President Obama and his family watch the Women's World Cup from the White House. (photo via White House flickr)

I know I haven’t done a whole lot of Women’s World Cup talk these last couple weeks (a shame I know) but I thought this was cool photo of President Barack Obama and his family watching the game from the White House.

I know his two girls play soccer but wouldn’t it be something if one of them were apart of the Women’s team someday? Just a thought.

Anyways I may have more after the World Cup is over.

The FIFA Executive Committee will review this new proposal at the end of May.

The new preliminary round will consist of 10 countries, playing for five spots in the first round. Those winners and the first-round entrants will go through a group stage featuring six groups of four teams each. Those six group winners will then be entered into another group stage, this one with three groups of four with the US, Mexico, Costa Rica, Cuba, Honduras, and Jamaica.

The top two teams in each group will advance to the hexagonal phase of the qualifying, or the final round if you will. The normal hexagonal qualifying will be intact, as each team will play each other home and away and the top three will advance to the World Cup in Brazil. The forth place team will go into the playoff round just like before.

If this proposal goes through, the US will play up to two fewer qualifying games than in the last couple of World Cup qualifying cycles.

So basically we’re nearly back to where we were with qualifying before CONCACAF changed it up last fall. I believe most fans wanted to see the hexagonal back in play and it’s probably a good thing to have to deal with playing Mexico and other teams like Costa Rica in qualifying. I’m all for this proposal, are you?

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.

Someone better check Sepp's back pocket after this. (Getty Images)

I had a bad feeling when I woke up this morning. Not only was my head hurting from a sinus infection and my mind spinning from the cold medicine it was the gut feeling something rough was about to go down. Sure enough FIFA announced that Qatar, not the US, would be hosting the 2022 World Cup.

Gutted. Mad. Upset. Angry. Slightly depressed.

You name it we’re all feeling it today.

We wanted the World Cup back here for the first time since the mid-90s. Now we have to wait even longer. Possibly 2026, though it could end up being 2034 or 2038. Ugh.

For now it’s time to move forward and refocus on the future.

For a couple months its been reported that China would be interested in bidding for the 2026 World Cup. If anything today’s vote should give us reason to believe that they have a lesser chance at winning that bid if they do place once. There’s no way on Earth FIFA would have two straight Asian World Cups. They’d only do that in Europe.

I know FIFA would love to go to China, just like they did with Russia and Qatar today. But three World Cups in a row in practically the same region doesn’t make sense to many around the world. But it is FIFA that we’re talking about here. They can change rules on a whim without really telling anyone.

But looking at it all 2026 seems very realistic for the US. Four more extra years to wait for some, but the chance to strengthen the bid with even better stadiums that will pop up by then. Not to mention infrastructure advances and other things that could help the bid out.

I look at today as a disappointment for US Soccer, not a set back. Its very similar to the loss to Ghana this past summer really. At least we didn’t endure what England did in their bidding, they got eliminated in the first round. Ouch.

I’m keeping this reaction short because I don’t want to rip what Qatar could actually do for the game in the world. If everything goes as they plan it could be a wonderful, although hot, World Cup. Maybe once the dust settles on this I’ll go back and really give a more detailed thought about all of this. Until then, I’m just moving on towards 2026.

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 believe most of us saw this coming before long. As FIFA is set to announce who will host the 2018 and 2022 World Cups later this year its been no secret they want a European nation to host the 2018 Cup. The US had been holding strong to the fact that they could host at any given time but today the US Bid committee decided to withdraw their bid for the 2018 Cup and focus solely on the 2022 Cup.

“For some time we have been in conversations with FIFA and UEFA about the possibility of focusing only on the 2022 bidding process, an option we have made reference to many times,” said Sunil Gulati, Chairman of the USA Bid Committee and President of U.S. Soccer. “We are confident this is in the best interests of the USA Bid.”

“We have had an open and constructive dialogue with the USA Bid for some time now, after it became apparent that there was a growing movement to stage the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Europe,” said FIFA Secretary General Jérôme Valcke. “The announcement today by the USA Bid to focus solely on the 2022 FIFA World Cup is therefore a welcome gesture which is much appreciated by FIFA.”

The 2018 Cup is now down to four European candidates: Belgium/Netherlands, England, Russia and Spain/Portugal. The US will still go against Australia, Japan, Korea Republic, and Qatar.

A lot can change between now and December when FIFA votes on this matter but I still believe the 2022 World Cup is all but a given for the US to host now. I really only see Australia and Qatar being the real competition in this bid as FIFA loves expanding to new places like Qatar. Now if China still decides they want to host the World Cup in 2026 then you can bet none of the Asian bids that the US is going against for 2022 will even have a chance to win in December.

Sure Los Angeles doesn’t have a NFL team to fill this potential venue (yet, I always believe someone will move there again) but the designers of this stadium in east LA have one big thing in mind, the World Cup.

Not to shabby looking either if you ask me.

The LA Galaxy owners AEG Majestic Realty Co. are the ones planning to build this stadium to lure a NFL team and the World Cup. I wouldn’t be shocked to hear that this venue could be used for some big Galaxy games down the road or even a MLS Cup too.

Check out the full AP article for more.

When doesn’t a Morgan Freeman voiceover for a video not work? Seriously. Solid video by the US World Cup bid folks. (Tip of the hat to SF for getting this up)

PS. Sign the petition if you haven’t already mmkay?