U.S. men’s soccer set for World Cup qualifying
Portuguese beach soccer player Madjer holds the United States tag during the preliminary draw for the 2018 World Cup in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Saturday.
The U.S. men’s soccer team has been placed in a four-team group that will include Trinidad and Tobago and the winners of two summer playoff series in the semifinal round of regional World Cup qualifying in November.
Saturday’s draw in St. Petersburg, Russia, appeared to be a favorable one for the Americans, who will also play the winners of two-leg playoffs matching Aruba against St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Guatemala against Antigua and Barbuda. Those games will be played in late August and early September.
Meanwhile Costa Rica, a quarterfinalist in the last World Cup, was drawn into a group that figures to include finalists from the last two CONCACAF Gold Cups in Panama and Jamaica, provided Jamaica beats Nicaragua in its summer playoff.
Mexico is the seeded team in Group A, where it was paired with Honduras, a qualifier in each of the last two World Cups.
The semifinal round of CONCACAF qualifying will be a six-game round-robin competition in which the teams will play home and away games against each of the other three team in its group beginning Nov. 13 and concluding in September 2016.
The top two teams in each group will advance to the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying, which will start in November 2016.
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