World Cup

Two goals from Jozy Altidore, one from Sacha Kljestan and another from Paul Arriola lifted the United States to a 4-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago on Tuesday night in Jacksonville, Florida. The United States entered the match having not mathematically guaranteed their spot in the ‘Hex’, although elimination would’ve required a failure of momentous proportions.

However, the USA were brilliant on the night — particularly in the second half. Trinidad and Tobago almost kept the match even throughout the first, but Kljestan opened the scoring in the 44th minute.

Mexico ended the group stage of World Cup qualifying undeafeated but disappointed after a listless 0-0 outing against Hondiras in Estadio Azteca.

Honduras did the thing pretty much everybody expected them to do and parked the bus basically from the beginning. Even firing on all cylinders, Mexico might have had trouble beating this defense.

As it turned out, though, Mexico weren't firing on all cylinders, and the crowd let manager Juan Carlos Osorio know they didn't like what they were seeing.

FIFA president Gianni Infantino has dropped the biggest hint yet as to where he believes the 2026 World Cup should take place. Following the awarding of the 2018 World Cup to Russia and the 2022 edition to Qatar, the venue for the 2026 version of the competition is to be decided in 2020.

Originally, the process was due to be completed in May of 2017, but FIFA experienced some minor setbacks that you might’ve heard about.

The folks attending El Salvador's press conference before their World Cup qualifier against Canada got quite a surprise when the team played a tape of a man trying to bribe them to play well.

The man, alleged to be Honduran businessman Ricardo Padilla (if El Salvador draws or beats Canada, Honduras is guaranteed advancement to the 'Hex'), is probably the worst match-fixer of all time.

Having lost Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Kim Kallstrom and their manager Erik Hamren after Euro 2016, Sweden still managed to draw with the Netherlands in Stockholm. 

For the Netherlands, their only possible excuse is that they’re now terrible. With nine more qualifying matches still to play, the Dutch have time to improve, it’s just difficult to foresee where that improvement will come from. 

Let's be honest, El Tri failed to meet extremely high expectations this summer. What was expected of the Mexican national team was to excel in all competitions, but they fell flat at the Copa America Centenario and the Rio Olympic Games.

Competing in the Copa America in the team’s ‘second home’, the United States, fans and spectators alike believed El Tri had a chance to make history in the competition. 

They were one of the early favorites. With a win over Uruguay and the top dogs, Brazil, crashing out early, they had a chance but blew it. 

OK, let's get the qualifiers out of the way before we jump into any analysis: St. Vincent is terrible at soccer and so are the Grenadines. You can't really learn anything from how anyone played in a game between such mismatched opposition.

We can learn, though, from who played. Because Clint Dempsey is out, USMNT manager Jurgen Klinsmann started Bobby Wood up top with Jozy Altidore. Both scored.

Various pundits wondered earlier this week if the Mexico National Team was stagnating under Juan Carlos Osorio, and during the first half it looked like those pundits were right.

A Jorge Torres Nilo handball in the box gave Alexander Larin a penalty try in the 24th minute, and Mexico found themselves down 1-0 and looking mostly listless.

Then, after halftime, Mexico woke up.

Hector Moreno in the 52nd minute.

Venezuelan goalkeeper Dani Hernandez stopped two penalties against Colombian stars Carlos Bacca and James Rodriguez in less than 15 minutes in a World Cup qualifier Thursday. Colombia beat Venezuela 2-0 in Barranquilla.

Hernandez, who plays for Tenerife in the Spanish second division, is the first goalkeeper to stop two penalties in a World Cup qualifier in CONMEBOL history, according to @OptaJavier.

September is upon us. For many, that means looking forward to cooler weather and an opportunity to view the fall coloring. For soccer fans, however, that means a few weeks of zero club action. There will be no games until the weekend of September 10 because of the break for international matches

Why the interruption? Well, this particular break is to stop play so players could take part in qualifying matches for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Yet, for fans, that means no top level club soccer matches, which simply isn’t fair.