USMNT World Cup Qualifying

default_28 said:
We have more talent than we’ve ever had. Guys like Pulisic, McKinnie, Reyna and Dest that play for some of the biggest clubs in the world. Ten years ago we only had goalies playing meaningful minutes in Europe, now we have guys in England, Germany and Spain and young guys coming up in Portugal and Holland. That said, we don’t have elite CBs or Striker yet, so it’s hard to say how far this team can go. But the World Cup is still eight months away or whatever so a lot can change. But definitely getting better.
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The leadership of Berhalter has been good so far, and it's interesting how much MLS experience he's willing to lean on too (read: I don't think it's a bad thing like some pundits believe). 

And teams like Costa Rica are like Texass--if they can't beat you on the field straight up, they'll beat you with politics and in the backroom to weaken you so they can beat you on the field. I wouldn't be shocked if we have one or more players have a problem getting through to play at Costa Rica, if for nothing else, as a nice f*** you for the whole cold weather ordeal. 

Having said that...it would take a colossal collapse to finish outside the top 3. But the USMNT has come up with bigger failures before...so...here's hoping they don't disappoint. 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 
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default_28 said:
We have more talent than we’ve ever had. Guys like Pulisic, McKinnie, Reyna and Dest that play for some of the biggest clubs in the world. Ten years ago we only had goalies playing meaningful minutes in Europe, now we have guys in England, Germany and Spain and young guys coming up in Portugal and Holland. That said, we don’t have elite CBs or Striker yet, so it’s hard to say how far this team can go. But the World Cup is still eight months away or whatever so a lot can change. But definitely getting better.
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Thank you for the post.

 
BigRedBuster said:
Ok, so now over summer there’s a CONCACAF league not related to the World Cup, but, the USMNT will get more preparation for the WC. 
 

Have I mentioned I’m a total novice to soccer?
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To draw a bad comparison to college athletics, think of CONCACAF as a conference, like the SEC.   The top three teams at the end of the regular season qualify for the playoffs (World Cup).  This second drawing is more for the CONCACAF tournament, there is no seeding, but within CONCACAF there are 3 tiers (think Divisions based on how good you are) (12 teams in the top and 16 in the middle and 13 in the bottom tier) and based on how you do in this tournament, you can move up or down tiers and qualify you for other tournaments being held.  This is done to make the competition a little bit more fair for this tournament.

 
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sho said:
To draw a bad comparison to college athletics, think of CONCACAF as a conference, like the SEC.   The top three teams at the end of the regular season qualify for the playoffs (World Cup).  This second drawing is more for the CONCACAF tournament, there is no seeding, but within CONCACAF there are 3 tiers (think Divisions based on how good you are) (12 teams in the top and 16 in the middle and 13 in the bottom tier) and based on how you do in this tournament, you can move up or down tiers and qualify you for other tournaments being held.  This is done to make the competition a little bit more fair for this tournament.
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So, this has nothing to do with the WC this year because that's already been set.

 
BigRedBuster said:
It’s crazy to me that they qualify for something that isn’t going to be played for 8 months.  
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I think the World Cup was going to initially held during the historical summer months, when the qualifying window started in March 2021.  But, after determining it would be too dang hot in Qatar, the tournament was moved to Nov/Dec 2022 (which was announced in Nov 2021).  So, the qualifying tournaments had already started when they pushed the World Cup back, thus creating the extra time between qualifying and the actual tournament.

 
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