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World Soccer XXX: We Have Men Too!

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The big question is whether a proper, balanced qualifying schedule will ever exist on the women's side. World Cup expansion on the men's side will erode the drama of the "The Hex" -- the six-team, 10-game final round of World Cup qualifying which saw each team play the other five once at home and once away. That has already expanded to eight teams. The format produced drama on every matchday, including in back-to-back cycles when Mexico barely even qualified for the intercontinental playoff on the final day (for 2014 World Cup), and the U.S. eliminated from the World Cup entirely on the final day of the subsequent qualifying.

Like FIFA expanding the Men's World Cup to 48 teams in 2026, the expansion of the Women's World Cup to 32 teams next year means that six of the eight regional finalists keep World Cup hopes alive coming out of the CONCACAF W Championship. It is difficult to find any format which would make that dramatic, but there are options which would allow each nation to host final-stage games and harbor greater hopes for a longer period of time.

For better or worse, each CONCACAF nation boasts peculiar challenges which make playing there difficult for visiting sides. From a flooded field in Trinidad, to a raucous crowd in Mexico, or hotel alarms getting pulled in the middle of the night in Honduras -- all of which are stories told on the men's side -- there are serious challenges to life on the road which can test the mental fortitude of even the best teams.

Canada and the U.S. -- especially as more professionalized teams with resources like private chefs -- simply don't face this type of adversity in games that matter. Not until the World Cup or Olympics themselves.

How would the U.S. have handled early pressure from Haiti in the opener, when the Americans nearly conceded three times in the first half, had they been playing in front of a sellout crowd in Port-au-Prince? How much more difficult would it have been for the U.S. to beat an organized Costa Rica side in a must-win game if the Americans couldn't hear themselves communicate in Saprissa? And how much better would everyone be for it, from the U.S. gaining valuable experience in adversity to challenger nations growing interest in their women's teams.
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https://www.espn.com/soccer/concaca...t-with-the-w-championship-format?platform=amp

On one hand, it would be funny to see the WNT have a taste of what the MNT goes through. On the other hand, we’d have stat lines that look like UEFA Women’s Qualifying.

(US and Canada Soccer would absolutely love to cash checks for those home games though)
 
Jimjamesak said:
https://www.espn.com/soccer/concaca...t-with-the-w-championship-format?platform=amp

On one hand, it would be funny to see the WNT have a taste of what the MNT goes through. On the other hand, we’d have stat lines that look like UEFA Women’s Qualifying.

(US and Canada Soccer would absolutely love to cash checks for those home games though)
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What format would they use?

2018 qualifying where the US would enter 4th round and destroy everyone?
Original 2022 and get a bye to the hex?
Actual 2022 and run with the octogonal, which is basically what the current format is anyway?
 
Spartanforlife4 said:
What format would they use?

2018 qualifying where the US would enter 4th round and destroy everyone?
Original 2022 and get a bye to the hex?
Actual 2022 and run with the octogonal, which is basically what the current format is anyway?
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I honestly don't even know if there's another possible format given what other countries invest in their WNTs. The US will likely be hosting in 2027 so it may be a moot discussion.

I'd do the Men's and Women's the same: A double Hex of two six team groups. Top four teams in rankings get an automatic spot (the Men could do it where the Nations League A Group winners could get the automatic spots) while the rest do qualifying rounds. Home and home, 10 games, top two teams in each group qualify (top three for the Men) for the World Cup.
 
Jimjamesak said:
I honestly don't even know if there's another possible format given what other countries invest in their WNTs. The US will likely be hosting in 2027 so it may be a moot discussion.

I'd do the Men's and Women's the same: A double Hex of two six team groups. Top four teams in rankings get an automatic spot (the Men could do it where the Nations League A Group winners could get the automatic spots) while the rest do qualifying rounds. Home and home, 10 games, top two teams in each group qualify (top three for the Men) for the World Cup.
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Is the US bidding? On Wiki it says the only confirmed bid at the moment is a joint bid of Germany-Belgium-Netherlands. There are other interested bids, but the only one under "previously interested" is the US, saying they'll be bidding in 2031 instead.

As for qualifying, it looks like seven or eight of the minnows on the men's side either don't have a women's team or don't enter them into competition. So that gets close to a 32 team qualifier. It would be somewhat redundant, but the current W Championship qualifying format seems to work well. I don't know how difficult it would be to fit an entirely different tournament into the same window, but if UEFA can do it then CONCACAF could manage. But, like you said, do you have the commitment from the other associations
 
Spartanforlife4 said:
Is the US bidding? On Wiki it says the only confirmed bid at the moment is a joint bid of Germany-Belgium-Netherlands. There are other interested bids, but the only one under "previously interested" is the US, saying they'll be bidding in 2031 instead.

As for qualifying, it looks like seven or eight of the minnows on the men's side either don't have a women's team or don't enter them into competition. So that gets close to a 32 team qualifier. It would be somewhat redundant, but the current W Championship qualifying format seems to work well. I don't know how difficult it would be to fit an entirely different tournament into the same window, but if UEFA can do it then CONCACAF could manage. But, like you said, do you have the commitment from the other associations
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UEFA doesn't do a tournament for World Cup Qualifying, they do exactly like they do on the Men's side: Put all the teams into X number of groups, play home and home, group winners qualify automatically and runners up go into the playoffs. Which really pales in comparison to CONCACAF's "win two games and go the World Cup" format that writer was speaking about.

AFAIK US Soccer was interested in bidding for 2027 when the host cities for 2026 were announced, they're waiting on the requirements from FIFA.
 
Slap Shot said:
Sorry - how are qualifying games for the women handled now? Each country doesn't play H/A with the others right now?
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No, only UEFA does a similar qualifying structure to the men. The rest use their continental tournaments as qualifying (the CONCACAF W Championship, Copa America Femenina, Women’s AFCON etc.). So the US and Canada each qualified after finishing top of their group in group play, playing each game in Mexico (because they were hosting the tournament). They both also automatically qualified to the tournament so they only played two games before they clinched qualification.

This tournament was actually the first time since 2011 qualifying that the USWNT played a qualifying game on the road since the US hosted the previous two qualifying tournaments.

Edit: Here’s the Wikipedia page.
 
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Women beat Canada last night to qualify for the Olympics.

Jamaica beat Costa Rica in extra time in the third place game, so Canada will now host Jamaica for the second Olympic spot.
 
Spartanforlife4 said:
Women beat Canada last night to qualify for the Olympics.

Jamaica beat Costa Rica in extra time in the third place game, so Canada will now host Jamaica for the second Olympic spot.
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I actually agree with USWNT Twitter stans on one thing: It’s hilarious seeing these articles of “now let’s see how the USWNT will do facing the best teams in the world!” Like, only two teams have beaten the USWNT in competitive matches in the last four years and they just beat one of them last night. The USWNT is the best team in the world and they have nothing to prove. The Euro teams have plenty to prove.
 
I was looking at the lineups for Houston and Minnesota - doesn't MLS have a rule about % of American born players required on each roster? Houston was a little better in that department, but from what I could tell MN had at most 2 Americans in the staring lineup and maybe a handful on the bench.

While I understand America's best players are mostly in Europe that doesn't speak too well to depth from my armchair.

[edit] And in true MN sports fashion their undefeated (USL?) team lost in their league's final.
 
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Slap Shot said:
I was looking at the lineups for Houston and Minnesota - doesn't MLS have a rule about % of American born players required on each roster? Houston was a little better in that department, but from what I could tell MN had at most 2 Americans in the staring lineup and maybe a handful on the bench.

While I understand America's best players are mostly in Europe that doesn't speak too well to depth from my armchair.

[edit] And in true MN sports fashion their undefeated (USL?) team lost in their league's final.
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Yes MLS teams are limited in the number of international roster slots (I believe it’s 8 per team). However, due to US law, a player with Permanent Residency (a Green Card) has to count as a domestic player. There are a lot of foreign players with Permanent Residency status that don’t count in the international slots.

Some teams have more foreign players than others (Minnesota is definitely one), but a lot of American players these days are either full National Team players (like Morris, Roldan, Zimmerman, and Acosta) or young players (U20 guys), not very many older college grads filling the bench like 20 years ago.
 
I will never understand the appeal of attending these overpriced friendlies between European teams.

And I don’t mean just here in the US either, it’s arguably worse in Japan and Australia. Especially Australia.
 
Jimjamesak said:
I will never understand the appeal of attending these overpriced friendlies between European teams.

And I don’t mean just here in the US either, it’s arguably worse in Japan and Australia. Especially Australia.
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People go to NFL Preseason Games. My guess is it's for the parties.
 
Kepler said:
People go to NFL Preseason Games. My guess is it's for the parties.
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At least with the preseason games, they're basically required purchases for season ticket holders, so you either 1) had to buy them to get your regular season tickets, or 2) were given them for free by someone else who had to buy them and you might as well go cause free ticket.

I honestly don't know anyone who buys a single game ticket to an NFL preseason game.
 
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