World Cup Mania: The US' Road to Brazil 2014 (and beyond)

Great updates, hard to believe Canada was so close to winning the Gold Cup! haha

I must admit I haven't heard of some of those players, but the ones I have heard of are really good. Also I love the style of your updates, keep it up.

Mexico qualifies for World Cup

With a 3-2 victory at the United States and an astounding 7-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago, Mexico has reasserted itself within the CONCACAF and have gained qualification into the World Cup. As well, Honduras ensured themselves of at least a playoff berth. Nathan Limior was fuming after the US blew an apparent 2-0 advantage to lose 3-2, "What the f[bleep] was US Soccer thinking, putting this game in California? That was practically a second road game for us! Seattle, Portland, Columbus, anywhere but the Southwest!"

United States 2 - 3 Mexico

Costa Rica 0 - 2 United States

Standings

Really enjoying this. Keep It Up

Squad announcement - Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago

- Onyewu and Bocanegra are on the decline, so I want to get used to playing without them it what amount to glorified friendlies.
- Only three forwards this time, because I don't need four. Donovan doesn't really count since I usually deploy him on the right wing, anyway.

United States 1 - 1 Jamaica

United States 2 - 0 Trinidad and Tobago

Final Results

The United States, Mexico, and Honduras automatically qualify for the World Cup, while Jamaica can qualify with a victory in the playoff against Oceania. The US have friendlies scheduled against England and Germany in the run up to the World Cup.

World Cup Groups Drawn

Group A

Turkey
Saudi Arabia
Algeria
Argentina

Group B

Spain
Russia
Senegal
South Korea

Group C

United States
Peru
England
The Netherlands

Group D

Mexico
Slovakia
Germany
New Zealand

Group E

Ivory Coast
Uruguay
France
Croatia

Group F

Japan
Mali
Slovenia
Chile

Group G

Italy
Scotland
Honduras
Colombia

Group H

Iran
Portugal
Egypt
Brazil

Feel free to make your predictions for who makes it out of each group!

Oh Man! Your Group is tough!!! My predictions are as follows: Group A - Algeria, Argentina - B - Spain, South Korea - C - USA, Netherlands - D - Mexico, Germany - E - France, Uruguay - F - Japan, Chile - G - Italy, Colombia - H - Portugal, Brazil.

Can't Belgium never made it.

USA should do just fine, it's England after all

Preliminary World Cup Squad

Here's what I will be rolling with in friendlies against Switzerland, Germany, and France, and the World Cup. I think I'll have to cut down to 23 later though, and that'll be an incredibly tough cut.

Friendlies

Switzerland 1 - 1 United States

United States 2 - 1 Germany

France 2 - 1 United States

Pre World Cup Buzz

American fans have an unstated optimism leading into the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Despite being drawn in with Peru, England, and Netherlands, fans think that the United States will be able to qualify from that group, but don't want to say it, as if it will jinx the US hopes. Nathan Limior stated in a pre-World Cup press conference, "We played some great European opposition, since we have great European opposition in our group. I wanted to instill the belief in my players that we can go in and beat top sides, that we can boss them around. I thought we could win all 3 games, since we had leads in two, and just blew them. My players and I hopefully have learned some lessons from the gauntlet of friendlies and apply it to the struggle ahead."

Not a bad set of prep game results

World Cup Group Stage

United States 1 - 5 Netherlands

United States 0 - 2 England

United States 0 - 1 Peru

Standings

Netherlands and Peru qualify, and you can see what happened to the US. We failed to take a single point! Very disappointing, but I knew something like that could happen in our group. No excuses though, we still failed. So...

What Next?

Should Limior resign the US job and move into club management? Should Limior focus on the 2018 World Cup only? Should he do both? If he takes a club job, where? I'd like to hear your ideas!

Stay!!!

Ouch, some horrible results there. Stay as manager by all means, though. Onwards and upwards!