Qualification for the 2014 FIFA World Cup has been completed.The USA will be there in Brazil next summer.
The draw has been made.The U.S. is in a group with Germany, Portugal and Ghana.No easy draw, but it is what it is.
One should not expect an easy draw in the world’s biggest championship!
The U.S. did get a massive travel assignment for its three group games, which will take Jurgen Klinsmann and his team from one end of Brazil to the other, and back.
But the U.S. is a large country also, and American players should be better equipped to the demands of long travel than most,especially since most play in Europe and have long “commutes” to play and train in the U.S.
That the U.S. finished first in CONCACAF qualifying is no small achievement.Add the dramatic victory in the final game against Panama that secured the top spot.
That victory also determined the fourth-place finisher in the regional hexagonal, and that gave Mexico a second chance with a home-and-home winner-take-all series with New Zealand for a spot in Brazil.
Mexico, which won only twice in 10 hexagonal contests and had trouble scoring at home, exploded in the two-game series to eliminate New Zealand.
The inclusion of Mexico in the World Cup is a good thing for the region, and actually for the U.S.Without either of the two regional rivals, the competition would be less interesting.
Klinsmann will call in a roster of players from his extended player pool for a January training camp in California.That will conclude with an international friendly against the Korea Republic on Feb. 1.
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