Comments on: World Cup Power Poll

By: Gary

Gary — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:32:20 +0000

WOW!

I’m actually quite impressed with the ratings. Quite accurate in my opinion and at least for me verifies that someone around here knows their international soccer.

It’s clear that a lot of thought on not only results and strength of schedule was considered, but also some intangibles such as coaching, history, “home field”, and X-factors were considered.

The high rankings of Holland, Ivory Coast, Argentina, Mexico, and Chile prove as much.

But what really gives these guys credibility in my eyes is the US ranking. Thank you for not being blind!

All the best,
- Gary

By: Jrodius

Jrodius — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:43:45 +0000

Any such poll without my input never actually happened.

Snobbery, I say…

By: salvadoran_army_priest

salvadoran_army_priest — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 18:57:14 +0000

You guys are underrating Nigeria. And I don’t mean that you are discounting any alleged home field advantage. Nigeria struggled in qualifying, but now that they’re in you have to account for the embarrassment of riches they have in terms of interesting, charismatic, athletes. All over Europe mid-level clubs bet the house on Nigerian players to fend of relegation and climb the table in first division soccer, and they’re bringing all of them. Chile? Paraguay? Frickin’ Switzerland? Better than Nigeria? Ya gotta be kidding me.

By: richardfarley

richardfarley — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:54:23 +0000

I’m with you, mgrayscale, regarding Argentina being that high. But that’s what this poll is about, for me: see where the consensus has these teams. I’m thinking about where my analysis differs and seeing if there are faults. On Argentina, I’m not doing much second-guessing.

South Korea, however, I am reevaluating, as I had them much higher. I’ll be talking about that on World Soccer Digest tomorrow. In general, I think I had the three non-NK Asian teams much higher than others.

Tom: A lot of my ranking of the U.S. was based on Davis being out and Onyewu, even if he’s back, being a non-factor.

However, it’s possible EVERYBODY had the U.S. higher than 24th but they ended up there because, unlikely some of the teams that passed them, they didn’t have one person who vastly overrated them. I only saw two of the ballots, so I can’t say if that’s the cast, but the way these polls go, the math can be skewed like that.

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:37:39 +0000

OK, I’m not going to claim that the United States is a world powerhouse, or that its #11 FIFA ranking is accurate.

But with the USA at #24 in this list, it’s hard not to escape the feeling that some of these voters were too cautious for their own good — wary of appearing naive by inflating their own country’s status. So by overcompensating, they’ve actually managed to underrate.

By: Charlie Armstrong

Charlie Armstrong — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:50:49 +0000

Wait, nine people who supposedly know something about soccer thought New Zealand would win out? What?

By: john

john — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:37:57 +0000

As a fan of Argentina, thanks for being kind to us in our position. Then again, I guess the neutral can be right about our position as well. I’m just keeping my fingers cross rather than being too confident. We’ll see how it goes.

The rest of the list looks pretty debatable. I don’t think it’s fair to put New Zealand at the bottom of the list, much more so below North Korea.

Their performance against Asian teams so far has been very good, therefore they do deserve some respect (a draw against Iraq in the Confed Cup & World Cup play off against Bahrain).

By: mgrayscale

mgrayscale — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 14:04:03 +0000

Argentina ranked 8th? Above Mexico? I’m not a fan of either team, but have seen both play in this cycle, and I would’ve put Maradona’s boys much lower.

I like the rankings though (concept). Thanks guys.