The US had a critical, if not too difficult, World Cup qualifier last night against Trinidad and Tobago. As expected, the good guys won. Sure, it was only 1-0 when it should have been more like 4- or 5-0, but a win’s a win.
With those three points, the US has all but clinched a berth into the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Even if the US were to lose the final four qualifying games (not a chance), they’d come in fourth in the Hex and play a playoff game against either Bahrain or Uzbekistan for a berth.
Even better, with their #6 world ranking the US has a shot at a #1 seed in the World Cup. With one of those seeds, and there are eight, you are guaranteed that no other top team will be in your initial round-robin group. That means no Brazil, Argentina, Germany, France, etc. Which would be nice.
It seems to me that if the US beats Mexico in a couple of weeks in Columbus, Ohio and then runs off a couple more wins in their final three qualifiers, it would be hard to justify not giving them a top seed. But then, I don’t think FIFA really likes seeing the US do well in soccer. We’ll see.