USMNT World Cup Qualifying Semifinals foes finalized

The USMNT now know all three opponents it will face in the semifinals of 2018 World Cup Qualifying. Guatemala and St. Vincent & The Grenadines now join the U.S. and Trinidad & Tobago in Group C. The teams will play a home and away match against each opponent, totaling six matches, and the top two teams will advance to the final round of qualifying.

Matches begin November 13 and will end on Sept. 6, 2016. The USMNT opens the campaign with a home match against St. Vincent & The Grenadines at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

The last time the USMNT did not reach the final round of World Cup qualifying was 1986, which is also the last time the USMNT did not qualify for a World Cup final.

U.S. U-23s draw Panama, Cuba, Canada for Olympic qualifying tournament

The draw for the CONCACAF Men's Olympic Qualifying 2015 took place on Tuesday, August 18. This determined the two groups for the tournament to be held October 1-13. For the United States, this laid out the path to qualifying for the Olympics after missing out in 2012.

Only eight teams qualified for the tournament. As usual, CONCACAF gives the three North American teams a pass. Cuba and Haiti qualified through the Caribbean Football Union's tournament. Panama and Honduras were the two teams from Central American who qualified through that region's qualification by virtue of winning their groups. Guatemala and Costa Rica will play a playoff match as the runners-up of their groups to be the final team in the tournament.

Team USA (I use this because they're playing in the Olympics) drew Panama, Cuba and Canada in Group A. Below is their schedule:

Thursday, October 1: USA v. Canada, 6:30 p.m. ET, Sporting Park, Kansas City, Kan.
Saturday, October 3: Cuba v. USA, 5:00 p.m. ET, Sporting Park, Kansas City, Kan.
Tuesday, October 6: USA v. Panama, 8:30 p.m. ET, Dick's Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, Colo.

The semifinal, third place and final matches will be played at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah. The top two teams in each group advance to the knockout round, with the two finalists automatically qualifying for the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.  The third place winner will play a playoff match with a CONMEBOL team.

Remember, this is a U-23 roster. Expect to see a lot of guys from the U-20 World Cup as well as some full national team mainstays, though it does fall around the time of the Confederations Cup playoff match.

CONCACAF Confederations Cup Playoff date moved to Oct. 10

The playoff match for CONCACAF's spot in the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup in Russia has been moved to October 10, according to U.S. Soccer's Twitter feed. The time has also been set for 6:30 p.m. PT--9:30 ET--and the location is the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena, Calif. (already known). The USA and Mexico are facing each other s the winners of the last two Gold Cups (read: because CONCACAF decided that they wanted more money).

Credit U.S. Soccer

This slightly upsets me because I'll be in Morgantown for WVU's Homecoming game against Oklahoma State, which will most likely be a 3:30 p.m. kickoff, meaning I'll be doing other things that day. I'll have to make sure to watch it with The Liberty Forum or American Outlaws-Morgantown while I'm in up in West Virginia.

Y'all make plans accordingly.

LEAKED: New US Soccer logo for 2016 (and beyond?)

It is no secret that the United States Soccer Federation has an atrocious logo. It was first used in 1994 and perfectly described soccer in the U.S. at that time--cartoonish. When I heard the USSF and Nike re-vamped the logo in 2014 before the World Cup, I became cautiously optimistic. Then I saw the updated logo and vomited.

Now, there is a leaked version of the logo floating around the Internet that is, at the same time, different, the same and decent.

From FootyHeadlines.com

The good thing here is that we have a clean, simple, American crest/logo/emblem by which we can identify our national soccer teams. The bad thing is that it still looks super duper American soccer.

The shield itself is a definite improvement. It has clean, shaped lines that give the crest a modern feel. In graphic design, I always ascribe to the KISS method, which is "Keep it Simple and Sincere." I think the new shape does that. However, in my opinion, there is a bit too much white in the actual logo. I'm losing it on a white shirt.

Thankfully, the USSF and Nike went to RED stripes in the logo. Why did we have blue stripes in our old logo? How is that American? Our flag has 13 RED and white stripes. Red. The stripes should be red and now they are. Also, there are 13 stripes, so that's also like our flag, whereas the old logo had 11. The stripes are the biggest improvement in this logo.

Most national soccer teams use the country's football federation as the letters that emblazon their crests. The USSF has no plans to do that with this logo. An edgy "USA" in navy letters sits atop the stripes. This font and its positioning makes me think of USA Basketball, which I guess isn't a bad thing at all considering it's kind of our thing. However, I do think we have to remember the point of this is to be the crest of the soccer association/federation of the country. I don't think this (or the previous crest) did that well.

From FootyHeadlines.com

Two obvious omissions from the old logo are the shooting ball and the star. Most U.S. soccer fans refer to this ball as the "clip art" ball, which any Microsoft Office user can agree with. But without the soccer ball, how will anyone know that his is for soccer?? I do believe this is a valid question, because in America, us Americans don't really know what soccer is yet. But I think, ya know, seeing it on a soccer jersey will help.

What I do miss is the stars. The USA is full of stars, from our flag to our celebrities. I'm sad there are no stars on this crest. However, maybe the USMNT could earn them? Interesting thought. The USWNT has three stars above the crest (which I'm anxious to see how they look above this), which was the same amount the old logo had.

Overall, I think this is a definite upgrade for the U.S. Soccer Federation and our national soccer teams. It's cleaner, less cartoonish, and definitely modernized. Supposedly, we will see the new crests in 2016 at the Centennial Copa America, hosted by the U.S.

Also relevant, USSF and Nike extended their partnership until 2022, so let's hope Nike stops giving the U.S. national soccer teams the Oregon treatment and picks a home and away kit that makes sense.

It's important to remember that this is all speculation at this point, but "leaks" are often very correct. What are your thoughts?

UPDATE

It has been rumored (on BigSoccer's forums) that this could be the crest used for the Olympics, because teams apparently cannot use the federation's logo on their uniforms. I don't know how valid that claim is, so I'll investigate further this weekend. So it looks like this is the new look for the USMNT going forward

Spurs lose to MLS All-Stars, Bart is happy

Photo credit: Major League Soccer

Full disclosure: I hate Tottenham Hotspur. I'm an Arsenal fan and have been ever since I began watching soccer. So this MLS All-Star Game was one I actually wanted to watch because usually, the MLS-ers can put a European team in preseason mode to bed.

And that happened in the 2015 MLS All-Star Game at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo. The site of "La Guerra Fria" was a beautiful site on Wednesday. Truly stunning photos were circulating around Twitter and the celebration of MLS' 20th season was also wonderful.

The actual match, however, was a little underwhelming.

First off, Spurs are not a "big name" club. They aren't Bayern Munich, Manchester United or Chelsea. Heck, they aren't even Celtic in name recognition, but they're a decent European side with a name people recognize, thanks in part to Jason Sudeikis' wonderful EPL promos on NBC. Seriously, go watch Ted Lasso.

Starting for the MLS All-Stars were basically everyone who actually meant anything to MLS or the USMNT this season. In goal was Nick Rimando, the best GK in the league. Three USMNT-ers were in the back; Damarcus Beasley played leftback and Matt Besler and Omar Gonzalez paired at centerback. In the midfield, Gyasi Zardes and Graham Zusi played on the wings and up top we saw Clint Dempsey.

From the start, it was the USMNT players I cared about. Sure, it's cool to see Kaka and David Villa play together, but we know they're pretty much awesome. I want to see how the U.S. players can play together, seeing as we're about to start the qualifying process for the 2018 FIFA World Cup and all.

The first goal was because Tottenham didn't realize touching the ball with your hand/arm while jumping is illegal. A corner kick hit Nacer Chadli n the hand and Kaka calmly converted the penalty (Hey, USMNT players, learn from him.)

After that, Tottenham woke up. Harry Kane the best goalscorer from the 2014-2015 ELP campaign said he got "unlucky" in minute 22 when his volley didn't find the back of the net. Well, what he didn't realize that that American goalkeepers are actually quite good and excel at those saves.

The second MLS goal was actually beautiful and involved beauty from U.S. players. Gyasi Zardes actually controlled a long outlet to him on the left wing. After, he cooly zipped the ball across the top of the box to Dempsey, who dummied (or slightly flicked) the ball to Kaka who was charging like a bull at a red cape. His cross was hit so hard into the box that Villa didn't actually make any effort to score other than stick his leg out. It went into the net for a 2-0 MLS lead by minute 23.

Finally, Kane found the net. Besler, who was less than impressive on the night, slipped on his way to intercept a pass, leaving Gonzalez alone to deal with Kane. To his credit, Omar did what he was supposed to do, pushing Kane to the to corner of the box. Unfortunately, he is that good and he found the opposite corner, past a diving Rimando.

To start the second half, MLS switched all its players and formation (to a 4-5-1). Tottenham also subbed several players. This killed the game a bit, but the MLS did have some good chances. The highlight of the second half, howeer, was the appearance of Deandre Yedlin.

I'm not really sure if he did a whole lot or FOX announcers just said his name a lot, but no goals were scored in the second half, so it was all an academic exercise.

Overall, the USMNT players did well. I was disappointed to see Besler not play as well, but I did think his pairing with Gonzalez was strong. They were mostly organized, even if Besler's athletic deficiencies were noticeable.

Gyasi Zardes looked impressive, but I believe a lot of people would look good when they receive a pass from Kaka or David Villa. Dempsey was aight. Beasley actually was pretty good and fun to watch. The leftback provides a lot of stability defensively, but still has something in his legs going forward.

Benny Feilhaber came on to start the second half and he was not as impressive as he needed to be to make it into the national team rotation. His setpiece delieveries were less than stellar, but he didn't have much to work with.

Overall, Tottenham lost, so I'm a happy camper. Back to actual MLS action for most of the USMNT and preparing for two friendlies in September: Sept. 4 against Peru and Sept. 9 against Brazil. Those will lead into the CONCACAF Confederations Cup playoff match on Oct. 9, and then we start 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying and 2016 Olympics qualifying.

Self implosion: U.S. bombs 2015 Gold Cup test

The U.S. men's national soccer team has tried to make its claim as the top dawg in CONCACAF the past decade.

They won last World Cup's final qualifying round. They won the 2013 Gold Cup. They have not lost to Mexico since 2011.

So going into the 2015 CONCACAF Gold Cup, the USMNT had a chance to solidify that claim; having won the 2013 tournament, they could win the 2017 Confederations Cup spot outright. A win in back-to-back tournaments hasn't happened often for the USMNT, only doing it in 2005 and 2007.

Despite head coach Jurgen Klinsmann touting this tournament as the highest priority in 2015, his team failed to medal. That hasn't happened since 2000. That's not good, Jurgen.

Yes, we lost to a Jamaica side that was playing like lightning, a hurricane and an earthquake rolled into one perfect storm, but the entire tournament left USMNT supporters wanting more. More goals, more passing, but the only thing we have more of is questions. So allow me to ask them here.

1) Why did Jurgen choose the Alvarado/Brooks pairing at centerback, when he claimed that his goal with his roster selection was Gold Cup experience?

This I utterly do not understand. What makes sense is to bring these two on board. Alvarado and Brooks have showed promise this year and prior, but together they weren't quite ready for CONCACAF. Why not pair Brooks or Alvarado with Besler or Gonzalez? I am a strong believer that you learn by doing, but it's good to have a teacher alongside you.

You saw this with the outside backs. Every single one has proven himself in CONCACAF competition. I believe Besler/Gonzalez would have given the stability that was needed in the backline.

2) Why is Zardes always on the field?

Why, Jurgen? He hasn't a first touch anywhere. He can't shoot. He can't pass all that well. He's really just a cheap Deandre Yedlin, except a converted forward, not a converted right back. Why Yedlin kept coming off the bench baffles me.

3) Other than against Cuba, why did we only score six goals all tournament? 

Hell, even with the Cuba match, why did we only score 12 goals in six matches? Ultimately, all the problems we had with the defense started with this team's inability to possess the ball. Who is to blame? Well, everyone, but let's start with the captain. Yes, Michael Bradley was absolutely crap this Gold Cup. Like...2014 World Cup bad. Where is the MB who was called "the best player in the world" by Miguel Herrera in 2013? The last two major tournaments have been nightmares for him.

Short passes were either mistimed or just off-the-mark. Long passes were decent, but never amounted to many chances. The most telling part of his problems may be with his positioning. Bradley has done so well with making late runs or collecting balls at the top of the box. That wasn't seen at all this tournament. I don't know if the "attacking" midfield roll is for him, but the problem when MB isn't on his game is that we don't have a guy who can do that for him. His lackluster 2014 WC was made up by Jermaine Jones' awesome tourney. We didn't have that this Gold Cup.


These are just a few questions I have for Jurgen Klinsmann, but there are a plethora of others. He MUST be questioned after this performance. Bob Bradley was fired after losing the 2011 Gold Cup, yet Klinsmann is apparently not on the hot seat after this abysmal performance. Step one in answering these questions would be to win the Oct. 9 CONCACAF Confederations Cup playoff match against 2015 Gold Cup champs Mexico.