FIFA announced today that, for Friday’s World Cup draw. Previous pot predictions had France in the top pot over the Netherlands. Had FIFA gone with rankings after October France would have been in the top pot over England.

The US has been seeded in Pot 2 along with the rest of the CONCACAF teams and Asian teams. Just as we feared.

Pot 1: South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Argentina and England.

Pot 2: Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea Republic, New Zealand, Honduras, Mexico and USA.

Pot 3: Algeria, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Nigeria, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.

Pot 4: Denmark, France, Greece, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland.

No two teams from the same confederation will be drawn in the same group (except European teams, where a maximum of two will be in a group).

Best case scenario for the US in my mind is still South Africa, Uruguay and Switzerland. I wouldn’t be to upset to get Uruguay over Algeria either.

Worst case scenario for the US has to be Brazil, Ivory Coast and Portugal.

No matter what it will be rough.

While we don’t know the exact pots in Friday’s World Cup draw in South Africa we do have a pretty good guess of where FIFA could go with them. Based on the ESPN video I posted here yesterday below are the four pots.

POT 1-Brazil, Spain, Argentina, France, England, Italy, Germany, South Africa

POT 2- Netherlands, Portugal, Denmark, Slovenia, Greece, Slovakia, Serbia, Switzerland

POT 3- Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria

POT 4- USA, Mexico, Honduras, South Korea, North Korea, Japan, Australia, New Zealand

ESPN is figuring the South American sides will be paired with the African sides and the CONCACAF sides will go with the Asian ones. Which doesn’t sound all that great for US fans if you ask me. I’d much rather the CONCACAF sides be in the same pot as the African sides rather than the Asian sides. I really would prefer not to see any African sides in the group stages if we can, though if we had to get paired with one I wouldn’t mind getting Algeria.

The draw can really go a lot of different ways for the US on Friday. A group of death like in 2006, or rough group like in 2002 or if we are lucky an easy path to the knockout round.

Obviously US fans want to be in the same group as South Africa. They will be the lowest rated (based on FIFA rankings) team in Pot 1. If we don’t get South Africa the next best thing would have to be getting in a group with France. Everyone else in Pot 1 I’d rather not see until later on in the competition if all possible.

From Pot 2 I’d definitely like to stay away from Holland. They’re clearly the best side in that group if not one of the top teams in the whole competition. We know what Portugal will bring to the table and we also now know that Slovakia and Denmark are no easy task. Another team that some aren’t talking about that would be a tough draw is Serbia, watch out for them. The best team for the US to get paired with from Pot 2 has to be either Switzerland or Greece.

Now the fun really begins after the first two pots. We still don’t know how FIFA will do these pots. If we get grouped with the Africa clubs in a pot then that helps us out in a big way, if we get the Asian sides then it could be a little bit of a let down.

No matter what we are going to get a tough draw I think. While I don’t see a Group of Death this time around for the US I still think no matter who the US gets will be a rough draw next summer.

Bob Bradley has announced his 22-man roster for the last two CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers against Honduras on on October 10th, and the qualifying match against Costa Rica at RFK Stadium on October 14th.

GOALKEEPERS (2): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Tim Howard (Everton)

DEFENDERS (7): Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover), Jimmy Conrad (Kansas City Wizards), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Oguchi Onyewu (AC Milan), Jonathan Spector (West Ham)

MIDFIELDERS (8): Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Benny Feilhaber (AGF Aarhus), Stuart Holden (Houston Dynamo), Robbie Rogers (Columbus Crew), José Francisco Torres (Pachuca), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)

FORWARDS (5): Jozy Altidore (Hull City), Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids), Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Kenny Cooper (1860 Munich), Charlie Davies (FC Sochaux)

Off the top of my head, the only shockers to me were Conrad and Rogers. I’m also starting to wonder if Casey is the new Eddie Johnson for Bob Bradley. You know a decent forward that is a bit over hyped and never really does that great with the National team? I dunno, just a thought.

Just a little update from the desk of Steve Goff. The upcoming US-Honduras World Cup qualifier unfortunately will not be on any sort of TV. None.

No radio, no English TV, no Spanish TV, and who knows maybe even no internet feed.

Goff says this isn’t the USSF’s fault either. The media company (whoever it is) that owns the rights to this game wasn’t able to sell it to any outlet. To watch the game, which begins at 9pm CT next Saturday, you’ll have to find local watering whole or eating establishment that has purchased the closed-circuit rights. The distributor has set up a Web site and has promised a list of locations by tonight.

I won’t lie to ya, this sucks a big one that we won’t be able to see this here on any normal TV channel, even the good ol’ mun2!

Guess we will have to rely on the trusty ol’ internet to provide a decent feed.

US Men’s National team manager Bob Bradley has announced the squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers vs. El Salvador on Sept. 5th (9pm, ESPN Classic, Telefutura) and Trinidad & Tobago on Sept. 9th (7pm, ESPN Classic, Galavision).

Here is the group:

GOALKEEPERS- Tim Howard, Brad Guzan.

DEFENDERS- Carlos Bocanegra, Oguchi Onyewu, Jay DeMerit, Chad Marshall, Steve Cherundolo, Jonathan Spector, Jonathan Bornstein, and Clarence Goodson.

MIDFIELDERS- Landon Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, Stuart Holden, Kyle Beckerman, Ricardo Clark, Benny Feilhaber, Jose Francisco Torres, and Robbie Rogers.

FORWARDS-Charlie Davies, Jozy Altidore, Brian Ching, Conor Casey, Robbie Findley.

Shockers to some right away may be Beckerman, Findley and Rogers. Overall I think this is a roster that should get us six points in these two games. Anything less than four points I think could be a disappointment. What do you make of this roster?

A lot of talk has gone on today and last night really about the CONCACAF World Cup qualifying standings at this point. I know I made a bigger deal out of the standings a couple days ago and I still stand by my thoughts about how I think the US are still fine even with the loss to Mexcio.

There is still a lot of qualifying left to do. Let’s make that clear, four games may not seem like much but it can certainly change the landscape of how things will finish out here.

First of all the US has gotten it’s hard games out of the way on the road in Costa Rica and Mexico, not to mention getting their home game to Mexico out of the way. They still have Costa Rica at home left to finish out qualifying but as we all know in the Hexagonal, Costa Rica and Mexico (up until the Gold Cup for them at least) don’t win in the US and the US doesn’t win in Mexico and Costa Rica. If that holds to be true we will indeed be fine.

But saying we will be fine isn’t enough for some. The way the standings are right now we pretty much have a sense of who the top four teams will be and who the bottom two are. Trinidad and Tobago and El Salvador aren’t out of the running but they sure have a longer way to go with four games remaining.

At this point the best case for the US would be a first place finish in the group with say 19 points (the two home wins and a win in either T&T or Honduras). Speaking of Honduras they are sort of the wild card team in this for CONCACAF. I still think they could qualify over Mexico here if things go right.

Again, a lot of soccer left to be played. I still feel good about the US here but I know some naysayers out there may disagree.

Time for some extra links though to get you through the rest of the day. Continue Reading…

While today’s news has been slow due to the mass amount of international matches on this side of the globe and across the pond. The links tonight are only a few because of that with my thoughts on mun2’s job today broadcasting the US-Mexico game.

mun2 Thoughts:

Kudos on one hand for getting a solid broadcast team in Schoen and Balboa. After that the broadcast of the game was really nothing great since the two weren’t in the stadium to feel the game live. Doing a game from a studio doesn’t just mean you are cheap but it means you just don’t care enough about the game to send the broadcast team to do it. I’m sure there may have been other issues but I cannot get behind networds that fail to send a team to a game like that.

Secondly, the constant hyping of the channel got old. I know this was their coming out party but let’s face it, most of the folks that watched it today have no interest in whatever is going to be on this channel. If they are going to do more soccer then that is one thing but in all reality I know I will never flip over to mun2 again unless there is another big game on it.

US World Cup Bid Website

Link

The folks behind the US World Cup bids for 2018 and 2022 now have a website to call their own. It’s a lovely looking site that is well made and easy to get around. Sign the petition if you want, honestly that thing won’t do a bit of good to get the World Cup here. I know its a nice gesture but I just don’t see that doing much.

Guide To Soccer For Americans

Link

Interesting satire for Americans who aren’t behind soccer yet. Worth a read but don’t get too upset anything you read there.

Summer of Soccer Review

Part 1, 2, 3

The always excellent Mark Fishkin gets back to blogging, this time about the Summer of Soccer. Its a three parter and its worth a read folks. Second more if you don’t read his blog you should start, Kin of Fish is always a good read.