USMNT - World Cup qualifying - The Hexagonal

[shagcarpetjesus]

Updated Hex standings...

Team v t e ​ Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Costa Rica 4 2 1 1 5 3 +2 7 United States 4 2 1 1 4 3 +1 7 Mexico 5 1 4 0 3 2 +1 7 Panama 4 1 3 0 5 3 +2 6 Honduras 4 1 1 2 4 6 −2 4 Jamaica 5 0 2 3 2 6 −4 2

Mexico and Jamaica have played 1 more match than the other 4 Hexagonal participants. The US has to feel pretty good about where it stands considering they've played 3 out of their first 4 matches outside of the US. Now they need to start taking care of business at home. First up, Panama in Seattle on Tuesday night. The match will be broadcast on ESPN at 8:30 central I believe.

 

[shagcarpetjesus]

Taking care of business.... Team v t e ​ Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts United States 5 3 1 1 6 3 +3 10 Costa Rica 5 2 2 1 5 3 +2 8 Mexico 6 1 5 0 3 2 +1 8 Honduras 5 2 1 2 6 6 0 7 Panama 5 1 3 1 5 5 0 6 Jamaica 6 0 2 4 2 8 −6 2

 

[Diggame]

Wow!! Mexico can't get a win for nothing tripped out how they playing in the Con Fed cup too coming up especially with their goal scoring issues right now

 

[shagcarpetjesus]

The crazy thing with Mexico is not only are they not winning matches, but they're not even scoring goals. That's 3 matches now that they have played in Estadio Azteca and they have yet to score in those games.

 

[NATEizKING]

Might as well call it the Pentagonal now, better luck for next cup Jamaica.

 

[shagcarpetjesus]

A question for those who are more familiar with the WC drawing process. Does finishing first in your Federation's qualifying benefit your squad when they draw the World Cup groups?

 

[ianoconnor]

Pretty sure it's a random draw, as qualifying in a confederation like UEFA is much more difficult than some others. So you couldn't really rank them by finish. I'm not certain, though. That's just my guess.

 

[jmb]

Pretty sure it's a random draw, as qualifying in a confederation like UEFA is much more difficult than some others. So you couldn't really rank them by finish. I'm not certain, though. That's just my guess.

Last world cup had 32 teams seperated as top 7 + host team in a bucket.
Remaining three buckets random not ranked based upon past performance then draw out of each bucket 1-1 for each bracket. i..e draw from bucket 1(ranked and hosts), then bucket 2(random), then bucket 3(randome), then bucket 4(random).
Can't remember if they have announced how draw will be done for Brazil as of yet.

 

[klamath632]

Funny how there always seems to be a Group of Death.

 

[ianoconnor]

Yep, just saw that as I was Googling how it works. They try their best to separate teams from the same confederation.

 

[ianoconnor]

Here's a very informative article I found on the 2010 draw process:
World Cup Draw Seeding Pots: The Possible Setup - Goal.com

 

[shagcarpetjesus]

Team v t e ​ Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts United States 6 4 1 1 7 3 +4 13 Costa Rica 6 3 2 1 7 3 +4 11 Mexico 6 1 5 0 3 2 +1 8 Honduras 6 2 1 3 6 7 −1 7 Panama 6 1 3 2 5 7 −2 6 Jamaica 6 0 2 4 2 8 −6 2

It's really starting to look like...

[video=youtube;MpWgVJJ7Cdo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpWgVJJ7Cdo[/video]

The battle for that 3rd automatic qualifying position could get interesting. Here's what's left for everybody in the Hex:

Sept 6.

US @ Costa Rica
Honduras @ Mexico
Jamaica @ Panama

Sept. 10

Mexico @ US
Panama @ Honduras
Costa Rica @ Jamaica

Oct. 11

Jamaica @ US
Costa Rica @ Honduras
Panama @ Mexico

Oct. 15

US @ Panama
Mexico @ Costa Rica
Honduras @ Jamaica

 

[shagcarpetjesus]

The word is John Anthony Brooks will be joining the US squad for the upcoming friendly in Bosnia next Wednesday.

Dempsey left off U.S. national squad for Bosnia friendly - Soccer - Grant Wahl - SI.com

It's a friendly, so even if he sees the pitch he won't be cap-tied. But, it's still nice to see a very talented Germerican get his first involvement with the US senior side. No Dempsey for this match which isn't all that surprising.

In other news, Alejandro Bedoya signed a 3-year deal with Nantes. Nantes earned promotion up to Ligue 1 last season so this is a big move up for Bedoya from Sweden. Hopefully, Nantes can stay up.

 

[MrOtter]

The word is John Anthony Brooks will be joining the US squad for the upcoming friendly in Bosnia next Wednesday.

Dempsey left off U.S. national squad for Bosnia friendly - Soccer - Grant Wahl - SI.com

It's a friendly, so even if he sees the pitch he won't be cap-tied. But, it's still nice to see a very talented Germerican get his first involvement with the US senior side. No Dempsey for this match which isn't all that surprising.

In other news, Alejandro Bedoya signed a 3-year deal with Nantes. Nantes earned promotion up to Ligue 1 last season so this is a big move up for Bedoya from Sweden. Hopefully, Nantes can stay up.

I think the bigger news with Brooks is he turned down an invite to play with the U-21 German team in order to come in for the friendly. That's gotta mean he is planning on a future with the US, right?

Agreed it's big news for Bedoya as well. I think his gold cup performance really helped him, hopefully he can make an impact at Nantes and keep improving, I think he still has tons of room to get better.

 

[shagcarpetjesus]

The roster for the next pair of qualifiers is out. I'm on my phone at lunch so I'm not going to post the full roster here, but there are some interesting names on the squad. Landon, John Brooks, Mix, and Aron Johannsson are all getting called in. I'm interested to see if Brooks will be available because it sounds he left Hertha Berlin's last Bundesliga match with an injury.

 

[klamath632]

Galaxy's Donovan, Gonzalez called up for World Cup qualifiers - latimes.com

The full roster, with players' current teams:
Goalkeepers -- Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Tim Howard (Everton), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)
Defenders -- DaMarcus Beasley (Puebla), Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City) John Brooks (Hertha Berlin), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City), Edgar Castillo (Club Tijuana), Brad Evans (Seattle Sounders FC), Omar Gonzalez (Galaxy), Michael Orozco (Puebla)
Midfielders -- Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Alejandro Bedoya (Nantes), Michael Bradley (Roma), Mix Diskerud (Rosenborg), Fabian Johnson (Hoffenheim), Jermaine Jones (Schalke), Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City)
Forward -- Jozy Altidore (Sunderland), Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders FC), Landon Donovan (Galaxy), Aron Johannsson (AZ Alkmaar), Eddie Johnson (Seattle Sounders FC)

 

[shagcarpetjesus]

JK really seems to favor the 4-2-3-1, but does anybody think we'll ever see something like a 4-1-3-2 where Johannsson replaces Herr Jones and goes up top with Jozy?

 

[pulse]

Yeah, I like our chances... Altidore, Dempsey, Donovan boom. This is what I've been waiting to see, our best players out there at the same time. From the little we saw of him in the last match, Johansson has a good chance to shine playing with those guys.

FORWARDS (5): Jozy Altidore (Sunderland), Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders FC), Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy), Aron Johannsson (AZ Alkmaar), Eddie Johnson (Seattle Sounders FC)

 

[pulse]

JK really seems to favor the 4-2-3-1, but does anybody think we'll ever see something like a 4-1-3-2 where Johannsson replaces Herr Jones and goes up top with Jozy?

Doubtful. If we had upcoming games against lesser competition maybe. JK likes to mix it up though, I look forward to what he comes up with. Maybe he'd try a a 4-1-2-1-2 with Jozy and Johannsson. We've racked up goals when we've played it lately, although not against WC competition.

 

[MrOtter]

Man that's a good looking roster. Although the attacking (Jozy, Duece, Donovan) is impressive the biggest thing I noticed was how good I feel about our central D compared to not long ago when I couldn't fathom not have Boca back there. I'm sure they'll have growing pains but any combination of Cameron, Besler, Gonzo, Brooks, or even The Fiscal could end up starting in the world cup and I'd be okay with it. (For the record I'm crossing my fingers that Brooks develops fast enough and it's him and Besler and Cameron moves permanently to the 'Jones' position)