Sporting Kansas City's Kei Kamara and Teal Bunbury have been called up by their respective national teams. (Getty Images)

It will be a fairly slow week around these parts, seeing how MLS is pretty much off this weekend (except for two games). With a FIFA fixture on the calendar this weekend there are a full slew of MLSers involved in friendlies and even some World Cup qualifiers.

MLS released this list of players and I felt it was worth putting up here as well. A total of 51 players representing 17 different countries from 17 MLS clubs. Only San Jose failed to have anyone called up.

Chicago Fire
Marco Pappa (Guatemala)

Chivas USA
Ante Jazic (Canada)
Michael Umaña (Costa Rica)

* Heath Pearce was called by USA but withdrew because of injury

Colorado Rapids
Steward Ceus (Haiti)
Omar Cummings (Jamaica)
Jeff Larentowicz (USA)
Sanna Nyassi (Gambia)

Columbus Crew
Julius James (Trinidad and Tobago)
Robbie Rogers (USA)

D.C. United
Dwayne De Rosario (Canada)
Bill Hamid (USA)
Dejan Jakovic (Canada)
Andy Najar (Honduras)
Chris Pontius (USA)

FC Dallas
Marvin Chávez (Honduras)
Brek Shea (USA)

* Zach Loyd was called by USA but withdrew because of injury

Houston
Carlo Costly (Honduras)
Andre Hainault (Canada)
Jermaine Taylor (Jamaica)
Je-Vaughn Watson (Jamaica)

LA Galaxy
Landon Donovan (USA)
Robbie Keane (Ireland)
Chris Birchall (Trinidad and Tobago)

New England
Kenny Mansally (Gambia)

New York
Juan Agudelo (USA)
Bouna Coundoul (Senegal)
Rafa Márquez (Mexico)
Roy Miller (Costa Rica)
Tim Ream (USA)
Dane Richards (Jamaica)

Philadelphia
Keon Daniel (Trinidad and Tobago)

Portland
James Marcelin (Haiti)
Lovel Palmer (Jamaica)
Steve Purdy (El Salvador)
Rodney Wallace (Costa Rica)

Real Salt Lake
Jean Alexandre (Haiti)
Arturo Alvarez (El Salvador)
Kyle Beckerman (USA)
Will Johnson (Canada)
Álvario Saborío (Costa Rica)

Seattle
Terry Boss (Puerto Rico)

Sporting KC
Teal Bunbury (USA)
Roger Espinoza (Honduras)
Kei Kamara (Sierra Leone)
Shavar Thomas (Jamaica)

Toronto FC
Julian de Guzman (Canada)
Terry Dunfield (Canada)
Ryan Johnson (Jamaica)
Javier Martina (Curaçao)

Vancouver
Nizar Khalfan (Tanzania)
Mustapha Jarju (Gambia)

I’ve sort of kept my peace about FIFA and their madness as of late. Same goes for the drama with CONCACAF yesterday. Honestly I’ve been busy with work and other soccer ventures that I just didn’t have the time or energy to comment.

Well this photo just about sums up all the energy I have to talk about it. One candidate, a bad one too. At least 17 folks decided not to vote for him.

Will it get any better with four more years of Blatter in charge? Probably not. But I am willing to hope that some good changes do come soon enough after all of these scandals.

FIFA sources told the Associated Press today that the six member confederations will receive the same number of World Cup spots for 2014 as they did in 2010. That means no guaranteed fourth spot for CONCACAF.

The report also says that a draw will take place to determine which regions are pared in the playoff rounds.

The division of spots remains UEFA (13), Africa (5), South America (4.5, not including host Brazil), Asia (4.5), North America (3.5), and Oceania (.5).

FIFA will officially announce the World Cup place for 2014 later today.

What does this mean for the US National team and the rest of CONCACAF? Basically winning your group in qualifying is the only guaranteed way of making it to Brazil in 2014. The two runners-up will meet in a playoff to determine the third qualifier for the region and the loser of that will play in the playoff round.

I know this is a set back for the region as it continues to grow in the game but in all honesty this isn’t the worst news in the world. I still believe that until the teams from the region get out of the Round of 16 in the World Cup, CONCACAF should have no reason to lobby for an additional spot.

The biggest loser in this news is South America. Even with Brazil getting an auto-bid the region deserved an additional spot over Africa. I think its a far argument to say the fifth best country in South America (not including Brazil here) is easily better than the 4th or 5th best African team. I’d be even willing to say the 4th best CONCACAF team is on par or better than that 4th or 5th African team.

Several sources within the CSA have told Canadian Soccer News that FIFA has awarded CONCACAF a full fourth spot for the 2014 World Cup. The extra spot Africa had for 2010 will be distributed to CONCACAF and South America.

The spots are said to be: Africa 4.5, South America 4.5 plus Brazil, Asia 4.5, Europe 13, Oceania 0.5,
And CONCACAF 4.

The announcement is set to be made later this week from FIFA on this matter. Should it come true it could mean good things for the region. In all honesty CONCACAF is rather lucky to be getting an extra slot into the tournament considering how poorly most teams have done in the tournament in recent World Cups. It will be interesting to see which “wild-card” pairing take place this time around with Africa, South America, Oceania and Asia all getting that half-bid. An African-South American matchup could be interesting.

Sepp Blatter appears to support a winter World Cup in Qatar. (AP Photo)

I thought I was done talking about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar but this news has me a bit excited. FIFA President Sepp Blatter and General Secretary Jerome Valcke expressed interest in moving the 2022 World Cup to winter in order to avoid the sweltering summer months of Qatar.

First of all that should be a no brainer for FIFA if they are serious about having a World Cup in Qatar. The average temperature for Qatar during June and July typically is around 122 degrees and concerns have been raised about the safety of players and fans.

Valcke said that a move away from the summer would be dificult because it would require a change in the international calendar and would require support from the most of the world’s domestic leagues. The move would also probably require the executive committee’s approval.

Plenty of people have raised questions about the potential summer World Cup in Qatar but officials in Qatar have yet to comment on whether or not the World Cup could be moved to the winter months.

Should things remain the same for soccer here in America the real winner in all of this is Major League Soccer, who’s schedule would align perfectly for a winter World Cup. This of course assumes that the “study” that is being conducted by the league to move to a fall-spring calendar like the rest of the world for MLS doesn’t pan out between now and 2022. I’m pretty sure though that “study” was mostly garbage to begin with and the league was never really that serious about a schedule switch just yet.

With this World Cup being 12 years away there will probably be a lot of folks from the big European leagues that protest this sort of thing. MLS on the other hand will just have to sit back and enjoy it a bit though. Having the World Cup in the winter months wouldn’t cause too many issues for MLS clubs who will just beginning their preseason camps around that time. At worst it could cause that season to stay a week late.

For once MLS games wouldn’t be scheduled at the same time as World Cup games which have to benefit the average MLS fan. Its kind of like having your cake and eating it too.

What do you all think of a winter World Cup in Qatar? I support the idea if it does happen. To me it would take the sting of the US losing the bid away a bit.

Qatar offers amazing new stadiums to combat the desert heat. But will it be enough to beat the US?

Pretty much everyone and their mother has had opinons on the World Cup bids for 2018 and 2022. I had covered this a bit over the last year or so since the US Bid Committee came out and said they were wanting to host one of those two Cups. The last couple months I sort of got burnt out on the whole thing, mostly due to the number of scandals involved with it. Seeing how this week we’ll know if the US gets the 2022 World Cup or not I thought it was fitting to take a quick look at each bid and see where things could go.

If you want a real solid look at the Bids for the US and some odds for each check out Grant Wahl’s article over at SI.com. There’s no beating around the bush that Wahl is on the money with his writing.

Here is my quick and dirty look at each bid for the two World Cups.

2018 World Cup Bids

England: Always believed to be the frontrunner for the 2018 bids. In some ways it still is as the stadiums are there and they will not have to build any additional ones to host. They haven’t hosted a Cup since 1966 either. But the FA there has not made any friends recently with FIFA on the whole bid process. One has to think that they’ve slipped out of the running here a bit with media exposes.

Russia: The biggest threat to England for the 2018 Cup. They are an emerging power in the soccer world in some eyes. With a successful World Cup in South Africa this year FIFA has to feel okay about going to a place like Russia too. They’ve never hosted the World Cup and their entire country is putting a lot of money behind hosting it with improved stadiums, new stadiums and lots of infrastructure changes.

Spain/Portugal: One of the joint bids in this that could make things very interesting. Apparently they have some friends in FIFA that could help swing votes their way.

Holland/Belgium: The biggest longshot of them all. I highly doubt they’ll get more than a vote or two.

Final thoughts: To me its down to Russia and England. Had you asked me this a couple months ago I would have said England without hesitation but Russia’s bid seems pretty strong. I know England is the “birthplace” and all of soccer but having it in a country like Russia wouldn’t be all that bad I don’t think. The Spain/Portugal bid intrigues me as their stadium situation is pretty impressive too. I think though the money that Russia will dump into this will possibly put them over the top and tip the votes in their favor.

2022 World Cup Bids:

United States: We’ve discussed this bid numerous times and where the strengths are. Maybe an outsider can tell me the weaknesses here but I don’t see too many on the surface, maybe the fact that we just hosted it in 1994 could be the only thing holding us back. We know that this bid will bring in loads of money to FIFA which they have to like. No new stadiums will be needed to build to host this and its possible that newer ones could be on the way that sneak into the hosting plan down the road.

Australia: Never hosted a World Cup but they did do well hosting the Olympics back in 2000. The biggest thing in my mind holding them back is the horrible TV times that they’ll get in the US and across Europe by hosting here. Also the possibility of an Asian World Cup in China in 2026 has to be holding them (and Japan and South Korea) back too.

Qatar: Seemingly the biggest competition to the US’s bid due to the money that will be spend to make this happen there. But does FIFA really want to host an event in the desert? With reports that spectators, players and team staff’s could be subject to major health risk from the heat has to be a cause for concern. Still FIFA loves projects like this in getting upstart countries to host big events. That part is and will work in their favor.

Japan: Hosted back with South Korea in 2002. Kind of believe this is a longshot here.

South Korea: Hosted with Japan in 2002. Another longshot.

Final Thoughts: Most people believe its down to the US and Qatar. Those people are probably right but at the end of the day FIFA has to look at the pros and cons for both and the US just has too many pros to Qatar here. I think even though they want to have a World Cup in a region like this its just not going to happen this time around. FIFA will bank more on China hosting in 2026 which will ultimately help the US land the 2022 World Cup.

I already have a feeling today will be fairly slow from me as I am a bit under the weather here. Plus its another rainy day here in Dallas which makes me want to do next to nothing but lay on the couch and watch re-runs of The Office or Community.

But before I go all lazy on the day I did want to go into a thought that was posted yesterday by SI.com writer Grant Wahl on the idea of a combined CONCACAF and CONMEBOL tournament to rival the Euro tournament held every four years.

Wahl believes the money would be there and in a big way if the two federations decided to join forces for a western hemisphere tournament every four years.

I know the idea of this tournament likely will never come to fruition due to FIFA likely not wanting two federations joining up for a tournament like this. But say for a minute they did the possibilities would be pretty sweet.

First of all I hate how the CONCACAF Gold Cup is every two years unlike the rest of the FIFA confederations that host their tournaments every four years. Only the African Nations Cup is every two years like the Gold Cup. The reasons why I don’t like the every two year set up is that the tournament seems to have less meaning than it would if it were every four years. Plus I always feel the Gold Cup isn’t nearly competitive enough being every other year the way it is, typically only the semifinal and finals are worth watching.

Copa America however is every four years and each CONMEBOL team is involved in it. Joining up with CONCACAF wouldn’t be all that difficult to do and it would allow lower CONCACAF and CONMEBOL teams to have to qualify with the big boys for the tournament like teams in Europe are doing now for next year’s Euro 2012.

Obviously there is some difficulties in that with qualifying for the bigger clubs. I do like Wahl’s idea of taking the top six from the most recent Gold Cup and placing them with the 10 CONMEBOL teams for a tournament. You then get competitive games for teams like US and Mexico and it becomes a 16 team tournament similar to the European championships.

Some of the other CONCACAF teams outside of the US and Mexico would also get quality chances against the likes of Brazil and Argentina. If you’re someone like Canada or Honduras when would you be able to get games with those two teams outside of a World Cup? It just doesn’t happen often but in this kind of tournament it would be likely.

What do you think, would this kind of tournament work? Would you rather see the US and Mexico get games with South American teams every four years instead of somewhat meaningless games every other year with smaller CONCACAF teams?

FIFA Inspection Delegation inspects Red Bull Arena.

Yesterday it was all New York (or New Jersey where the games will actually be played). Today it’s Washington D.C. and Miami followed up by a trip to Texas tomorrow in Dallas and Houston. The FIFA folks that our touring the States to check out our little World Cup bid should have little problems getting around and seeing exactly what our bid has to offer.

As we all know its about the stadiums for the most part and do we ever have plenty of good ones too. The bid tour will take them to the new Meadowlands, FedEx Field in D.C., whatever they’re calling Joe Robby these days in Miami, Jerry World in Dallas and Relient in Houston. A small taste of the stadiums the US bid has to offer really. Probably the best sample for the four day trip too as three of the five are very new.

It would have been nice to see the bid committee go to some other venues out west but time doesn’t always allow that.

Funny thing that most of the MLS venues will be used as practice facilities for the World Cup in either 2018 or 2022.

The FIFA tour isn’t anything super noteworthy though even though it rolls through my neck of the woods tomorrow. They will be touring facilities, checking out other things like transportation, hotels and fan-fest locations.

We all know the US could host the World Cup tomorrow if they were asked. Our country is probably the only one that could really host a tournament at the drop of a hat without any notice really. The stadiums are there by the boat full, the airports are pretty solid to handle the busier load of people coming and going and each city that is still in the running to host some games can easily handle the extra amount of people for a month’s time.

Its all a formality really. I’d be shocked if some of these FIFA folks haven’t already been to one or two of these facilities outside of the newest ones like Red Bull Arena (potential training ground) and the Meadowlands Stadium.

Its possible we’ll hear actually news from this later tonight but until then let’s just hope nothing out of the ordinary goes on here for the US bid.

China is no soccer super-power but they sure could be with a World Cup.

While FIFA won’t decide who will host the 2026 World Cup (man that seems forever away doesn’t it?) for a couple years, possibly more than that, one bid for that World Cup could decide the next two.

Simon Kuper, the soccer columnist of the Financial Times gave his leading candidates for the 2018 and 2022 bids today saying China would decide the winner of the 2022 bid, and that would be the US.

China isn’t even bidding for the 2022 World Cup but their interest in the 2026 will do wonders for the US’s chances. China’s expression of interest in bidding in 2026 will definitely trump the bids of the other 2022 Asia nations — Qatar, Australia, South Korea and Japan. At the end of the day the US bid will easily get the nod if that is the case.

So why would China trump those other seemingly decent bids for 2022? Simple, China is a market FIFA would love to cash in on. Just like in the Olympics, once China got more interested in it things got a little more meaningful all around the world. Soccer would be no different as right now China is far from a super power in the sport and are currently the largest untapped resource for FIFA. A World Cup there could certainly help change the tide of things there.

The other Asian nations would hate to see China stick their nose into this here. Japan and Korea look like an outside chance to me at this point while Qatar and Australia seem like pretty decent bids. But once again FIFA won’t go for a back-to-back Asian hosted World Cup.

Honestly I’m surprised we haven’t heard of a Chinese hosted Cup yet but the timing makes sense in a way. I’ve heard rumblings that the country would like to become a power in soccer and if anyone can do it, it would be China believe it or not. At the end of the day a bid for 2026 from China means we get the World Cup in 2022 without a question.

The final is set, Holland and Spain will decide who is the new World Cup champion. (Getty Images)

Sure not having our beloved Americans still in the World Cup hurts but I’m over it. I went from rooting for the US to rooting for teams like Holland and Uruguay. The style of play is a lot different from the US but it was something to get behind. Plus their games seemed to be more entertaining than most in this World Cup.

Yesterday we saw the final become complete with Spain downing Germany 1-0 after a hard-fought battle in Durban. The game wasn’t that great in some respects as Germany sat back and took all that Spain could give them while Spain failed to finish in front of the net yet again.

Now its Spain and Holland. Two counties that have yet to see their name on the World Cup trophy. Two countries that have longed for this chance at greatness.

Honestly I couldn’t be happier with this final.

Sure not having a Brazil or Italy or Germany or Argentina is tough to see but we should be happy to have a new champion for once. Its not often that it happens this way either.

So what do I expect on Sunday? A damn good game for the most part. No doubt the all-European final will be intense, probably as intense as the 2006 final with Italy and France. I have a feeling the Dutch will come out early and try to take it to the Spanish defense while Spain will still get plenty of possession like they always do.

Neither team has been at their absolute best in this tournament but each have found ways to win. The old styles have been thrown out and we’re seeing team football get them this far.

I’m pulling for the Dutch in this one but should Spain win I wouldn’t be too upset. A lot of firsts will happen either way and we should be happy with that.