Overkill, but that’s a good thing!

The US starts World Cup qualifying in June with a two-leg preliminary series against either Barbados (ranked #133) or Dominica (ranked #182).  Should be a formality before the semi-final round of regional qualifying later in the year. 

Still, we need to make sure our team is sharp and has some practice in advance of those games, given the tremendous costs of a hiccup in qualifying.  So the Federation is scheduling some friendlies to get the team warmed up.  What teams will we play?  It’s looking like:

England at Wembley on May 28th.  At Spain on June 4th.  And Argentina on June 8th, perhaps at the Meadowlands.  That would be three of the top 11 teams in FIFA’s rankings (such as they are).  That’s a string of three games — two on the road — with maybe one-third of the countries that can claim with a straight face to be contenders to win the World Cup.  Yeah, I know England just choked out of Euro 2008 qualifying and Spain routinely blows it once it makes it to an international tourney.  Still, that’s a murderer’s row of games.  That should quiet the bigsoccer types who complained about our weak friendlies in advance of the ‘06 Cup, much as I enjoyed a second opportunity to see Latvia play in person.

Yeah, our team might be ready to play mighty Barbados after that trio of games.  If they survive.  I can’t imagine what the Federation will schedule as a warm-up for the final round of qualifying next year.  Maybe Brazil and road games in Italy, Germany, Holland AND an African tour to play Ivory Coast and Ghana?  Yowza.

Oh, Canada

We American fans often complain about US Soccer.  Well, as Pitch Invasion reminds us, we’re light years ahead of our neighbors to the north:

On August 28th Canadian Soccer Association (CSA) president Colin Linford resigned, a decision that brought Canadian supporters back to reality. The CSA is essentially a federation run by volunteers who oversee a $14-million business. When Linford resigned he said a culture of amateurism prevailed and the only way to save the federation was to disband the CSA.

The Globe and Mail provides some historical background:

Once Sharpe was gone, the CSA collapsed into chaos. Internal bickering and Titanic-like intransigence of its board of directors – which includes representatives (and bickering, conflicting agendas) from all the provinces – has left the CSA with no president, no technical director, no CEO, and on the hook for a big (unspecified) settlement to former executive Fred Nykamp, who was lured away from his old job at Basketball Canada, only to be dumped to the curb without serving a single day in office.

Wait, didn’t Canada just host an apparently successful U-20 World Cup?  Yes, yes it did.  But that was after spending years messing around, per the Globe and Mail:

Early in the decade, it was mired in a misguided, impractical plan to launch a new coast-to-coast pro loop, the Canadian United Soccer League. Organizers had significant sponsorship money lined up – but only if they could sign up eight owners and a national television deal. They couldn’t. Turned out most of the energy was funnelled into an “affinity card” scheme, that would essentially direct-market to Canada’s soccer parents, offering modest discounts in exchange for enduring an ongoing advertising blitz.

An affinity card scheme?  Makes you pretty grateful for MLS, such as it is.  No wonder they love Toronto FC so much up there. 

There’s an opportunity for Canada in CONCACAF right now.  They’ve got some good players (hello, DeRosario!)  The US only beat them in last year’s Gold Cup semi-final game on a controversial late goal.  They’ve got a real home field in Toronto for qualifying.  And once you get past Mexico and the US, CONCACAF does not look that tough in the upcoming 2010 World Cup qualifying.  Costa Rica?  Failed to impress in Germany.  Honduras has Suazo, who tore up Serie A last season.  Trinidad & Tobago is aging and torn by in-fighting.  Panama?  Guatemala?

Their semi-final group is, like it was for the ‘06 Cup, a toughie.  Mexico, Jamaica, Honduras.  (Assuming no immense flops in the preliminary round.)  If you assume El Tri go through, it’ll take some good games but the Canucks could get through to the Hex.  And if they can get there, I don’t look forward to the US going to Toronto if the Canadians are still feeling aggrieved over the ‘07 Gold Cup game…

You Don’t Know Jack

The stink of corruption and sleaze has been a constant around FIFA in recent years, with questionable television and sponsorship deals.  Heck, the awarding of the 2006 World Cup to Germany was marked by controversy — hence the need to institute a “rotation” system to make certain that the aggrieved South Africans got the 2010 tourney. 

We Americans have little reason to criticize FIFA since our own region is dominated by a crook and slimebag of the first order, a man named Jack Warner.  Love the underdog Trinidad and Tobago team at the 2006 World Cup?  Warner is a big reason that team has fallen apart in acrimony.  He’s been caught with his hand in the till repeatedly yet skates free because he’s tight with FIFA’s leadership.  Ian Plenderleith does a service reminding us of his misdeeds:

It might also be mentioned that at last year’s Gold Cup, Guadeloupe reached the semi-finals, while T&T, with their best players suspended by the democracy-loving Warner, failed to get out of the group stage. Nonetheless, Warner found the performance “disappointing”, because, he told media, “when you bring back some of the top players [that is, lift their suspensions] you expect them to perform.

“You could talk whatever ‘big bucks’ you want,” he elaborated, “you could talk whatever football organisation you want, whether you are a trade union or not. At the end of the day, you judge how you play on the field.” Meanwhile, “irritants” such as the World Cup bonus issue, due for settlement by arbitration in London next month, were holding the team back.

It all makes sense. The team played badly because they formed a union to try and claim the money they’d been promised, and because they were a little suspicious of the Federation’s claim there was no money left in the World Cup pot after expenses. Then the player’s lawyers revealed that there was $30 million mysteriously missing from the Federation’s financial calculations.

$30 million?  That’s real money in the US — imagine how far that would go in Trinidad.  Wonder how much of it is in Jack’s pocket? 

Hopefully, one of these days “Uncle Phil” Anschutz, with all his billions, will help oust this guy.  We should put our own house in order.  On the field, the US has come a long way in international soccer but, let’s face it, we’re still learning.  But we should be a leader in keeping sports clean — lord knows, we’ve had enough practice.