As the 2014 World Cup in Brazil draws nearer, the groups for the tournament have now been officially announced. This process involves the 32 qualified teams being placed into four pots: pot 1 includes the top eight teams in the world, as decided by a FIFA seeding, pot 2 includes teams from Africa, South America, and one extra team from Europe (this year it was Italy), pot 3 has teams from Asia and North America, and pot 4 has the remaining teams from Europe. By the luck of the draw, the United States has been stuck with what analysts and experts are calling the "Group of Death".
This June, the United States will face arguably the best team in Europe and perhaps the world in Germany, the best team in Africa and one that won 6-1 against an Egyptian team that had gone undefeated up until that point in qualification (Ghana), and Portugal, a team that barely made it yet one that has the best player in the world right now, Cristiano Ronaldo. As a result of this unbelievably difficult draw, the question on every American's mind at this point in time is Can the Stars and Stripes escape the Group of Death? Listed below are some short previews of the matchups and some keys for American victory.
The first game for the United States will take place on June 16 against the Black Stars of Ghana, the same country who has eliminated the Americans from the past two World Cups. The main objective for manager Jurgen Klinsmann's side in this match will be to contain the pace and quickness of Ghana, especially superstars like FC Schalke's Kevin-Prince Boateng and the active player with the most caps and goals for his nation, striker Asamoah Gyan, with an emphasis on communication in the defense, a recurring issue for the United States in the past.
Later, the United States will face Portugal, and the primary task at hand for that game will be finding a way to at least control Cristiano Ronaldo for any portion of the game. The Americans can look at tape from the Portugal-Sweden game to see how not to play the Real Madrid forward, a game where the holes in the Swedish defense constantly let Ronaldo make runs on goal, and he eventually finished with a hat-trick, but his knowledge of the game and pure skill will prove almost impossible to handle if the American fullback controversy is not fixed. If this containment can happen, there might remain a semblance of hope for a victory.
In the final group stage match, the US will travel to Recife, Brazil to face Joachim Löw's German side. In this game, Klinsmann will face some of the same men that he coached during the 2006 World Cup, and will subsequently have to devise some plan to counteract the knowledge that players like FC Bayern München mainstays Bastian Schweinsteiger and Philipp Lahm have regarding his style of play. If the Americans can perform similarly to how they did during the June friendly against what appeared to be the German backup squad, with a focus capitalizing on the opposition's defensive mistakes and not being afraid to take shots, they will have a chance at leaving with three points.
Of course, all of these aforementioned tactics are just mere suggestions and relatively simple, and Klinsmann will need to evoke performances similar to those that got the Stars and Stripes to this point in order to overcome perhaps the most difficult group in recent World Cup history.
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| Veteran midfielder Clint Dempsey celebrates a goal during the June friendly against Germany |
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