Hard to imagine Fratelli d'Italia being played in Oakland, but OK

The US Bid Committee for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups (whose awarding is less than 2 years away), has released through its site http://www.gousabid.com/ the cities who are still in the running to host a World Cup game should the United States be awarded either tournament. This list is down from a prior list of 70, which frankly included just about every NFL and major college stadium in a town with more than two stoplights.

Did anyone really think Fayetteville, AR would host the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Fernando Torres?

The list has been narrowed to 27 cities, of which likely 12-14 will likely be chosen to host matches.

Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, Nashville, New York City, Oakland, Orlando, Philadelphia, Glendale-Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa, and Washington, D.C.

Just a few notes
12 cities on the list host MLS teams in their metro areas (Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC). The only US Cities with an MLS team that failed to make the cut are Columbus, Salt Lake City, and Portland.

All 9 sites of the 1994 World Cup are still eligible (Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Orlando, Chicago, Detroit, Washington, New York, Boston)

Should each city use the venue that most would assume they would use, then 22 of the 27 potential host cities are using venues constructed or substantially renovated in the 15 years SINCE the 1994 World Cup.

21 of the 27 potential host cities have hosted a major soccer event (MLS game, International friendly, Club friendly, World Cup Qualifier, Gold Cup game) since 2006.

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Random Political/Sports Cameo of the Day

Team USA has called in the big guns in an attempt to land either the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup: Henry Kissinger.

Kissinger was previously part of the US Bid Committee in 1986 that tried to be the backup host after Colombia relinquished the World Cup due to drug violence (the effort was unsuccessful, and the World Cup ended up going to Mexico).

Even if history repeats itself and the US doesn't get to host the World Cup, it will all be worth it if I can hear Kissinger say "Steve Cherundolo" or "Josmer Altidore" in his creepy German mad scientist voice.

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I used to think I'd never find a media outlet more anti-soccer than us here at YCS (With the possible exception of Jim Rome, the Bill O'Reilly of ESPN).

Then who rides to the rescue? As always, Fox News.

I'm not sure if this segment is meant to be "news" or "infotainment." Yet amazingly, this video from Fox not only makes the YCS staff look incredibly intelligent and witty (like we needed anyone else to be known for that), but also makes even the staunchest soccer-hater on the blog (Nate?) look like the biggest Stella-swilling, scarf-sporting, song-singing, alliteration-amiable soccerphile.



Note how everyone misses the point of the quote from USSF President Sunil Gulati, which more or less says, "Well, it couldn't hurt."

If they're trying to be funny, they fail miserably at every turn.

If they're trying to be serious, there's too many errors to even know where to begin.

If they're trying to be both, well....despite no posts in a week, we still do it better than they do.

In conclusion, fuck you Fox News. From all of us here at YCS. Yes, even YCP's token conservative.

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As Long As You've got that map out...

Steve Davis on the near-certainty for the United States to host either the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cups, and assessing the viability of the other bids.

Davis thinks it is a slam dunk that England will host the 2018 World Cup, but then says of dark horse Qatar's bid...

"Qatar: The oil-rich Arab emirate has the world's highest GDP per capita, according to some estimates. Although money isn't an issue, physical size could be. Qatar occupies only about 4,400 square miles, roughly the size of Pennsylvania."

So if physical size is a major obstacle to hosting a World Cup, then we wouldn't want to have it in a country like...England, which is roughly the size of North Carolina, and only slightly larger than Pennsylvania.

If anything is going to kill the Qatari bid, it will be the average triple-digit temperatures that are routine in the Persian Gulf in June and July, when the World Cup is held.

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We're Getting the Olympics

Upon Barack Obama's election, one of my first thoughts was "Well, there's no way Chicago isn't getting the Olympics now."

Seems the head of the Japanese Olympic Committee agrees with me.

Tokyo, Chicago, Rio de Janiero, and Madrid are the finalists. The selection of the 2016 host city occurs in 11 months.

U-S-A! U-S-A!

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U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

After disappointing international performances from the Americans...

--Eliminated in second round of 2006 World Baseball Classic
--Eliminated in first round of 2006 FIFA World Cup
--Bronze Medal in 2006 FIBA Basketball Championships
--Eliminated in semifinals of 2004 World Cup of Hockey, Quarterfinals of 2006 Winter Olympics

It would have been easy to lose all hope. Forever to be dominated in the international arena by the likes of Ghana, Finland, and Argentina.

But now, A team of our nation's finest...well... maybe like our third-finest or fourth-finest players (All from NCAA or NAIA schools) won the 2007 IFAF World Championship, (that would be the International Federation of American Football) with a 23-20 win over defending champs Japan.

U-S-A! U-S-A!

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