(12-09-2013 05:01 PM)randaddyminer Wrote:  Australia is easily the weakest team in the WC and that goes for the entire AFC. Didn't Japan (winners of AFC) finish next to last, ahead of Tahiti, in the Confederations cup?

Chile is overrated, a lot of people think they're good based on their ranking, but they played their entire qualifying round with no Brasil. Their back line is very weak and I think they went 9-1-6 in qualifying, in a federation that isn't very good outside of 2 teams this cycle.

"Easily"? I disagree. I think there are several teams as weak as Australia, including South Korea, Iran, Algeria, Cameroon, Costa Rica, and Honduras. The Asia qualifying is about as strong as Concacaf in my view.

Not sure that Confederations Cup finish says much. Japan was competitive in those games, especially the last game with Italy. Maybe I'm selling the US short, but I don't buy the 14 ranking from FIFA, I'd put the US much closer to Japan in ranking (meaning Japan should be higher and the US somewhat lower). After looking more closely at Australia's recent results, I can see the argument that the US is better, but not as much as that ranking would suggest.

Where do you think the Concacaf teams would've finished in Conmebol? Uruguay is close to the weakest seed in my view, but they're still a strong team and they finished 5th. I'm not sure the US would've qualified out of this region, let alone the other Concacaf teams.