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[QUOTE="IthacaMatt, post: 4147169, member: 405"]
Well, if our group was full of European and South American teams, I might agree.  We're not consistently at that level, although I feel that on a good day, this group of players can beat almost anyone, outside of maybe the top 10 sides or so in the world.

When we get to group play, there is going to be an African team or an Asian team, or maybe both, in our group.  Depends on the draw and how we are ranked as we approach the World Cup.  Right now, after winning both tournaments this summer, we are ranked pretty high.

We might get a draw something like

Germany / Italy / Croatia / someone similar as the European opponent from the top pool.  Or Brazil or Argentina - the top dogs from South America.  Those are the kinds of teams in Pool 1.

We might qualify for the second pool of the draw if we do well in the remainder of qualifying and finish first.  That will result in an easier group, where we probably avoid a South American team in our group, in exchange for both an Africa and an Asian side.  That would be our best draw, and if we played well, there's no reason we couldn't advance against that kind of group.

If we finish 2nd or 3rd in qualifying, we might slide a few spots in the FIFA rankings, and then another good team will get added above us.

Then we'll wind up with an African team (Cameroon, Ivory Coast) or an Asian team (Iran, Japan), but probably not both.  Probably a mid-tier team from either Europe or South America will be added as the Pool 2 opponent, depending on who we get from Pool 1 draw with us.
  It would be from the other confederation than the Pool 1 opponent.
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