2014 World Cup

Yes. I understand this. That wasn't the question.

 

Of the four groups decided so far, a tiebreaker has been involved in one, and that was to sort first and second between Brazil and Mexico, who drew anyway. I would tend to think that both would have beaten most any other team that got thrown in their group.

I think any round-robin group system is likely to create scenarios where with one game to play, a number of potential ties come into play. Beyond that, I think any expansion would create a diluted product, more boring first-round games like Nigeria-Iran and less overall interest. The Rugby World Cup has five-team first-round groups, and the tournament is interminable.

A reasonable guess at who the additional eight might have been, based on who lost last-stage playoffs, etc., would be: Panama, Jordan, Sweden, Ukraine, Romania, Iceland, Venezuela and New Zealand. Maybe replace New Zealand with an African team.

Can't think of a team in that group that would have improved the tournament, really, at least from a quality perspective.

 

The tournament doesn't need eight more crappy teams.

You play more games, each game becomes less important.

 

It did not hurt March Madness when they expanded.

 

YES!

That was funny.

 

Shocker: A German reporter asked Klinsmann a question in German. I'm pretty sure everyone in the world knew that was a given ... everyone except the execs at the World Wide Leader who was totally unprepared to offer a translation.

 

Don't know if brackets allow it work out in such a way but I'd love to see the U.S. v. Mexico in the final.

I guess U.S.-Brazil would be the ultimate but U.S.-Mexico would be amusing for us and our southerly neighbors.

 

Mayor of Boston has announced that jumbotron screens will be set up in City Hall Plaza for the game broadcast. Gonna be a few long lunch hours downtown.

 

That's the biggest drawback to expansion, there aren't good teams missing the cut as it is.

That said, there's part of me that wishes the group stage consisted of all the teams playing each other twice instead of once. If only because it would result in another week or so of the tournament.

 

I appreciate the replies.

 

A few observations at random...

1. The most impressive team I've seen so far has been Colombia. Their counterattack has been positively lethal.

2. I think Suarez is done. Not even FIFA can ignore this latest incident. No excuse for that.

3. The game to watch Thursday may well be Ghana-Portugal. I'm half afraid the U.S. and Germany are going to play patty-cake for 90 minutes, all protestations to the contrary notwithstanding.

4. Regardless of who your rooting interests are, this has been a wildly entertaining World Cup.

 

Events of yesterday weren't as much of a shock worldwide as they were here -- 150 Europeans held betting tickets that Luis Suarez would bite somebody during the Cup. One guy made $2,700.

http://www.sfgate.com/sports/article/Norwegian-wins-bet-on-Suarez-World-Cup-bite-5577770.php