With the addition of Jurgen Klinsmann, the U.S. Men’s Head Soccer Coach, three years ago, the hopes of winning the World Cup for the first time had never been higher. That is, until the ‘group of death’ draw on Dec. 6, which pits the U.S. against three of the best soccer teams in the world in the opening round.

This ‘group of death’ contains: 2010 third place winner Germany, Portugal, whose team has one of the best players in the world, and Ghana, the team that knocked out the U.S. in 2010. This is probably one of the most difficult opening rounds the United States has ever had to go through, but I believe it’s too early to count them out yet.

In order for the U.S. to advance in this grueling group, they have to be in the top two teams. The first match will be against Ghana on June 16, who, after defeating the U.S. in the round of 16 in 2010, went on to lose to Uruguay in penalty kicks in the quarterfinals. That was Ghana’s second appearance in the World Cup, and the year before they also beat us keeping us away from the next round so we want to get revenge on them. It is nice playing them first because they will be easiest of the three teams because they are not as threatening as the other two teams. They are still a good team, and it will be challenging, but under the direction of Klinsmann, I believe the U.S. can beat them.

The next game will be against Portugal where the U.S. will be playing against Cristiano Ronaldo, one the best players in the world. Ronaldo scored eight goals in 10 games on the international level in the Europe World Cup qualifier. Over the whole qualifier, Portugal only scored a total of 20 goals, meaning Ronaldo scored almost half of their goals. Also, Portugal’s defense allowed a total of nine goals to teams below them in the standings who have combined for only one World Cup appearance. Whereas the U.S. allowed only eight goals to teams who have qualified for the world cup more than 10 times. I think that if the U.S. can contain Ronaldo, they have a good chance against Portugal, making it very difficult for us not to advance. The only way the U.S. couldn’t advance after winning the first two games, is if they lost their third and Portugal beat Germany and have a higher goal differential than the U.S. do.

Next, the U.S. faces Germany, who has consistently had a very good team and has taken third place in the past two Cups. The only good team Germany played in their World Cup qualifier was Sweden, who they tied 4-4. Sweden went 6-2-2 in the World Cup qualifier losing to Germany once but I still wouldn’t say Sweden is an extremely challenging team. With that, I think that we have a chance to beat Germany. I don’t think it will be easy, but it is definitely possible.

Overall, the U.S. definitely got one of the worst draws possible this year, but it could be worse like Costa Rica, who has to play England, Italy, and Uruguay. If the U.S. team can come together and play some of their best soccer, they will stand a chance against these three powerhouse teams.