stoppage time after a goal in the 108th minute by German legend Gerd Muller. In the 1974 World Cup, West Germany won their second title at the expense of Netherlands and legend Johan Cruijff, as Gerd Muller proved to be the hero once again with a 43rd minute game-winning goal for the West Germans in the final. In the following World Cup in Argentina, in the second round, the two teams played again but this time to a 2-2 tie (Netherlands went on to lose in the finals once again, this time 3-1 to Argentina in extra time). In the 1986 World Cup final in Mexico, Argentina and Diego Maradona got out to an early lead against West Germany and held on for a 3-2 victory and their 2nd World Cup triumph. However, in the next edition of the World Cup in 1990 in Italy, the West Germans got their retribution, as they took down the Argentinians in a finals rematch behind an 85th minute penalty from Andreas Brehme.

This year, Spain and Netherlands should provide a spectacle in Salvador that is reminiscent of their World Cup final battle, except hopefully without 46 fouls and 13 yellow cards. That match probably still gives Howard Webb nightmares when he isn't thinking about Manchester United of course. Jokes aside, the jury is still out on Spain and Netherlands despite their title runs in the last World Cup.

Although La Roja became the first ever national team to win three straight either continental or world competitions (they beat Germany in the Euro 2008 final, Netherlands in the 2010 World Cup final, and won the European Championship again in 2012 with a victory over Italy), some questions have been risen about the national side in the past year, especially after the Confederations Cup. In World Cup qualifying, the Spanish dropped points at home to Finland from the El Molinon in Gijon, and as has been the case even with their unprecedented success over the past half decade, they have struggled to find a striking option to play at the top of their formation. Spain experimented with Roberto Soldado, David Villa, Michu, and Alvaro Negredo up top but got just 4 goals from the forwards in qualifying, and often resorted to a false nine with Pedro in the striker role to compensate for their lack of quality. Fernando Torres's dip in form at Chelsea has prevented him from even making some of the Spanish team's rosters, and has dropped him way down the totem pole in the national side's striker battle. If things continue to go poorly for the Spanish in pre-tournament friendlies in the striker position, expect Vincent del Bosque to turn to either Fernando Llorente or newly nationalized Spaniard Diego Costa to take up the reigns as the team's lone striker. However, before we get so dark and gloomy about a team that didn't lose a game for nearly three years from the 2010 World Cup to the 2013 Confederations Cup (breaking France's record) it should be remembered that the Spanish still have a majority of their wildly underrated defense. In fact, this back line of Jordi Alba, Gerard Pique, Sergio Ramos, Alvaro Arbeloa (may turn into Juanfran by Brazil), went over 415 minutes without conceding a goal in the Euros in route to the title. As long as the Spanish can find some offensive spark, they should be moving on through to the round of 16 at the top of group B.

Meanwhile, after their Euro 2012 disaster where they lost all three games in the group stage and looked like they had less chemistry then Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie in The Tourist, the Netherlands have a major point to prove come this year's tournament. To think that the Dutch can bolster an attack of Rafael van der Vaart, Jeremain Lens, Arjen Robben, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, and Robin van Persie is very frightening, but it is just a matter of bringing all of these talents together in a cohesive way. In qualifying, Holland ran rampant with goals with 34 in 10 matches, most notably from van Persie and van der Vaart. Playing predominantly with the 4-3-3 system under head man Louis van Gaal, the Dutch were able to play a very good brand of attacking soccer in qualification. With world class midfielders like Kevin Strootman and Wesley Sneijder providing service to the attacking three, with Nigel de Jong sitting in behind them for protection, the Dutch have the talent to be a World Cup title contender if all of their flamboyant pieces can fit together.

However, Chile has looked really good in the past year and could easily knock Netherlands out of the World Cup in the group stage for the first time since the 1938 cup in France. The Chileans have one of the most dangerous trios in international football with the versatile Arturo Vidal and the speedy Alexis Sanchez and Eduardo Vargas. Chile looked very solid in qualification, finishing 3rd in the South American qualifying and rounding out their campaign with 5 wins and a tie. In fact, the Chileans have lost just two games in 2013 with victories over World Cup sides Uruguay, Ecuador, and England and ties against World Cup favorites Spain and Brazil in friendlies. Chile is a very pacey team that can easily catch any opponent on the counter-attack, which could smell trouble for a Dutch side that enjoys the ball but is susceptible to being caught out on the break.

Finally, as strong as the top three teams are in this stout group, Australia is really not a good side, as shown by their 6-0 losses to Brazil and France in the last four months and their 3-2 defeat to Romania in February. Despite being in their third straight World Cup and having some quality up front with Tim Cahill and Robbie Kruse, it will be important for Spain, Netherlands, and Chile to rack up a bunch of goals against the Aussies in case second place comes down to goal differential.

Group C: Colombia, Greece, Ivory Coast, Japan (4th Hardest Group in the CTASI)

When the World Cup draw was selected in the costa do sauipe, group C seemed to lack the appeal that most of the other quartets in this year's competition possessed.

It did not have one of the world's usual soccer powerhouses, as Colombia, the group's seeded team from pot 1, will be making just its 5th World Cup appearance (only more than Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, and Venezuela in South America) and its first in 16 years since the 1998 World Cup in France. In fact, their round of 16 display in the 1990 tournament in Italy was their only run outside of the group stage in the nation's footballing history. Coming into this year's competition, Colombia is in the top 10 of the FIFA World Rankings for the first time since 2002, the year after it won its only Copa America. Typically, fans are also intrigued by teams that do not have a rich soccer history proving themselves more than capable of playing on the world's biggest stage, especially from continents not known for their footballing prowess. However, both Japan and Cote d'Ivoire have become World Cup regulars over the past two decades, perpetually representing Asia and Africa as their top team. Japan has made five consecutive World Cups, which has only been matched by three other teams that have never won the competition (the United States, Mexico, and South Korea). Meanwhile, Ivory Coast is one of just two African nations (Ghana) to be appearing in their 3rd straight World Cup. Finally, casual soccer fans enjoy watching games with good attacking football and a lot of goals. However, Greece is known for its tactical precision and its defense sturdiness. When the Greeks shocked the world and won the European Champions in 2004 in just their second appearance in the competition since 1960, they scored just 7 goals in 6 match and won every game in the knockout stage 1-0. In fact, Greece did not have more ball possession in any of their matches in the tournament. Just based on recent history and some of the fascinating storylines that some of the other groups present, group C does not have that "wow" factor. Nonetheless, of all the quartets in this year's competition, this group could be the most balanced from top to bottom, as any of the team's can truly move on the knockout stage. Thus, while the Argentina-Iran game is probably not in doubt, every match in this group will be closely contested and could go either way.

To begin, Colombia is likely in its golden generation of football, or at least its best spell since the 1990's. "Los Cafeteros" cruised through CONMEBOL qualifying, only finishing behind Argentina by two points, and got their FIFA ranking all the way up to 3 in the world by mid-summer (Colombia was all the way down at 35 in January of 2012). With Radamael Falcao up front, the Colombians have a true superstar in their squad, which only a handful of teams in the World Cup can boast. Falcao's AS Monaco teammate, James Rodriguez, could also come into the international spotlight during this year's World Cup, as the 22-year old is already one of the quickest and craftiest players in the world. The questions with the Colombian national team lies with their back line, which lacks the mobility with 34-year old Luis Perea and 37-year old Mario Yepes in the center back roles.

Meanwhile, despite the fact that Ivory Coast has a panoply of top tier talent with the likes of Kolo Toure, Yaya Toure, and Salomon Kalou, Gervinho, and most notably African footballing legend Didier Drogba, the team has been a massive disappointment in major competitions for years. In the African Cup of Nations, Cote d'Ivoire lost in penalties to Egypt in 2006 and Zambia in 2012 in two finals and bowed out very disappointingly to Algeria in the 2010 quarterfinals and in the same round in 2013 to Nigeria. Similarly, in the World Cup, Ivory Coast has certainly underachieved, failing to make it out of the group stage in both 2006 and 2010. With a majority of the golden generation of Ivorian football getting into their thirties, it is now or never if the Ivory Coast finally want to make a quality run with all the talent they have in their side.

However, the Japanese will try to continue the Ivorians failures in major international tournaments. While Japan has not had a great run of form leading into the World Cup with a loss to Jordan in Asian qualifying and Bulgaria and Belarus in international friendlies, the team plays a very positive style of football. With midfield talent like Keisuke Honda of CSKA Moscow and Shinji Kagawa of Manchester United, the Japenese can attack with the best teams in the world, as shown in their wild 4-3 loss to Italy in the Confederations Cup, a game they actually deserved to win with all the chances they created.

On the other end of the spectrum, Greece can shut down almost any offense in the world with their defensive organization and shape. Led by Borussia Dortmund center back Sokratis Papastathopoulos (good luck to the announcers who have to say that name) and Roma right back Vasilis Torosidis, the Greeks allowed just 4 goals in 10 European qualifying matches and had an astonishing 8 clean sheets. Greece will need to get some goals from set pieces, especially with a guy like Georgios Samaras up front at 6'4'' because the team will not get too many opportunities. This is a group where anything can happen, but expect to see Ivory Coast and Colombia to squeak by Japan and Greece by narrow margins.

Group D: Uruguay, Costa Rica, England, Italy (3rd Hardest Group in the CTASI)

One of the things to watch in this World Cup, particularly in Group D with a very highly rated South American side that has won two World Cups in contrast with two very strong European teams that have both been champions of the world's most prestigious contest, is how the dynamic of the tournament being played on South American soil will have an impact on the outcome of the competition.

There are certain cliches and patterns that seem to hold true in international football like England continually falling to Germany in penalties, Mexico always beating the United States on home turf (the U.S. finally did beat "El Tri" in Mexico for the first time since they began playing in Mexico in 1937 in August of last year), and European teams gravely struggling in World Cups that are played in South America (South American teams also do not perform very well in European World Cups, but we will save that for another article). This World Cup in Brazil will serve as a representative template to see if the theory of European teams not performing in South America is just an odd coincidence or a trend that does have some legitimate basis in terms of the success of certain international teams in different continents. If we look back into the past, history tells us that the site of the World Cup does have a real impact on the tournament's results and that South American teams like Uruguay could be at an advantage over European teams like Italy and England since the competition this year is in Brazil. Of the ten World Cups that European sides have won, nine of them have come in Europe (Spain winning in South Africa in 2010 being the only exception). However, in the nine World Cups that have not been played on European soil, a European team has only come away victorious once, and the four World Cups in South America have only been won by teams from the home continent. In the 1930 tournament in Uruguay, the two teams in the final were both South American (Uruguay and Argentina) and European teams had a combined record of just 4-5. In the Brazilian World Cup in 1950, South America dominated once again, as Uruguay and Brazil finished at the top of the table in the final round. In the 1962 cup in Chile, Brazil won the tournament, and European teams went just 15-18-7, continuing South American triumphs in competitions in the continent and European failures. In the 1978 Argentinian World Cup, Argentina walked away as the champion, while European teams had a combined record of just 17-19-11.

Uruguay's two World Cup victories have come in South America and they hope their success in the continent can continue in 2014. In the last World Cup, the Uruguayans made the competition's surprise run to the semifinals after having made just two World Cups since 1990. However, "La Celeste" will not be an under the radar team at all coming into this World Cup after having won the 2011 Copa America in Argentina, subsequently participating in the 2013 Confederations Cup, and having arguably the two best strikers in the entire world with Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani. Suarez is playing as well as anybody right now with Liverpool, as the Uruguayan has propelled the reds to the top of the Premier League table. There are a thousand different adjectives that you can use to describe Suarez's play, as he has been nothing less than incredible so far this season. In just 12 games EPL games, Luis already has 19 goals and although it is obviously still early in the season, Suarez will likely break Andrew Cole's and Alan Shearer's joint record of 34 Premier League goals in a season. Suarez's game changing ability makes him ever so dangerous for Uruguay, as he has the quality to score some fabulous individual goals even if his team is not playing at a top level. His 40-yard smash against Norwich and his brace against Cardiff are symbolic of how he can change a game all on his own. While his striking partner, Edinson Cavani, has not been in his usual goal scoring form of late (mainly because he has been playing out on the wing for PSG due to the presence of Ibra up front) he has the same ability as Suarez to transform a match.

On the other side of things, Italy and England will be tying to change the narrative of European teams struggling in South American World Cups. While Italy's defensive brilliance and tactical shape empowered them to the World Cup in 2006, Italian manager Cesare Prandelli has turned the azzurri into a more attacking side, which is the popular trend in modern football. Unlike their 2010 team which was festered with older age players and a lack of pace, Italy is now a side that can go forward with the best in the world. Although Italy is certainly a different side than the one that won the cup in 2006, two things have remained constant, Andreas Pirlo being the field general in the center of midfield and Gianluigi Buffon barking out orders in between the goalposts. Pirlo's performance against England in the quarterfinals of the European Championship in 2012 is one of the best single displays that I have ever seen in a game that did not feature a single goal and it his unbelievable field vision that allows the rest of the Italians to shine. Buffon, likewise, makes the players around him so much better, as any mistakes that his defense makes he cleans up with extreme calmness and command. If the Italians can get just a little more cohesion amongst some of their forwards and have guys like Stephen El Shaarawy and Giuseppe Rossi playing off Mario Balotelli, Italy could be very dangerous once again.

Then we get to the ever so fascinating merry-go-round that is the English national team. There are so many different variables in England's squad that it is hard to predict who will even be in Roy Hodgson's team come World Cup time. Whether Hodgson goes with some of his elderly, more experienced Englishmen such as Ashley Cole, Glen Johnson, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, James Milner, and Jermaine Defore or goes with some of his more exuberant, young players like Phil Jones, Ross Barkley, Adam Lallana, Andros Townsend, Jay Rodriguez, and Daniel Sturridge, England does not have the bite that Uruguay and Italy possess. The English looked like a very organized and compact side in the European Championships in 2012, but they did not look to have that electric or dynamic feel that some of the other sides in the World Cup certainly have. Unless Wayne Rooney can spark some creativity in the side, England could be headed for an early exit.

Finally, nothing against Costa Rica, a nice side that will be in their third World Cup in their last four attempts and has a very creative midfielder in Fulham man Bryan Ruiz, but they will likely be playing nothing more than spoiler in this stacked group. In a hotly contested group, Italy should come out group winners with Uruguay right behind, leaving England out in the group stage for the first time since 1958.

Group E: Switzerland, Ecuador, France, Honduras (7th Hardest Group in the CTASI)

The utter incompetence of FIFA and its hypercritical nature as the world's governing soccer body reared its ugly head once again this year in the World Cup draw. In the 2006 World Cup, with 14 European teams in the draw and five seeded UEFA clubs, it left nine teams in pot C, which consisted of the unseeded European qualifiers. Since each of the four pots obviously needed an equal number of teams at eight, Serbia and Montenegro were put into a special pot (basically pot D, which had seven teams). They were then drawn with one of the South American or CONCACAF seeded teams (Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico) to ensure that three European teams would not end up in the same group to keep geographic separation in place. Serbia and Montenegro were put into this special pot because their FIFA ranking was the lowest of the European teams in the competition. The exact same situation occurred once again in this World Cup draw. With only four European seeded teams, it left nine non-seeded European qualifiers in pot 4. Therefore, it was assumed that France, whose FIFA ranking of 21 was two spots lower than Russia and thereby the lowest of the European teams, would be put into pot 2 and then selected to be with one of the four seeded South American teams. However, this year, FIFA decided to randomly draw one of the teams from pot 4 into pot 2 (turned out to be Italy) and then put them with one of the four non-European seeded teams in pot 1 (turned out to be Uruguay). Dubbed by many as "potgate," the mirror even suggested that Sepp Blatter, the FIFA President, made the move in order to please and subdue UEFA President and former French national team star Michel Platini, who has been rumored as a possible candidate to run against Blatter for FIFA President in 2015. Therefore, thanks to FIFA disregarding their previous precedent of how to reallocate teams when there are too many clubs in a certain pot, France were handed a very favorable draw, especially compared to the one that Italy got after moving into pot 2.

While France is by no means one of the top teams in the tournament, they have looked more like the Les Blues team that got to the finals in 2006 than the team that boycotted training under former manager Raymond Domenech. Didier Deschamps has done a nice job of reenergizing French football and putting meaning back into the national team shirt. It has also helped that a flurry of some of the best young players in the world like Raphael Varane, Paul Pogba, and Mamadou Sakho are now in the French national side and making a big impact in international play. While the French certainly hope that Karim Benzema can bring his Real Madrid form to the national team (Benzema scored just two goals in France's 10 qualifying matches), the team will heavily rely on their star man Frank Ribery. The 2012-2013 UEFA European Player of the Year provides a majority of France's offense by either taking players down the wing and putting in crosses or cutting inside and firing shots from the top of the box. Ribery, who admittedly had a terrible World Cup in 2010 for a player of his caliber, will have to be in prime form if France want to make a deep run in this year's competition.

Meanwhile, Switzerland can thank its relatively docile group in European qualifying in enabling it to get into the top 8 of the FIFA World Rankings (the national side's highest ranking since it was 11 in the world in August of 1995) and thereby earn a seed in the World Cup drawing. The Swiss dominated against weaker European sides in their qualifying group, which featured Iceland, Slovenia, Norway, Albania, and Cyprus and had an undefeated 7-0-3 record. Although Switzerland has some top class players with the likes of Valon Behrami of Napoli, Stephen Lichtsteiner of Juventus, Gokhan Inler of Napoli, Xherdan Shaqiri of Bayern Munich, and 21-year old Granit Xhaka of Borussia Monchengladbach, they should not be looked upon as a top eight World Cup team.

Ecuador, who should fight Switzerland for second place in the group, looked much better than expected in CONMEBOL qualifying. However, the tri-color will not be able to use the Ecuadorian elevation to their advantage, as they were 7-0-1 when they were playing nearly 10,000 feet above sea level in Quito, but failed to win a game on the road in South American qualifying with a 0-5-3 record.

Finally, while Honduras are a very organized side, they have never won a World cup game (Honduras went 0-1-2 in 1982 and 0-2-1 in 2010) and they will likely have to wait another World Cup to get one. The French should thank FIFA on their way to the round of 16, while the Swiss should narrowly move past Ecuador into the knockout stage.

Group F: Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iran, Nigeria (6th Hardest Group in the CTASI)

When it comes to evaluating the greatest players in the history of a sport, one of the arguments at the crux of the debate is always championships and how the player performs in the sport's biggest tournaments. While the merits of judging a player based on team success and the quality of the players around him in order to achieve a title can be disputed until you are blue in the face, it is one of the ways that many people define the greatest player in a particular sport.

In soccer, while domestic achievements in club football can certainly not be undervalued or diminished, the best players of all-time are almost always remembered for their moments in the World Cup and how they played on the world's biggest stage. Pele scored nearly a goal per game in his club career, but his incredible performances at the World Cup cemented his place as one of the best, if not the best, player in the history of soccer. In Brazil's 1958 World Cup triumph, Pele, at just the age of 17, scored the only goal in the team's quarterfinal win against Wales, notched a second half hat-trick in the semi-finals against France (the youngest player to ever do so), and then added two goals for good measure against Sweden in the final. After winning the 1962 World Cup, Pele became the first ever player to win three World Cups, as the Brazilians won the 1970 competition behind 4 goals from their playmaking #10. Diego Maradona has also become synonymous for his displays at the World Cup, as his performance at the 1986 cup is still something to marvel over. The all-time great had 5 goals in the tournament along with 5 assists, but what will live on forever is his iconic goals in the Argentinians 2-1 quarterfinal victory against England. The first goal from Maradona, coming early on in the second half, has become known as the "hand of God" goal, as Maradona put the ball past the English goalkeeper, Peter Shilton, by using his hand to pop it into the net. Maradona's second goal of the game is widely considered the "goal of the century," as the Argentinian great took the ball from behind midfield and evaded five English defenders before dribbling past the goalkeeper for the remarkable score.

While Lionel Messi has won the Ballon d'Or/FIFA Ballon d'Or 4 times (the most ever), scored the most goals ever in a European season in 2011-2012 with 73, and tied Jose Altafini record of 14 Champions League goals in a single competition (also in 2011-2012), Messi still has a lot to prove on the international stage. In the 2010 World Cup, Messi failed to score a single goal in 5 matches and Argentina went out in the quarterfinals to Germany in a very disappointing campaign for the world's best player. Thus, if Messi wants to be considered in the same category as Pele and Maradona, he needs to turn in a very good performance in Brazil. Argentina does have the most dynamic attack in the world, though, which should allow Messi to thrive in a more playmaking role than just a scorer. Messi could be deployed along side of Argentinian strikers Sergio Aguero and Gonzalo Higuain with the likes of Angel Di Maria and Javier Mascherano patrolling the midfield. Aguero's movement, which is top class, should also provide space for Messi in the middle of the field so that he can use his incredible dribbling ability to shake by defenders. Argentina should be able to score a lot of goals in this year's competition with their potent strike force, especially with Messi at the center of the team's attack. However, as much as this tournament is a referendum on Messi's place in the greatest of all-time discussion, the question with Argentina will actually be their back line. Unlike most of the other top teams in the competition, Argentina does not have an imposing general in center defense like a Thiago Silva for Brazil, a Pique for Spain, or a Hummels for Germany. While Ezequiel Garay of Benfica and Federico Fernandez of Napoli have played well for "la albiceleste," it remains to be seen how they will perform in the world's biggest stage in order to try and help Argentina capture their 4th World Cup.

Meanwhile, Bosnia and Herzegovina will be playing in their first ever major footballing competition more than twenty years after gaining independence in 1992 from Yugoslavia. Although Bosnia will be thrilled just to be in tournament, they could make some people surprised by their very exciting attacking style of play. In just 10 World Cup qualifying matches, Bosnia scored 30 goals, which was only less than Germany (36), Netherlands (34), and England (31). Playing with two strikers up front with Manchester City man Edin Dezeko (his 10 goals were only behind Robin van Persie in qualifying) and Stuttgart striker Vedad Ibisevic (his 8 goals were tied for the third most in qualifying) and stretching the back line, Roma midfielder Miralem Pjanic and Lazio midfielder Senad Lulic are given plenty of space to operate in the middle of the field.

The African Cup of Nations winners, Nigeria, should fight with Bosnia for the runner-up spot in this group behind Argentina. The Super Eagles are surprisingly looking to become the first African confederation champion to win a game at the following World Cup since Cameroon in 2002. The Nigerians have some real quickness in their squad with Victor Moses of Liverpool, Emmanuel Emenike of Fenerbahce, Victor Obinna of Lokomotiv Moscow, and Ahmed Musa of CSKA Moscow. The real ticking point for the Super Eagles, though, is the always reliable John Obi Mikel of Chelsea, who slows down attacks in the center of midfield and is the team's main distributor.

Iran, who actually has the highest FIFA ranking in Asia, rounds out this moderately difficult group. The Iranians finished ahead of South Korea in the final Asian qualifying stage and are looking to get their 2nd ever World Cup win (Iran did have a 2-1 victory over the United States in the 1998 World Cup in France). In fact, Iranian captain Javad Nekounam, who played for Osasuna in Spain for years, is a top quality footballer. However, the Iranian fans foolishly gave Lionel Messi added incentive to have his Argentinians crush them in Belo Horizonte on June 21. When the World Cup draw was announced, thousands of people from Iran wrote insulting message to Lionel Messi on facebook, but as we all know, the Iranians will need to do a lot more then just trash talking in order to even touch Argentina and Messi. This group should see a close fight for second, but Argentina and Bosnia should move on to the next phase of the competition.

Group G: Germany, Portugal, Ghana, United States (Hardest Group in the CTASI)

The group of death; the group of death. Just uttering the phase brings apprehension and trepidation to coaches, players, and fans alike, and Germany, Portugal, Ghana, and the United States will feel the full brunt of the abhorrent notion when the World Cup commences in June of this year in Brazil.

In the past, we have had some very arduous World Cup groups that have made the other quartets in the competition look straightforward and painless compared to the all so challenging and imposing group of death. In 2002, group F was one of the toughest groups that the world's biggest international tournament had seen in years. It was made up of 2nd ranked Argentina, who were 1998 World Cup quarter-finalists and 1999 Copa America quarter-finalists, 10th ranked England, who made it to the round of 16 in 1998, 16th ranked Sweden, who finished 3rd in the 1994 World Cup, and finally 40th ranked Nigeria, who were 2000 African Cup of Nations finalists. While it does not happen all that often, in 2006, there was a justifiable basis to claim that there were two quartets that could be considered the group of death. Group C in that year's competition was composed of 4th ranked Argentina, who had come in 2nd in the Copa America in 2004 and were runner-up at the Confederations Cup in 2005, 3rd ranked Netherlands, who had made the World Cup semifinals in 1998 and the European Championship semifinals in 2004, the 41st ranked and second highest ranked team in Africa, Ivory Coast, who had made the African Cup of Nations finals in 2006, and 47th ranked Serbia and Montenegro. Meanwhile, group E had three teams in the top 12 of the FIFA World Rankings, as the group was made up of 12th ranked Italy, who had already won the World Cup three times in 1934, 1938, and 1982, the United States, who at the time had a record best FIFA ranking of eight and were 2002 World Cup quarter-finalists and 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup champions, the 2nd ranked team in the entire world, Czech Republic, who had made the semi-finals of the European Championships in 2004, and 50th ranked Ghana. In 2010, while some contested that there was no group of death, group G of Brazil, Portugal, Ivory Coast, and North Korea fit the bill. Top-ranked Brazil were 2006 World Cup quarter-finalists in still a disappointing year, 2007 Copa America champions, and Confederations Cup winners in 2009, 10th ranked Portugal were World Cup semi-finalists in 2006, quarter-finalists in the 2008 European Championships, and had the one of the best two players in the world in Cristiano Ronaldo, and 19th ranked Ivory Coast were 2010 African Cup of Nations quarter-finalists and were making their 2nd consecutive World Cup. While North Korea were the worst side in the entire tournament, the top three teams in this group were so strong that the fact that one of the teams would not move on to the knockout stage made it the group of death.

However, these past groups pale in comparison to the burdensome and laborious quartet that is group G of the 2014 World Cup. Germany, Portugal, Ghana, and the United States, who all made the knockout stage in the 2010 World Cup, had a combined record of 32-6-6 in qualifying and each could be considered the best team in their confederation (Portugal may be a little of a stretch but they are still top five in the toughest continent in football). While group B and group D both have one weaker side with Australia in group B and Costa Rica in group D, group G is stacked across all four teams, as the lowest seeded team in this group is still ranked 23rd in the world according to FIFA. In fact, Germany's #2 world ranking, United States' #13 ranking, Portugal's #14 ranking, and Ghana #23 ranking have a combined mark of 52, which is the lowest combined rankings of a quartet since group G of the 1998 World Cup. (in comparison, this year, group A has a combined 112 ranking, group B has a combined 78 ranking, group C has a combined 80 ranking, group D has a combined 56 ranking, group E has a combined 84 record, group F has a combined 101 ranking, and group H has a 112 ranking).

Germany, whose domestic league represented both Champions League finalists in 2013, has more depth than any other side in the entire tournament, taking most of their players from German giants Bayern Munich and blossoming club Borussia Dortmund. Unlike some of the other top teams in the world who rely on a key player to initiate their attack (Neymar with Brazil, Falcao with Colombia, Messi with Argentina, Suarez with Uruguay, Rooney with England, Ribery with France), Germany have so many different players who can break a defense down such as Toni Kroos, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mesut Ozil, Mario Gotze, Marco Reus, and Thomas Muller. Their intricate passing in midfield is top notch and their combination of exquisite ball movement in the center of the field along with speedy wingers on the outside is hard to find in world football. Germany has made it to at least the quarterfinals of every World Cup since 1982, but they have fell short of a World Cup title countless times. Deutschland have so many quality midfielders to dictate the middle of the park that anything less than a World Cup will be a failure for the nation.

Germany's European foe, Portugal, has one of the two best players in the world in Cristiano Ronaldo, whose next goal for the navigators will set the Portuguese record for most goals in an international career. You don't need to be a genius to recognize Ronaldo's unique talent and his incredible capability to turn a game on its head like few players have ever been able to do in the history of the game. Ronaldo has a rare dribbling ability to go along with his exceptional speed, which affords him much space when he has the ball and allows him to get shots off because defenders can not catch him if they press him too tight. However, the notion that Portugal is just a one man team is a complete fallacy. While Ronaldo may not get the same supply that he does with Real Madrid when he has the likes of Gareth Bale, Luka Modric, Angel di Maria, and Isco, Portugal still has a very solid roster. Joao Moutinho is one of the smartest passing midfielders in the entire world and Nani provides quickness on the opposite Portuguese flanks. Even more importantly, though, Portugal has a center back pairing whose familiarity gives the team a safety net if they push too many men forward to help Ronaldo, as Bruno Alves and Pepe have both had upwards up 55 national team caps.

Finally, we get to the United States and their kryptonite that is the Ghanaian national team. In the 2006 World Cup, coming into the final match of the group stage, Italy were on 4 points, Czech Republic and Ghana were on 3 points, and the United States were on 1 point. With an Italy win over Czech Republic, which did occur, the US needed a victory over Ghana to advance to the knockout stage. However, the Ghanaians broke the Americans spirit after scoring a penalty kick in stoppage time of the first half and went on to win the match and end the United States' World Cup. The United States and Ghana then played an exceptionally memorable game in the round of 16 of the following World Cup. After Landon Donovan scored a game tying goal that sent the match into overtime, the Ghanaians broke the United States' heart one more time as Asamoah Gyan's 93rd minute goal in extra time sent the African nation through to the quarterfinals at the expense of the US. Just to add injury to insult, Ghana even knocked out the United States in the under-20 World Cup this past year. Destiny has brought these two sides together for the third straight World Cup in the toughest group we possbily have ever seen, as Ghana and the US open up against each other in Natal. Many players remain on Ghana's squad from the 2010 World Cup, most notably Kwadwo Asamoah of Juventus, Kevin-Prince Boateng of Schalke, brothers Andre and Jordan Ayew of Marseille, and captain Asamoah Gyan of Al Ain. However, the United States have been on a great run of form since the 2010 World Cup and with Jozy Altidore starting to link up better with the midfield play of Clint Dempsey and Landon Donovan, the Yanks are a much better team than four years ago. In a group that is almost impossible to predict, Germany should get out unscathed with former German legend Jurgen Klinsmann leading the US to the knockout stage in a minor upset.

Group H: Belgium, Algeria, Russia, South Korea (8th Hardest Group in the CTASI)

There was so much speculation over the past couple of weeks about who would be in the group of death, and the variety of possible draws in which we could have the most difficult group in World Cup history with every team in the top 24 of the FIFA World Rankings going to Brazil except for Ukraine. However, in every World Cup there are always one or two groups that seem to lack the depth that is normally present throughout the world's biggest international soccer tournament. In 2002, with hosts Japan as the seeded team, group H of Belgium, Russia, Tunisia, and Japan lacked the quality of all the other groups. In 2006, group B of England, Sweden, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago along with group D of Portugal, Mexico, Angola, and Iran formed by far the weakest groups of the tournament. In 2010, the group of Paraguay, Slovakia, New Zealand, and Italy along with the quartet of the United States, England, Slovenia, and Algeria were significantly weaker than any of the other four-team groupings in the competition. In this year's rendition of the FIFA World Cup, group H of Belgium, Russia, South Korea, and Algeria seems to be the "group of debt."

Belgium has been everybody's dark-horse team to make a deep run in the World Cup, possibly reminiscent of a 1998 Croatia, a 2002 Turkey, or a 2010 Uruguay. However, Belgium has been talked about so much as a tournament sleeper, that ironically, they are probably no longer an under the radar team that could surprise people with a few victories in the knockout stage. With a deep roster that includes an array of world-class players such as Vincent Kompany, Jan Vertonghen, Thomas Vermaelen, Marouane Fellaini, Axel Witsel, and Eden Hazard, it would not be prudent to consider the Belgians as a long shot title contender or a surprise if they do make a deep run. The Belgians, though, still have some very interesting battles at a variety of positions, as the squad actually has too many players worthy of a starting XI spot (who would have ever thought we would be saying that about Belgium). Belgian manager Marc Wilmots will have to decide whether to employ Christian Benteke or Romelu Lukaku in the team's lone striker role as the red devils typically like to play the now-so very popular 4-2-3-1 formation. In qualifying, Benteke got a majority of the starts for the team, but Lukaku already has 8 premier league goals and at the age of 20 he is a commanding physical presence. Wilmots will also have to decide which Belgian players will be inserted into the team's attacking midfield roles, especially on the wings, as Nacer Chadli, Kevin Mirallas, Dries Mertens, Eden Hazard, and Kevin de Bruyne will all be vying for two or three spots in the squad. However, having too many playings deserving of positions on the field is always a good problem to have, as the Belgians are truly in their golden generation of football. Just four years ago in December of 2009, Belgium was the 66th ranked team in the world, and now they are a serious World Cup title contender with a bevy of seriously talented players. It would not be too far-fetched to claim that Belgium has the best squad in the entire tournament, which is astounding to say about a nation that hasn't even made the past two World Cups and has one win in the competition in the least 20 years. Belgium should also be helped out by the rest of the weak teams in their porous group.

While South Korea has been in eight straight World Cups dating all the way back to 1986 (the only other teams that have had a longer World Cup appearance streak are soccer giants Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Italy, and Spain), the reds likely have one of their weaker sides since they began their run of really positive form nearly 30 years ago. Although the South Koreans have one of the best young players in the entire tournament in 21-year old Son Heung-Min of Beyern Leverkusen (he scored a hat-trick against his former club Hamburg in November), they did not play all that well in Asian qualifying, finishing behind Iran and only advancing past Uzbekistan on goal differential. In fact, the South Koreans lost to a reduced Russian side in a friendly in Dubai, which should be a sign of things to come in their game in Cuiaba.

The Russians and their manager Fabio Capello have had similar histories, featuring early triumphs followed by a prolonged struggle. Now, they are both looking to have a big World Cup in 2014. Playing as the Soviet Union from 1958 to 1990, the USSR made it to the quarterfinals in 1958, 1962, and 1970 and the semifinals in 1966. However, since the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, Russia has only made the World Cup in three of six attempts and has never advanced past the group stage. Likewise, Fabio Capello's managerial career began off with immense success, as the Italian manager won seven league championships (four with AC Milan, two with Real Madrid, and one with AS Roma) along with a Champions League title with the rossoneri. However, his four year run as England boss was a disaster, as the English suffered their biggest defeat in World Cup history after a 4-1 thumping against Germany in the round of 16 and then Capello resigned after a clash with the FA over John Terry's captaincy. However, group H is a perfect quartet for the Russians and Capello to turn everything around, especially if they can get a result against group favorite Belgium.

Finally, Algeria will be appearing in their second straight World Cup, but they should not be around for all too long. The Algerians, who needed away goals to advance past Burkina Faso in the final round of African qualification, are undoubtedly one of the weaker sides in the competition. If all things go as planned, Belgium and Russia should have little trouble taking care of South Korea and Algeria and moving on to face stiffer competition in the round of 16.

After reading more than 9,000 words, you probably just want my full predictions for the entire tournament by now, so here we go:

Round of 16:
Group A Winner: Brazil
Group B Runner-up: Chile

Group C Winner: Ivory Coast
Group D Runner-up: Uruguay

Group E Winner: France
Group F Runner-up: Bosnia and Herzegovina

Group G Winner: Germany
Group H Runner-up: Russia

Group B Winner: Spain
Group A Runner-up: Mexico

Group D Winner: Italy
Group C Runner-up: Colombia

Group F Winner: Argentina
Group E Runner-up: Switzerland

Group H Winner: Belgium
Group G Runner-up: United States

Quarterfinals:
Brazil
Ivory Coast

France
Germany 

Spain
Italy

Argentina
Belgium

Semifinals:
Brazil
Germany

Spain
Argentina

Finals:
Germany
Argentina

Winner:
Germany