The United States kicks off the hexagonal round of FIFA World Cup qualifying with two of the most difficult matches they’ll face on the road to Russia. On Friday, the USA host Mexico at Mapfre Stadium in Columbus, Ohio. Four days later, they face Costa Rica at the Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica. 

A recent video on Yahoo! Sports asked the question: should international soccer be scrapped? The problems they laid out included the fact that international soccer requires teams to take two breaks during the fall so they can compete in international play to qualify for events like the Olympics or the World Cup.

The Hex kicks off on November 11 in Columbus, Ohio with the big one: the United States versus Mexico. El Tri manager Juan Carlos Osorio has announced his squad for that match and their trip to Central America to play Panama four days later.

While Osorio had the luxury of naming largely experimental squads for September’s final fourth round World Cup qualifiers against El Salvador and Honduras, as well as their October friendlies against New Zealand and Panama, the Colombian has named his strongest possible side in an attempt to end the Dos a Cero spell.

It's a tired cliche, but the game isn't over until the referee blows the final whistle. An unbelievable, historic match at the 2003 FIFA U-17 World Championship proved as much.

As soccer fans, we typically hate to see a game end in a 0-0 tie. But, there is nothing more humiliating than watching one team lose to another by five or more goals. In soccer, it's very important for a team to score the first goal of the game. If that's the case, your team automatically sets the pace for the match, and it also shows your opponents that you are here to compete.

Surprise! He's alive. What a year it's been for Mathieu Valbuena. After battling injuries and scandals, he was left off the France squad due to injury, and, of course, fans theorized that he must be dead.

Almost immediately following his removal from the squad, images of a fake death certificate began circulating twitter, and fans began spreading the rumor that the French midfielder had passed away, forcing his club to address the rumor on Twitter:

For Argentina, a nightmarish World Cup qualifying campaign somehow managed to grow worse outside of an international break. In early September, Bolivia had managed to gain an unlikely 0-0 draw with Chile and a 3-0 victory over Peru in CONMEBOL qualifying. However, FIFA have ruled that Bolivia fielded an ineligible player in both matches, defender Nelson Cabrera, resulting in automatic 3-0 wins for both Chile and Peru.

Mexico has previously stated its desire to host the 2026 World Cup, a tournament that will almost certainly be given to the CONCACAF region, but now it's getting serious.

Following CAF in 2010 (South Africa), CONMEBOL in 2014 (Brazil), UEFA in 2018 (Russia) and AFC in 2022 (Qatar), FIFA has all but promised the tournament to North America.

Mortada Mansour is the chairman of Egyptian club Zamalek, and he doesn't like the way his boys were beaten in the African Champions League final by Mamelodi Sundowns. Frankly, he smells a rat.

Monsour, per the Guardian, said this after the match:

“Is it natural to waste 18 chances in front of goal? Things were obviously not normal and there was magic and sorcery involved.” 

Two years ago, the Netherlands were coming off a summer that saw them reach the World Cup semifinals but lose to Argentina in penalty kicks. The main cog in their success was 30-year-old Arjen Robben, who was arguably the player of the tournament — that’s an important admission coming from an Argentine like myself.

Robben was untouchable all tournament with defenders grasping at air as he waltzed by them constantly. He racked up three goals and an assist and nearly got the Dutch to their second straight World Cup final on his back.

Is there a diversity problem in women’s soccer? As other sports have made strides to include players of all ethnicities, most youth, college and professional women’s soccer teams in the USA are still mainly comprised of white players.

This lack of diversity has led organizations to try and overcome the problem, and over the past few years, strides have been made to make the sport more inclusive, but it just doesn’t seem to have come far enough.

Barriers To Diversity