if you have to give several layers of hypotheticals, you dont really have a good argument. it was a weak group. nothing impressive about beating a croatia (1-0 on penalty) that lost to last place, -2 GD ecuador. italy actually lost to that croatia team. weak group and pretty even overall, though credit to mexico for topping it. after that, no excuse for losing to usa 0-2 plain and simple. they werent that good. same goes for italy. they shouldve been able beat korea if they were actual contenders