As said here there are always suprises at the WC and the US team reching the second round would be a very big suprise this year.

On paper, Italy and Czech should progress but who on earth would have thought Argentina and Portugal not get out of their group in 2002 and South Korea beat Italy. The World Cup always produces surprises (just think Cameroon 1 Argentina 0).

This said, I think USA will struggle to get out of this group. Should be Italy and Czech.

Surprise team 2006: Australia

I personally believe the Italians will raise the trophy on July 9th. I just hope they’re not depending on being able to pick their own refs for each game…

No serious observer would equate the class of the US squad, player for player, to the Italians. But as has been stated countless times, a team doesn’t simply equal the sum of it’s parts. Otherwise, we could just hand the trophy to Brazil right now.

Great post above – A true classico.

The only thing I would point, which is the same thing I try to point in all my post, that it doesn’t matter anymore if Italy played bad against mexico in the last WC (actually they sucked even with Croatia and S Korea) that’s an old story, this is a different team.
“Different” doesn’t mean that this one is stronger or weaker than the 2002 because we’ll only know it in the upcoming WC, so actually Italy could lose against Usa but surely it’s not related to the fact that Italy lost with Mexico 4 years ago so it’s quite useless to keep remarking about that lost even if is just for making courage…

Another thing I would point is to don’t trust to much of the individual valour of players and their statistics in their clubs, because in my opinion stats doesn’t really matter
Here is a clear example: WC2002, France had Henry (2002 premiere league top scorer) + Trezeguet (2002 serie A top scorer) + Cisse (2002 french league top scorer) + Zidane (don’t need introdutions )
Well with this attack what would I had to guess before that WC?
I could say that France could score easily 18 goals and reach the finals… Well, not only they weren’t able to qualify out their group, but they weren’t able to win a single game and they weren’t EVEN able to score a goal in 3 matches!!
Why did that happen? Who knows…
In my opinion Wc is like a different sport so you could throw out whatever stats you want about players or past WC, but eventhough something goes as you’ve predict well there is alwayls something else that goes the opposite you’ve predict

No one doubts that your team is a top contender this year, but what fun is the World Cup to anticipate elimination from the first round?

BENITO MUSSOLINI: HIS CONTROL IS SUFFOCATING. HIS ATTACKING FORMATIONS HAVE A PERFECT AXIS ALIGNMENT. HIS CONFIDENCE IS UNMATCHED. HIS DEFENSE IS STINGY. SIGHT, SMELL, TOUCH, TASTE, HEARING – HE IS IN COMPLETE POSSESION OF HIS FACULTIES.

HE WILL NOT ACQUIESCE!

FRANCESCO TOTTI: WHAT CAN I SAY IN THE USA THER IS NOT ONE PLAYER THAT CAN BE COMPARED TO THIS ONE IN HIS INVIDUAL STYLE TO SCORE PASS CONTROL THE BALL AND YES AGAIN EXPERIENCE. HE IS A BORN LEADER. BEST PLAYER ITALY HAS.

GENARO GATTUSSO: MIDDLE HE IS A PITTBULL HE WILL RUN 90 NON STOP HE IS ONE OF THE BEST BALL RECUPARATORS THER IS IN THE WORLD HARD WHEN IT COMES TO DEFEND AND ACCURATE WHEN IT COMES TO ATTACK.

MY FREINDS ITALY IS NOT THE SAME TEAM MEXICO DRAWED IN 2002 YOU CANNOT COMPARE NOBODY WHO KNOWS THE SPORTS COMPARE TEAMS FROM ONE WORLD CUP TO AN OTHER BEACAUSE THE TEAM SELDOMLY ARE THE SAME OR GET THERE IN THE SAME SITUATION. SO DONT THINK ITALY IS EASY, MOST LIKELY THE WILL WIN WITH OUT A STRUGGLE THEIR GROUP

I personally like Convey as a “late game sub” who can come in and give the team a spark. His role should be similar to Joe Cole in England (though obviously there is a disparity in talent)

The biggest issue for me was the 4-3-3 formation. The US should build from the back forward and play a 4-5-1. This would allow us to defend well and use counterattacks, or when we’re on the attack, have midfielders make piercing runs forward.

Our offense is more effective when we have midfielders running in then when we have Brian Ching or McBride or Wolff or Johnson getting dispossessed in the last third of the pitch.

Time…after…time