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And So It Begins

18
Vote

by Pittsburgh Gunny

The long road to South Africa 2010 begins for the United States early in 2008. Over this past weekend in Durban, South Africa FIFA held the preliminary draw for the 2010 Wold Cup. What I will attempt to do is to explain how the qualifying will work. The ultimate goal is of course to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, for the CONCACAF Region there are 3.5 spots available.

The preliminary round will pit the nonseeded caribbean teams in a home and home series with the winner being determined by aggragate goals. The winners of these prelim matches then advance to the second round where the seeded countries were drawn. The second round winner is also a home and home series with aggragate goals being the determining factor to see who advances to the semi-final round.

Group 1A Flag of Dominica Dominica v Flag of BarbadosBarbados, winner will play Flag of the United States United States

Group 1B Template:Country data TurksCaicos Turks & Caicos v Template:Country data StLuciaSt. Lucia, winner will play Flag of GuatemalaGuatemala

Group 1C Flag of BermudaBermuda v Template:Country data CaymanIslandsCayman Islands, winner will play Template:Country data TrinidadandTobagoTrinidad & Tobago

Group 1D Flag of ArubaAruba v Template:Country data AntiguaAntigua and Barbuda, winner will play Flag of CubaCuba

Group 2A Flag of BelizeBelize v Template:Country data StKittsSt. Kitts & Nevis, winner will play Flag of MexicoMexico

Group 2B Flag of the BahamasBahamas v Template:Country data BVI British Virgin Islands, winner will play Flag of JamaicaJamaica

Group 2C Template:Country data DominicanRepublicDominican Republic v Template:Country data PuertoRicoPuerto Rico, winner will play Flag of HondurasHonduras

Group 2D No prelim matches, second round is Flag of Canada Canada v Template:Country data StVincentSt. Vincent and the Grenadines

Group 3A Template:Country data USVI US Virgin Islands v Flag of GrenadaGrenada, winner will play Template:Country data CostaRicaCosta Rica

Group 3B Flag of SurinameSuriname v Flag of MontserratMontserrat, winner will play Flag of GuyanaGuyana

Group 3C Template:Country data ElSalvadorEl Salvador v Flag of AnguillaAnguilla, winner will play Flag of PanamaPanama

Group 3D Flag of NicaraguaNicaragua v Template:Country data NetherlandsAntillesNetherlands Antilles, winner will play Flag of HaitiHaiti

The semi-final round is made up of 3 four team groups. So if everything goes according to hoyle then the USA will more than likely face Guatamala, Trinidad & Tobago and Cuba in this round. The top two teams for each group in the semi-final round advance then to the final round. The final round is a 6 team group with each team playing each other home and away. The final round is also referred to as the Hexagonal, since there are 6 teams in the group. The top three finishers in the final round automatically qualify for the big tournament in South Africa with the fourth place team entering into a home and home playoff with a South American team for a spot in the World Cup.

So there you have it, the long road ahead for the USMNT, let's go boys and here's hoping that the United States qualifies for its' sixth consecutive World Cup Finals.


Enable Comment Auto-Refresher
RawbeezeitzMajor Leaguer
731 days ago
Score 4+-
World Cup qualifying always makes me glad we're in CONCACEF.
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ChachiOSUDraft Pick
731 days ago
Score 3+-
I always feel like CONCACAF is like if they let the Red Sox or Yankees play Triple A ball for a year.
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BigPPupMajor Leaguer
731 days ago
Score 0+-
I feel a lot better about qualifying after seeing this.
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LASportsblogAAA-er
731 days ago
Score 3+-
CONCACAF is a blessing and a curse to the US, Mexico and in the last 12 years Costa Rica. It is fairly easy to get through the qualifying stages from a talent stand point, although some of those road games are the toughest environments to play in the world. (For those of you unaware, we aren't a very popular nation in Guatamala, Nicaragua and Cuba and the atmospheres in Costa Rica, Panama and naturally Mexico and Canada make it no cake walk to collect points.) The negative lies in spending 2 years playing the Honduras' and Haitis of the world, then schedule cup cakes on the road to the World Cup after we qualify, only to play the Italys and Frances of the world at the Cup. Hopefully CONCACAF will pose a greater challenge to qualify through with the emergence of Canada and T&T in the region, also look out for dark horse Panama to fight for the 4th possible spot.
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NejoshiDiv-I Stud
731 days ago
Score 1+-
Great points, unfortunately it's the region we live in. Teams around us haven't been getting much better for years, and it's hard to see any of these teams getting better in the future. Traditionally, it's been an every other World Cup deal with USA. 94 and 02 were memorable World Cups, while 98 and 06 were disasters. Those disasters were played in Europe. The US has done good in other venues, and with 2010 in South Africa, things are looking optimistic, especially with a ton of talented youngsters.
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LASportsblogAAA-er
731 days ago
Score 1+-
also good points, I agree we can only play who is in front of us, but in the World Cup lead ups we can schedule better then Latvia and Haiti and teams like that. Why can't we schedule Columbia, Nigeria and Portugal pre-World Cup? That would prepare the squad much better. Oh, and let's continue the recent trend of going on the road to play friendlys against strong competition instead of staying at home and playing Mexico and Canada all year.
Permalink
ThecrookedcapAll-Star
731 days ago
Score 1+-
My thoughts:
  1. US will play Cuba if all things go to fruition in what has been a very politically interesting draw, matching up Czech Republic and Slovakia, Turkey and Armenia, and foremost of all South & North Korea.
  2. Guatemala is a difficult team to play because they play an incredibly rough if not dirty style of play. I don't think we'll have trouble, but hopefully everyone leaves the game injury free.
  3. Group B is by far the best group. Canada and Honduras both played well in the Gold Cup, and unfortunately one will not make the Hexagonal. Meanwhile, Costa Rica gets an easy draw which they desperately need.
Permalink | Reply
MattWellsJV Squad
729 days ago
Score 0+-
Wait, I don't really follow the whole US - Cuba thing that closely but aren't you lot not supposed to be going there? What's George gonna do with that one then - force the team to lose the game by default? Surely FIFA wouldn't pick a neutral venue just because your government happen to be paranoid idiots??
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ThecrookedcapAll-Star
731 days ago
Score 1+-
Rule change suggestion for 2C: if the playoff ends with a victor, scrap penalty kicks for a home run derby.
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LASportsblogAAA-er
731 days ago
Score 1+-
agreed
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Manny StilesMajor Leaguer
731 days ago
Score 1+-
Why does Puerto Rico have it's own team? (And to a lesser extent US Virgin Islands.) Those players should play for the U.S.!!! They can fight a war with us, but they can't play soccer with us?
Permalink | Reply
LASportsblogAAA-er
731 days ago
Score 2+-
If a Tim Duncan of soccer shows up on one of th islands you can bet your ass he'll show up in a US jersey. The rest deserve to get some international games to reprsent their island.
Permalink
ThecrookedcapAll-Star
730 days ago
Score 1+-
Any good players these countries produce would be play for the US. However, both nations suck so it's not an issue. Puerto Rico has produced one good player, the recently retired Chris Armas, who did play for the US national team.
Permalink
RawbeezeitzMajor Leaguer
730 days ago
Score 2+-
It's like Great Britain being divided into England, Wales, Scotland, and N. Ireland.
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The PipDiv-I Stud
730 days ago
Score 2+-
Thank you for explaining this!!!! I wish I could vote twice! (or 5 times like DWTS!)
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Pittsburgh GunnyMajor Leaguer
730 days ago
Score 1+-
You're welcome, glad to be of service.
Permalink
JgiuffraDiv-I Stud
730 days ago
Score 0+-
England get a second shot at croatia in the european qualifiers. That will be interesting.
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MattWellsJV Squad
729 days ago
Score 1+-
Not really, we'll probably just get beat twice again! :)
Permalink
JgiuffraDiv-I Stud
729 days ago
Score 0+-
England can always hope. The draw could have been a lot worse. Maybe with Mourinho at the helm the'll be some belief in the side.
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