It’s nearly time for my favorite World Cup tune-up this year. The match in Holland against the Dutch. Today Bob Bradley announced his 20-man roster for the March 3rd game.

There’s only four MLS players on this roster, so this may be a slight glimpse of what we’ll see in South Africa this summer. Too bad there is on Brian Ching, I really expected him to be on here after his performance last night.

So what do ya think?

GOALKEEPERS (3): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Marcus Hahnemann (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Tim Howard (Everton)

DEFENDERS (7): Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes), Jay DeMerit (Watford), Clarence Goodson (IK Start), Heath Pearce (FC Dallas), Frank Simek (Sheffield Wednesday), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United)

MIDFIELDERS (7): DaMarcus Beasley (Rangers), Alejandro Bedoya (Orebro), Michael Bradley (Borussia Mönchengladbach), Landon Donovan (Everton), Maurice Edu (Rangers), Stuart Holden (Bolton Wanderers), José Torres (Pachuca)

FORWARDS (3): Jozy Altidore (Hull City), Robbie Findley (Real Salt Lake), Eddie Johnson (Aris Thessaloniki)

World Cup tune up matches are always important. Some including myself said the US Men’s National team took things a bit too lightly before the 2006 World Cup when they played matches against Venezuela, Morocco, and Latvia. It looks like this time around the tune ups could be a lot harder…or better depending on how you look at it.

Steve Goff is reporting this afternoon that the US is set to finalize their World Cup tune ups on home soil against some strong competition. The first match is likely set for being at Rentschler Field in East Hartford, Conn., against the Czech Republic. Goff goes on to say that after a game in Hartford the US will likely head to Philadelphia to play either Turkey or Ireland at Lincoln Financial Field.

Even though nothing is set in stone the possibility of these matches already blow 2006 out of the water. Let’s not the US will also be playing in Holland soon too. Playing strong competition to tune up things before the World Cup is a smart way to go in my books. Already the thought of facing the Czechs who saw Slovenia in qualifying makes sense.

It will be interesting to see where the third location is and who the third opponent will be for the US. Hopefully the US is lined up with some African country for a tune up match. We’ll see.

Update: The game in Philly will be against Turkey on May 29.

Shocking news. Absolute shocking news. Okay, sorry for the sarcasm but the news today that an European country will likely be awarded the 2018 World Cup is really no shock at all.  The rest of the world will likely have to just wait for the 2022 World Cup now.

“From what I’ve discussed with the president of Uefa, Michel Platini, in the last few days in Moscow is that only a European candidate will be evaluated for the 2018 World Cup,” Blatter said. “It’s still not decided, but it’s an idea to help facilitate the work of Fifa and its executive committee.”

Its hardly been a secret that Sepp Blatter and FIFA wanted Europe to host the 2018 World Cup. In their eyes going from 2006 to possibly 2022 was just too long of a gap to not have the biggest soccer event in Europe at least once. FIFA just didn’t like the idea of going three straight World Cups outside of Europe.

2018 is essentially a three-horse between England, Spain/Portugal and Russia. From what I’ve been able to gather on the bids it seems like England and the duo of Spain and Portugal are really the two in the running here with Russia’s bid likely to not be on the same level as those two.

What does that leave for the 2022 World Cup? It now comes down to Japan, Australia, South Korea, Qatar, Indonesia and the United States bidding for that World Cup. I honestly can’t see the bids from South Korea and Japan being able to out-do the US or even the Australia bid. No doubt the US bid is the strongest of this group.

We really can’t be shocked by this sort of news. For the longest time we’ve all thought the 2018 bid for the US was a longshot at best even though it was far stronger than most of the bids out there.

Where do I think the World Cup will go in 2018? England is still the best bet but the more I look into the duo of Spain and Portugal the more I like that bid.

The US Bid Committee has revealed it’s list of 18 cities that be be included on the 2018/2022 World Cup bids.

The 18 cities are (chart via press release from USSoccer):

Any surprises? Definitely Atlanta, Nashville, and San Diego for me. Biggest has to be NO CHICAGO! Gulati said the city was in “Olympic fatigue.”

More to come on this….

Charlize Theron reacts to South Africa being drawn into Group A. (Getty Images)

The draw is over and now the time has begun for the endless talk and analysis of each group for the next six months. Yes the World Cup is miles away from today’s draw but we know now a lot of what could go on next summer in South Africa.

Some groups are down right ridiculous and others aren’t too shabby. It all of course depends on who you root for but for US fans I think many are happy with today’s outcome in South Africa. But more on that in a bit. I decided earlier in the day that once the groups would come out I would take a little time and give a quick review of each and a short prediction. Let me be the first to say I reserve the right to change my prediction for this tournament as much as I want here. I know I won’t get everything right but I’m willing to try.

Now for the groups. Continue Reading…

Well the US is going to Group C for next year’s World Cup in South Africa and the draw is very favorable.

I’ll be back later today with more thoughts on this but first here are all the groups, feel free to discuss.

Group A
-South Africa
-Mexico
-Uruguay
-France

Group B
-Argentina
-Nigeria
-South Korea
-Greece

Group C
-England
-USA
-Algeria
-Slovenia

Group D
-Germany
-Australia
-Serbia
-Ghana

Group E
-Netherlands
-Denmark
-Japan
-Cameroon

Group F
-Italy
-Paraguay
-New Zealand
-Slovakia

Group G
-Brazil
-North Korea
-Ivory Coast
-Portugal

Group H
-Spain
-Switzerland
-Honduras
-Chile

Everyone is doing it so why not. I even went as far as putting all the pots together and drawing out each country one-by-one, though with paper and not little plastic balls. Since this is pure guess work its probably far from what will actually happen tomorrow afternoon.

So here we go…

Group A: South Africa, South Korea, Chile, Portugal
Group B: Spain, North Korea, Cameroon, Switzerland
Group C: Holland, Honduras, Algeria, Denmark
Group D: Brazil, New Zealand, Nigeria, Slovakia
Group E: Germany, Mexico, Ghana, Slovenia
Group F: England, USA, Uruguay, Greece
Group G: Italy, Australia, Paraguay, France
Group H: Argentina, Japan, Ivory Coast, Serbia

So the US got England, Uruguay and Greece, not a bad group and definitely not the worst group in the field. Group H has to be the toughest with Argentina, Ivory Costa, Japan, and Serbia. No doubt I wouldn’t want to see any of those teams. Group E is pretty rough too. I think Holland and Brazil have fairly decent groups to deal with. I’d say Spain and Portugal have the easiest groups.

The hope of course is to still get drawn in Group A with South Africa tomorrow. Not only is that the worst team from Pot A but it also means the US won’t see two European teams in the group stages where they would in at least five other groups that they could potentially be drawn in.