while they are at it, need to expand the gold cup as well and invite more and better teams - asian and african can play very well......
It is, but Ecuador has begged off, it sounds due to the financial costs of troubles of hosting. Heard Peru was interested, Brazil hosted two in a row apparently in part due to difficulties as well. It may just be a thing where at this point, hosting is difficult for nations, and unless its a shared thing, there simply won't be as many Copa America's rotated consistently country to country like it used to be. I would much prefer to play in Argentina, or Brazil or Colombia, but I think South America wants a money bath, and I'm betting they don't mind the idea of having the bulk of their competitive teams have a chance to play in the US and get comfortable in a major tournament there two years from the big kahuna. Would give them an advantage in figuring out how and where to set up camp if they qualify. I would much prefer we play more consequential road games as well but people want our $$$$, and we simply can't get competitive games in Europe even if we wanted them (other than maybe playing them in friendlies as tuneups for their euro's and our copa america in '24, there are not going to be a lot of opportunities for valuable road games, and we should all know already, road friendlies are ----, and impossible to interpret in terms of value. I very much prefer us playing road friendlies in Europe and South America, rather than us playing concacrap sides at home, but w/NL, it is harder and harder to accomplish this goal. Lets hope we can figure out a way to do what Sarachan and the Fed did in '18 after we failed to qualify and book a quartet of great opponents before NL kicks off again in Europe, and Euro Qualifying and it becomes nearly impossible to book anything. The only relevant dates I have so far are June being set aside for the Nations League Final, and March '24 set aside for relegation matches before they set up the next round of this bullsh--. So basically, maybe we can figure out UEFA friendlies within that summer '23 window, that's what I'd go after, and whatever other open dates are available, we'll get more info about UEFA Qualification for WC '26 next month according to the latest news. We should work around that, and book what we can w/South American teams since Copa America qualification is automatic unlike the Euro's. So when UEFA gets into that, we should look at flying to Japan, South Korea, maybe bringing over teams from CAF (we have drawn CAF or AFC teams every single cycle since what 1998?). Let's see: 1998: Iran-AFC 2002: South Korea-AFC 2006: Ghana-CAF 2010: Algeria-CAF 2014: Ghana-CAF 2022; Iran-AFC Just based on that historical pattern odds are we'll grab an AFC or CAF side. Pretty odd that we NEVER seem to draw Conmebol sides, period in the group stage. As a host in '26, and w/o the set up explained yet, we'll just be unsure what to expect. For me, best teams to try to troll around for: Japan South Korea Morocco Tunisia Ghana Nigeria Senegal Algeria Ivory Coast Any Conmebol or top or second tier UEFA or Conmebol side. We can do roadies for Europe, but I imagine the rest of the matchups likely would be at home. No chance were flying to Africa for a roadie in my view, or South America probably (I can't remember it ever happening).
Any other cycle I would agree, but 2026 is at home. Playing a tournament with American summer weather, travel distances and home fans is actually better prep for the World Cup than a road environment. What we need is quality competition and traveling fans that care, not an actual road environment. If we are going to have 2 Gold Cups every cycle, I think it makes sense to have one pure CONCACAF Gold Cup and one expanded one. The CONCACAF one can ensure there is a regional champion. The expanded one can be a better World Cup primer by having deeper quality competition the year before the World Cup. If we can swing it with FIFA, I would say it’s the way to go. Of course I also wouldn’t mind more regular consistent competition with CONMEBOL. Stuff like combining our nations leagues, or having an every four years combined Copa. I get that there are people that don’t want to combine the confederations, but a consistent hybrid relationship I think would be symbiotic competitively and financially.
It's roadies. We never go on the road and there is a contingent of fans around here that thinks that's part of the core problem, and our ghastly away record up until the World Cup would suggest it might be. The problem, especially w/Concacrap is that other than Freezing qualifiers, Gold Cup hosting gigs for us usually put games in at best, neutral to only slightly us advantage games. We have an absolute ton of road concacaf fans who live in America and tend to fill up stadiums when we play in major cities, particularly on the coasts, or in the South/Texas/Southwest/Southern California. Of all the home field advantages in the world, when we host in our best venues, we probably have the worst, bar none. Mexico, in most major cities, has no problem filling our newest and best giant stadiums. Our home field advantage only tends to work when we're playing in the midwest and particularly in winter. Other than that, it can often feel almost neutral. But yeah, I get the argument, we need road experience, but it doesn't work as well for this cycle since we'll be playing at home anyway.
There's a battle tested camaraderie and trust developed playing on the road I think our guys would benefit from. And essentially, a higher ceiling the group can collectively reach playing tough games on the road. Aside from hosting the Copa in '24 being in the same country as the WC we're hosting. Yeah money for the Fed is good. I also believe in general competitive spirit and rotating host countries. At a minimum cycle the GC and NL with Mex and Canada.
Same will happen here. The greenbacks are the only convincing that FIFA requires. I'm happy to have a local tournament. I'll attend some games. Hopefully some west coast love finally.
Didn't Qatar play friendlies against European teams during the Euro qualifiers for the odd-shaped groups? Maybe we can do that same.
Yeah but that’s because Qatar threw money around in a way we never would. They also got into the Gold Cup and Copa America that way. Why do you think every competition is now sponsored by Qatar Airways?
Yes. This article gets into some of it https://www.si.com/soccer/2021/07/28/qatar-gold-cup-usmnt-concacaf-world-cup-2022
It's because half of them aren't formidable opponents if we're playing at home. We get a 1-seed and are playing Panama, Venezuela, & Chile for a chance to square off against Paraguay; what is that really telling us to make lineup/roster projections for 2026? We'd face significantly sterner but still reasonable tests playing on a neutral field as a 2 or 3 seed against Uruguay, Ecuador, Jamaica; for a chance to meet Colombia or whatever it'd be. We'd learn a lot more, while still not setting us up for inevitable failure. I prefer that then.
I wouldn’t mind the first Gold Cup in the cycle being purely CONCACAF and the second one being open. Probably should rename it then, though.
maybe USA should take care to grow the football in CONCACAF confederation, for carribean and central american teams, not to host a South American competition
Reason I say I'd rather not be at home is to increase the difficulty level. I get that the cup is at home, but I don't think we need to get used to that, we play a ton of home games already. Anything that makes the prep a bit tricky would be a positive to me. I get it is less an issue with the Cup at home, but I think to get the players used to some adversity is a good thing so even with a home cup I would prefer they play the Copa away. Logistically I understand the US is one of the few places that can ramp up quickly to host so it makes sense and hosting versus skipping it is certainly better.
Except the only real reason CONMEBOL would want us is for the money. And that's the reason they want us to host. Same reason the Gold Cup is always held in the US even though we all know there are other nations in CONCACAF that can host it.
Why should US Soccer put any priority on helping grow Caribbean and Central American teams? No interest in that, sorry.
No other nation is guaranteed to provide neutral or home environments to most participants. Mexico will be the closest thing to a real home team with open ticketing.
I mean, the US already helps the growth a lot -- via the same mechanism we've been discussing all along, i.e. $$$. World Cup hosting? $$$ for CONCACAF. Gold Cups? $$$ for CONCACAF. A Copa America in the US? You'd better freaking believe that's $$$ for CONCACAF.
Oh that's crazy talk, stronger soccer in the rest of CONCACAF is a virtuous cycle for everybody, both on the club and national team side. The powers that be in the US soccer community should absolutely be thinking in continental terms. The US should be thinking in those terms beyond just soccer and sports too, but I digress.
Yeah -- make Gold Cup invites for the WC host a permanent thing. That doesn't really apply this cycle, but still.
I mean we already play the Gold Cup every other year, and now constantly in the Nation's league. Our next official match is a trip to play world power Grenada.
Even as a 1 seed, we could just as easily get something like the group we actually got in 2016 - Colombia, Costa Rica, Paraguay - which is a pretty tough group. Then play Brazil or Argentina in the quarters.