December 4, 2009
Bob Bradley and the USMNT have to be pretty happy today after the World Cup Draw.
The US will open up their 2010 World Cup campaign against England on Saturday June 12th at 2:30pm EST. Then they will fave Slovenia on Friday June 18th at 10am EST. They will finish up the group stage against Algeria on Wednesday June 23rd at 10am EST.
Twitter's overriding take is that the US got about as good a draw as they could reasonably hope for.
The other part of the draw that helps the US is that if they can advance to the knockout stage of the tournament, they will not face any of the top 4 seeds until the semifinals.
After getting drawn into a rough group in 2006, the soccer gods appear to have smiled on the US.
News & Notes:
It has been a slow news day with the USL & NASL teams keeping quiet and most people focusing on the World Cup draw in Cape Town.
- The Philadelphia Union did make the Danny Califf signing official.
- Chivas USA introduced Martin Vasquez as their new head coach.
- The Chicago Fire have been able to lock up Marco Pappa through 2012.
- The latest edition of the Waiting for Gaetjens podcast with Greg Lalas and Adam Spangler features Tampa Bay Rowdies CEO Andrew Nestor. It's worth listening to, although Andrew didn't break any huge news on the NASL.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author, and not necessarily those of the Rochester Rhinos or SoccerSam.com. Feel free to send any comments or complaints to news@soccersam.com. James promises to read (but not to respond) to all of them.
