Top 8 Seeds Announced For Germany 06

[HatCityEnforcer]

Lost in the shuffle of the news of the week was the announcement by FIFA of the Top 8 seeds for the 2006 World Cup. The draw I believe is later this week in Berlin.

Anyways, here are your top 8 according to FIFA

• Brazil
  
• Argentina
  
• England
  
• Italy
  
• France
  
• Germany
  
• Spain
  
• Mexico
  

Now, I don't have a problem with the top 6...the last 2 though? Wow....just wow.

OK, HOW does a team like Mexico get ranked ahead of the US, especially when FIFA says they use "past performance in the World Cup" as a major weighing factor? Guess that hiding we gave to the Choke Artists South Of The Rio Grande in 02 must have been missed by the powers that be at FIFA...also, didn't we win the CONCACAF Gold Cup? Yep, Mexico's deserving to be ahead of the US

And Spain? They're just like Mexico in the World Cup...chokers of the highest degree...nice to see they snubbed some quality teams like the Dutch and Czechs for those chokeartists...

[Seadragon76]

What? How does Mexico, a team the USA beat in Qualifying, get a seed.

How much you want to bet the US is paired with Mexico? That oughta be fun

[Discrim]

shoot, England being seeded is pretty debatable too...they lost to Northern Ireland, if I recall right...not the actual Ireland, but NORTHERN Ireland!

[smzimbabwe]

What? How does Mexico, a team the USA beat in Qualifying, get a seed.

How much you want to bet the US is paired with Mexico? That oughta be fun 

The U.S. cannot be paired with Mexico in the Group stage, as they are from the same confederation. The only confederation that can have multiple teams in a group is Europe...

[dwertman]

As one of the determining factors was performance in the last 2 World Cups,the United States stinker of a performance in France 98 didnt help there cause.

I do have to agree with England getting one though,in my mind they are one of the top 8 National sides in the World so im good with that

I think the draw is this Friday so it should be intresting who goes where

[WJMorris3]

I personally think that the Dutch got slightly hosed here, but that's what they get for missing in 2002.

Damned right that Mexico deserves a seed - they are one of four teams that have made it out of the group stages of the last three World Cups (Brazil, Germany, and Italy are the others), and the only to have done it without ever getting a seed.

Let's reorder the seeds...

Brazil

England

Spain

Germany

Mexico

France

Argentina

Italy

And from what I understand, Italy barely beat out the United States to get a seed.

[NJTank]

This is a toptal outrage the US is better then several of these teams incluiding Mexico well watch you heard it here first USA will be in Final 4 next year.

[Mac the Knife]

OK, HOW does a team like Mexico get ranked ahead of the US, especially when FIFA says they use "past performance in the World Cup" as a major weighing factor?

Okay, here's another question:

Who in the United States, outside of a small select group roughly the size of those who still play D&D on a regular basis and are above the age of 20, actually gives a flip about international soccer?

Brazil beat Germany 1-0 on penalty kicks? Really? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

[Alphabet Man]

i don't like the USA soccer people, that coach is a dickhead....we are not the easybeats in this event, we are in there to win not to make up numbers, so fluff you Arena, US Coach, you have never beaten us you pansies (and we haven't beaten you but who cares) i just fluffing hope we get in a pool with the USA and England, the USA so we can shove it Arena's big face when we beat you guys, and England because we are Australia and it is our divine right (just like its URaguay's divine right to be at the WC) to beat England. What i hate even further is Arena trying to back out of what he said about us and Trinidad & Tobago by sayign we qualified last, yeh well move your fluffed up country to Oceania and try qualify, we get half a spot, you get 3 or 4, and we have to qualify by playing South America, and your morons should try play Uraguay at Uraguay when they spit on you upon arrival and try play on that ground, its an awesomely old stadium but the people are morons, Arena, you should see what plop we've had thrown in our face by FIFA then comment, have a look at our past sides, we've had good sides in the past that never got to the World Cup, we've had to do it the hard way for the past 32 years, we finally get there on our last chance through Oceania before we move into the Asian Football Confederation/Council.....out of all the teams there in Germany next June/July we deserve to be there

**I'm refering to US Soccer not the US in general

[HedleyLamarr]

As one of the determining factors was performance in the last 2 World Cups,the United States stinker of a performance in France 98 didnt help there cause.

I do have to agree with England getting one though,in my mind they are one of the top 8 National sides in the World so im good with that

I think the draw is this Friday so it should be intresting who goes where

France didn't score a goal in 2002 in three games. Didn't they finish 32nd in the tournament?

[pcgd]

i don't like the USA soccer people, that coach is a dickhead....we are not the easybeats in this event, we are in there to win not to make up numbers, so fluff you Arena, US Coach, you have never beaten us you pansies (and we haven't beaten you but who cares) i just fluffing hope we get in a pool with the USA and England, the USA so we can shove it Arena's big face when we beat you guys, and England because we are Australia and it is our divine right (just like its URaguay's divine right to be at the WC) to beat England. What i hate even further is Arena trying to back out of what he said about us and Trinidad & Tobago by sayign we qualified last, yeh well move your fluffed up country to Oceania and try qualify, we get half a spot, you get 3 or 4, and we have to qualify by playing South America, and your morons should try play Uraguay at Uraguay when they spit on you upon arrival and try play on that ground, its an awesomely old stadium but the people are morons, Arena, you should see what plop we've had thrown in our face by FIFA then comment, have a look at our past sides, we've had good sides in the past that never got to the World Cup, we've had to do it the hard way for the past 32 years, we finally get there on our last chance through Oceania before we move into the Asian Football Confederation/Council.....out of all the teams there in Germany next June/July we deserve to be there

**I'm refering to US Soccer not the US in general

Ummm...I guess arena said something bad about the land down under.

The dude's never been very tactful.

[Alphabet Man]

i don't like the USA soccer people, that coach is a dickhead....we are not the easybeats in this event, we are in there to win not to make up numbers, so fluff you Arena, US Coach, you have never beaten us you pansies (and we haven't beaten you but who cares) i just fluffing hope we get in a pool with the USA and England, the USA so we can shove it Arena's big face when we beat you guys, and England because we are Australia and it is our divine right (just like its URaguay's divine right to be at the WC) to beat England. What i hate even further is Arena trying to back out of what he said about us and Trinidad & Tobago by sayign we qualified last, yeh well move your fluffed up country to Oceania and try qualify, we get half a spot, you get 3 or 4, and we have to qualify by playing South America, and your morons should try play Uraguay at Uraguay when they spit on you upon arrival and try play on that ground, its an awesomely old stadium but the people are morons, Arena, you should see what plop we've had thrown in our face by FIFA then comment, have a look at our past sides, we've had good sides in the past that never got to the World Cup, we've had to do it the hard way for the past 32 years, we finally get there on our last chance through Oceania before we move into the Asian Football Confederation/Council.....out of all the teams there in Germany next June/July we deserve to be there

**I'm refering to US Soccer not the US in general

Ummm...I guess arena said something bad about the land down under.

The dude's never been very tactful.

yes, he said us and Trinidad & Tobago are the weakest teams in the draw.....

[HatCityEnforcer]

i don't like the USA soccer people, that coach is a dickhead....we are not the easybeats in this event, we are in there to win not to make up numbers, so fluff you Arena, US Coach, you have never beaten us you pansies (and we haven't beaten you but who cares) i just fluffing hope we get in a pool with the USA and England, the USA so we can shove it Arena's big face when we beat you guys, and England because we are Australia and it is our divine right (just like its URaguay's divine right to be at the WC) to beat England. What i hate even further is Arena trying to back out of what he said about us and Trinidad & Tobago by sayign we qualified last, yeh well move your fluffed up country to Oceania and try qualify, we get half a spot, you get 3 or 4, and we have to qualify by playing South America, and your morons should try play Uraguay at Uraguay when they spit on you upon arrival and try play on that ground, its an awesomely old stadium but the people are morons, Arena, you should see what plop we've had thrown in our face by FIFA then comment, have a look at our past sides, we've had good sides in the past that never got to the World Cup, we've had to do it the hard way for the past 32 years, we finally get there on our last chance through Oceania before we move into the Asian Football Confederation/Council.....out of all the teams there in Germany next June/July we deserve to be there

**I'm refering to US Soccer not the US in general

Bruce can be an idiot, there's no doubt...

However when it comes to his take on T&T, he is kinda right...we play em more than enough in CONCACAF, so I think he does have an idea of how they are.

His comments on Australia's side..yah, off base. Put the Aussies in the AFC and they'd have made a WC a lot sooner than now.

But I can say that the US does deal with something akin to what the Socceroos went through in Uruguay...

Fans in Mexico were notorious for their "antics"..fun things like throwing bags full of piss at our players among other things. Made it all the sweeter when we beat those morons in Columbus to clinch the trip to Germany and celebrated in front of them.

[paynomind]

I'm surprised both England AND Italy were seaded above the US. Both are ranked internationally below the US squad. Past WC performance, methinks, is code word for "we are gonna put the most traditionally good and popular squads with 1 seeds.

As far as Arena, I will make a decision after this cup. I wonder if he is performing better than any US coach has, or if he's just got huge talent, and his coaching isnt helping much. I guess we will see.

As far as his T&T and Aus comments... It isnt hard to see where he was coming from. I think technically, those two are ranked the lowest internationally, are they not? If so, no reason to get mad. Angola, Ghana, and Togo are ranked similarly, though a tad bit lower. I think an international coach as the rights to pick which sup-30-ranked teams will be the least competitive. Just show up to play, and see how it goes.

Go USA!

[WJMorris3]

EDIT: Didn't realize HatCityEnforcer already had that coming in a separate thread.

[-kj]

In a weird way, Arena meant that as a compliment, trying to say there are no weak teams this time 'round. He chose the two teams that had to play in the inter-continental playoffs in order to get in as his examples.

[Alphabet Man]

I think technically, those two are ranked the lowest internationally, are they not? If so, no reason to get mad.

Get mad, there are 4 or 5 sides ranked lower than us i believe.....

well using as as an example cos we played in intercontinental playoffs...well to get there what other choice did we have?

sorry bout 22million Aussies' didn't see it as a compliment

[-kj]

No other choice, certainly. However, Australia and T&T are seen as basically the last two teams into the tournament. Generally speaking, the teams that play their way in through the inter-continental playoffs have done little in the Finals. Arena's point is that this time around, those two teams are much better than in years past.

Here are the November 2005 FIFA rankings for teams that qualified for the World Cup Finals. These are, of course, to be taken with a few grains of salt.

1 Brazil

2 Czech Republic

3 Netherlands

4 Argentina

5 France

6 Spain

7 Mexico

8 United States

9 England

10 Portugal

12 Italy

14 Sweden

15 Japan

16 Germany

19 Iran

20 Croatia

21 Costa Rica

23t Poland

28 Tunisia

29 Korea Republic

30t Paraguay

32 Saudia Arabia

36 Switzerland

37 Ecuador

40 Ukraine

41t Cote d'Ivoire

47 Serbia and Montenegro

49 Australia

50 Ghana

51 Trinidad and Tobago

56 Togo

62 Angola

[Alphabet Man]

No other choice, certainly. However, Australia and T&T are seen as basically the last two teams into the tournament. Generally speaking, the teams that play their way in through the inter-continental playoffs have done little in the Finals. Arena's point is that this time around, those two teams are much better than in years past.

i didnt see it that way and 22million other didnt, of course we are the last to qualify, no other possible way thansk to FIFA.....well maybe if teams that paly InterContinental Playoffs do nothing ok, well we never been to the World Cup since 74 so yeh you cant really say that about us.....

We are goin to win it!, well we are a good chance to go through second to Brazil.....

[-kj]

well maybe if teams that paly InterContinental Playoffs do nothing ok, well we never been to the World Cup since 74 so yeh you cant really say that about us.....

Now think about what you've said with that statement.