When the United States dropped its bid for the 2018 World Cup, it was seen as a move to placate FIFA’s desire to have the World Cup held that year in soccer’s birthplace (literally, if England wins the bid).  By doing so, it also allowed the U.S. to be seen as the prohibitive favorite to win the 2022 bid when the vote is held December 2, in part due to a weak pool that includes Australia, Japan, Qatar, and South Korea.  However, FIFA’s bribery scandal may alter the playing field just enough that it could potentially endanger the U.S.’s front runner status.

To recap, two members of the FIFA executive committee were caught on tape by British journalists asking for outright bribes to support certain countries’ World Cup bids.  As of right now, these are the only two who have been caught, but reports by the The Guardian have FIFA’s executive committee unsure of what this week’s vote on the selection process will look like.  While the British press loves sensational journalism, I think it is safe to say that FIFA is a bit of a mess right now.  There have been no public reports that FIFA will definitely postpone its December 2 vote to select the 2018 and 2022 sites, but the possibility exists if the bribery scandal reaches further than currently known.  The final site vote could be delayed a few weeks, or just one site vote could be delayed while the other proceeds.

What does this mean for the U.S. bid?  As I said, right now the U.S. bid is allegedly far and away the front runner for the World Cup in 2022.  We have the money, infrastructure, and media attention to make another United States World Cup very lucrative for FIFA.  But what if the vote is delayed due to this scandal?  Would an extra few weeks seed doubts in the minds of the executive committee, especially if there are other guilty committee members?  The 2018 World Cup has a good chance of also being a lucrative and guaranteed financial success, especially if it takes place in England or Spain/Portugal.  Maybe this puts into the committee’s mind that the 2022 World Cup doesn’t need to be a slam-dunk site, and the U.S. can wait four more years.  Or maybe there is some other unforeseen situation that could pop up in December that could make the committee pause about awarding the World Cup to the U.S.

I am not saying it is a likely scenario that the U.S. loses the 2022 bid, even if they delay the vote.  But it’s like a soccer match, when the winning manager is constantly eying the clock even when ahead by a good margin.  All managers know crazy things can happen towards the end and it’s is better to quit while ahead.  So let’s hope FIFA votes on December 2 and this country can begin to gear up for the World Cup in 12 years.

Agree?  Disagree?  Share your thoughts below or on Twitter @roberthayjr.

Reports have come out this evening confirming that Bob Bradley will stay as coach of the US Mens National Team for another four years.  Just as speculation was growing that Bradley would be out, Jurgen Klinsmann would be in, and US Soccer was going to make some significant changes before the next World Cup, it seems that everyone has chosen stability over transformation.  There are several different ways to look at this:

This was the right move

Bradley may not be the most charismatic character of all time, but he did well.  Under his stewardship, the US won the Gold Cup, got to the finals of the Confederations Cup, won the CONCACAF qualifying group, and won its World Cup Group.  While the US did crash out of the World Cup by losing to Ghana in overtime, that game was as close as a game could be, and had the US won it, this decision would be a no-brainer.  While major countries like France and Italy were having personality breakdowns in South Africa, Bradley kept our boys loose, focused and together as a team.  The team was in great shape physically, and despite the obvious limitations of the US squad, especially after Charlie Davies and Oguchi Onyewu suffered serious injuries, the team met its main objective – getting to the knock out stage.  Bradley has earned the chance to take the team to the next level.

This is a disaster

 Bradley is not the guy to take the team to the next level.  He made some fundamental mistakes in our tactics that cost the US a chance to really make a mark in South Africa.  What was Ricardo Clark doing there against Ghana?  What was Gooch doing in there against Slovenia when he could barely walk?  Were it not for a saving goal by Landon Donovan, the US would have been going home in the group stages, and this decision would have been a no-brainer.  Furthermore, that run at the Confederation Cup was not much of a run – we got slaughtered by Italy and Brazil in the group stage, lucked into the knock out stage, and blew a two goal lead in the final that could have delivered a historic moment for US Soccer.  Finally, winning things in CONCACAF is no great challenge.  Even Steve Sampson could achieve that!  If the US is ever going to move up from the JVs to the Varsity squad of soccer nations, it needs new leadership.

Honestly, it really does not matter

There is no more over-valued job than coach of the national team.  You don’t really develop players in that position, – you simply pick the best 23 available and see what happens.  Perhaps a coach like Raymond Domenech can cause a team like France to fall apart, but only a fool would say that Vicente del Bosque caused Spain win in South Africa.  Spain won because they have the best 23 players in the world.  The US will have more success when they have better players, and the coach of the team has only the most marginal impact on growing the pool of players that can succeed at the highest level.

What do you think?

In a post-game interview after last night’s All-Star game, Landon Donovan said “We have had transfer interest and we will have some time to think about it and see where it goes.  There is interest from a number of teams.”

To be explicit, what Donovan said he is going to Europe, and it is not a matter of when (next month) but of who (Everton, Man City, Serie A or somewhere else) and at what price.

Landon Donovan is, simply said, the best American soccer player of all time.  He has speed, ball skills, game vision, and a scoring touch that are unmatched by any US player to date.  For American fans of the game, for followers of MLS, and for those of us in Los Angeles who have been privileged to watch him play for the past seasons, he has provided some truly inspirational moments.  We will miss him.  But it is truly time for him to go.

He simply has nothing left to prove here in the States.  He has done all he can do to promote the game and inspire the next generation of players.  He has provided some memorable moments.  He has played in three World Cups and will probably add a fourth before he hangs up his cleats for good.  In order to improve, and in order for him to show both the rising generation of American players and a skeptical (though increasingly less so) European community what American soccer has to offer the world football community, it is time for him to take this step.

Will Major League Soccer suffer for his loss?  Perhaps a little, in the short-run.  In the long run, for MLS to have credibility with American fans, it cannot exist as a closed market.  American soccer fans are not dim.  They know the best leagues are overseas, and that for MLS to have credibility, and to one day be seen on a par with those leagues, MLS has to be able to produce players that can succeed and star in England, Germany, Italy and Spain.  Every MLS player that succeeds in Europe reflects well on MLS, gives it more legitimacy, and makes it more interesting as a spectator sport.  The millions of dollars a Donovan transfer, and other similar transfers, will generate will enable MLS to recruit, market and develop with greater resources.

In the near-term, this is the best use of MLS – a developer and exporter of North American talent and an importer of famous European players on (but not past) the downslopes of their careers.  The fact that four months ago Theirry Henry and Rafa Marquez were playing for arguably the best team in the world (Barcelona) and are now in MLS while Landon Donovan is going from being the unstoppable player in MLS to a valued asset in Europe is a sign of strength, not weakness.

Will American fans suffer for Donovan’s loss?  No.  We are not “losing” him.  For most American fans, Donovan will be playing on FSC on Saturday mornings rather than FSC on Saturday evenings.

And finally, the American soccer community could simply not be so cruel as to deny Donovan the opportunity  to play every week among the best.  Donovan only has a few years left before his skills and abilities begin to irretrievably slip away.  For all he has done for MLS and soccer in this country, he is owed the opportunity end his career without unanswered questions.  Donovan scored as many goals in South Africa (three) as the entire English team.  He deserves the chance to show the world why that was not a fluke.

As a Galaxy season ticket holder, I know that this Sunday against Chicago may be the last time Donovan leads his team onto the Home Depot Center turf.  I will miss him as much as any athlete I have ever seen play for any of my local teams and I will be sorry to see him go.  It would be sorrier to see him stay here, and wonder about what could have been.

Soccer has an almost magical ability to reflect a national character.  Brazil is a sensuous, musical nation, and for its national soccer team, it is not enough to simply win – they need to win with grace, style and beauty.  At the other end of the spectrum, a disciplined, efficient country like Germany has created a team that wins with ruthless well-organized proficiency.  Italians always believe that the fix is in, and a player that dives and feigns injury to get a penalty or an opponent sent off is simply a clever person navigating a corrupt world. 

After a few weeks and a little bit of perspective, one of the great triumphs for the US team in South Africa ’10 to emerge is the development of an American soccer style. 

How to describe this style?  It was said best by Landon Donovan in the post-game interview after scoring his famous goal against Algeria.  He was asked about the clear goal that was denied to Clint Dempsey from a linesman’s inaccurate offside call.  Donovan said, “We embody what Americans are about.  We can moan about it or we can keep going.  We kept going and we believe.”

In a few words, Donovan hit on a little piece of genius.  American soccer culture does not rely on deftness of touch or a military-like precision.  Instead, this team assimilated some very basic American values into its style – hard work, self-belief, and the attitude that, eventually, effort will be rewarded.

For many fans, this aspect of American soccer has been viewed as a weakness.  Because our skill may not be as high as the soccer elite, we have to rely on fitness, mental toughness and effort to get by.  The theory goes that better teams win by playing better soccer, and eventually the US’s lack of skill dooms the team.

I think this entirely misses the point.  In a league season, over time the table never lies.  However, in a knock-out competition like the World Cup, where anything can happen over the course of 90 minutes, the game is as mental as it is physical.  Why did a great team like Holland play with the grace and sophistication of street thugs against Spain?  Because they were intimated by Spain’s ability to control the game and approached the contest from a place of fear.  Why did France implode so completely?  Because they knew they were just lucky to be going to South Africa and deep down they were waiting for the results to validate the injustice of their appearance.  Having the right frame of mind is more valuable than having an international superstar in your starting XI.

Teams understand this, and that is what makes the rest of the world nervous about playing the US team.  The US team is beatable, but they will never play like they expect to be beaten.  You can score against the US team, but the US team will never play like your lead is insurmountable.  You can run and press the US team, but chances are the US team will be running at full speed in the 90^th minute at the same moment your lungs are burning.

And the US team will never, ever be intimidated.

Many fans and players from other countries laugh that the US is a country of baseball and basketball players who think football is some sport played with hands on a small, 100 yard field.  But they make these jokes nervously as if they are trying to convince themselves it is true.  Deep down, they know this is a team that knocked Spain out of competitive tournament last summer, was the best team in the second half in all their World Cup games, and won a tougher World Cup qualification bracket than any that a European team had to face.  Those other countries know that there are holes in the US line-up, but those holes will get smaller over time.  What will not get smaller is the way Americans compete.

The grit that the US team showed in South Africa is more than just a charming trait.  It is actually a distinguishing characteristic of American soccer – one that will serve our national team’s character well in the years to come.

So how good is the US Men’s National Team? Over the past two years, the US team has fully revealed itself in relation to other teams and this is the report card-

• The USMNT is well ensconced in the second tier of international soccer, which is no small feat. Over the past 20 years, the USMNT has moved from international laughing stock to the group just below the tier that includes the best teams of Europe and South America.

• The US team is good enough to ruin anybody’s day, including world powers like Spain and England and, for a half, Brazil. But they are not yet good enough to do that on a consistent basis for an elongated run.

• They are the best team in CONCACAF (yes, you heard that right Mexico) and finished in first place in the World Cup Qualifying in CONCACAF, which is a far more grueling and challenging ordeal than finishing in first place in most of the European World Cup Qualifying groups.

• They are team with big quality in certain places (especially the midfield and in goal) and deficits in others (strikers and the back line). That is a criticism that most teams, including teams in the top tier, must often endure.

• The USMNT clearly has more heart and courage than they do soccer skill. That is not a small triumph. Italy and France have a lot more skill, but without any heart, they became national embarrassments.

There was a time not too long ago when watching the US team was absolutely cringe-worthy. The US could not string together passes in the midfield, release midfielders on a break and what passed for defense was a series of harried clearances to nobody in particular. Occasionally those teams would emerge victorious based on shear tenacity, but nobody would ever confuse those teams with something good.

Our current team still makes some foolish mistake that leads to early, soft goals, but they also have the ability to conjure up moments of beautiful, flowing skill. The two goals against Slovenia (and possibly the third that was unjustly ruled out) were moments of great quality from a team that expects to be able to move the ball forward and score a needed goal.

So what for the future? The current squad has a core of young players who will only get better. Michael Bradley, Jozy Altidore, Benny Feilhaber, Jose Torres, and Maurice Edu are very far from finished products and all have at least one and probably two World Cups left in them. Charlie Davies, whose absence was sorely missed by this team, will hopefully fully recover. Combined with Tim Howard, Landon Donovan and Clint Dempsey, who all probably have one more Cup in them at their current skill level, this is a nucleus of a team that will only improve.
I would not be at all surprised to see a completely new backline in 2014, perhaps anchored by Clarence Goodson and Omar Gonzalez. Furthermore, it is easy to forget how long four years is in soccer time. Four years ago, Jozy, Maurice, Benny and many others were not on the radar, and I am sure that there are potential godsends being prepared for this team that are, at the moment, largely unnoticed.

Finally, I am writing this dispatch from Italy right now, which may help me with my perspective on all of this. Do you know which team the Italians hate the most? The Italian team – at least this year. They despise their own team, and its failure, with a NASA-hot fury. That is not a healthy way to lead your life – to hate the thing you love – and US fans should always try to avoid such a decent into the abyss.

Moreover, the Italians expressed an admiration boarding on jealously for the US team. For the Italians, the US team is everything the Italian team is not – passionate, honest, young and with great room for improvement. They see the US team as something to be admired and feared, perhaps not now but sometime soon.

South Africa 2010 may not have ended in triumph, and the game against Ghana was clearly an opportunity for greatness lost. But it was absolutely another step on the road to the USMNT’s ultimate destination, and the glory that will come with that summit.

The Los Angeles Galaxy today announced that they are going to host Champions League Cup winners Inter Milan at a friendly at the Home Depot Center on August 7.  While only 18,000 people came out to see the Galaxy play Boca Juniors over the weekend, this game could probably sell 75,000 seats if the HDC was big enough.  In fact, kudos to the Galaxy for letting the game stay at the HDC rather than moving it to the Rose Bowl or the Coliseum.  The loyal Galaxy fans will have the opportunity to watch one of Europe’s great teams play in the friendly, intimate confines of their home stadium.  Also, the game is long enough after the World Cup so that all of Inter’s great stars – Eto’o, Sneijder, Samuel, and of course, Milito – should be on hand.

Jozy Altidore is a wonderful soccer player from the neck down.  Unfortunately, he is gaining a deserved reputation as a player with a million dollar body and a ten cent brain.  Jozy needs to put away the twitter, stop with the silly antics on the field and become the outstanding professional he has the potential to be.  Otherwise, he is destined to become another American journeyman player in Europe whose only honors will be the Clint-Mathis-Memorial-What-Could-Have-Been Award.

Case in point was today’s game between Hull City and Sunderland.  Hull City is literally fighting for its survival, and if they had any chance of staying in the Premiership for next season, they needed to beat Sunderland at home today.  Three points were absolutely mandatory.  As Altidore took the pitch today, he knew that he needed to be sharp, poised and ready.  Hull have failed to test opposing goal keepers for the past few weeks, and with the striking corps weakened by the injury to Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, Hull were relying on their young American to play a critical role in the attack.

Near the end of the first half with Hull down a goal, Altidore and Sunderland’s Alan Hutton were challenging for a ball in the air.  As the ball was heading out of bounds, Altidore awkwardly jumped into Hutton and wound up on the turf.  Hutton felt that Jozy was being a bit too aggressive on a ball that was heading out, picked up the ball and threw it into Altidore’s back.

At that point, Altidore had a few options:

• He could have gotten up, stared at Hutton with a “Give me a f*&%ing break,” expression, and calmly waited for the referee to run over and give Hutton the card he clearly deserved. 
•  If Altidore really wanted to directly confront Hutton he could have run over to him with his arms tightly clasped behind his own back so as to make sure that the referee saw he had no physical intent, and referred to Hutton’s mother in a particularly anti-social manner.
•  Altidore could react like a complete loony and get himself sent off.

Altidore chose option three.  He went straight at Hutton and head-butted him, earning for himself a straight red and insuring that, with two games left in the campaign, Jozy’s season and likely his career at Hull are over.

The shame of it all is that, despite his one meager goal this season, Altidore’s play has improved tremendously.  He is holding the ball up much better than he ever has, and has become a far more difficult player to defend against.  His passing, control and hold-up play have all improved, and he is such a physical presence that, with his new-found skills, he is drawing a lot of fouls including creating several penalties for Hull.

However, all those skills are useless unless he can mature as a professional.  The USMNT’s last World Cup campaign was completely derailed by two red cards against Italy and a penalty call against Ghana.  International referees hand out cards at a higher rate than they do in England, and if the United States picks up cards this summer the way they did in last year’s Confederations Cup and 2006’s World Cup, they will be doomed.  Playing mature, intelligent soccer and avoiding cards goes hand-in-hand.  The US needs Altidore on the field and scoring goals, but cannot afford his unprofessional nonsense in South Africa.

Now that Hull is essentially relegated, the odds that they will buy Altidore’s contract from Villarreal are slight.  Instead, unless Altidore has a lights-out run in South Africa, Villarreal will struggle to sell Altidore or find a spot for him in their 2010/11 plans.  Altidore’s career looks set to hit a serious speed bump as he searches for a new team for next season.  He is being labeled the most dreaded of things – a “project.”  For Altidore to reach his potential, he needs to build up the muscle between his ears.  He has all the tools to be an outstanding player – but first he needs to work on becoming an outstanding professional.

UPDATE – Jozy has copped to losing the plot. “I’m so sorry about yesterday. Made a stupid, immature and costly mistake. I apologize to Hull City and the fans who I let down. I let my emotions get the best of me and lost my composure. Believe it or not this year playing for Hull was to date the best trip I’ve ever been on.”

After getting off to the most blazing start of a season in MLS history, nobody’s stock has soared faster than Edson Buddle’s.  The Galaxy are 4-0, have out-scored their opponents 7-1 and all seven goals came off the head or foot of Buddle.  With the forward position the biggest question mark confronting Bob Bradley as he ponders which 23 players will be going to South Africa in June, Buddle is making his clam for one of those positions.

This is an unexpected development for a nine year MLS veteran with a single senior cap to his name.  Buddle has played for four different MLS teams, and has battled injuries, substance abuse issues and a reputation for laziness.  Nobody has doubted Buddle’s natural gifts, and those moments when he has been focused and injury-free have generated some terrific runs of form.  However Buddle’s career has never attracted the interest of either overseas teams or US National Team coaches.

Yet, his startling 2010 streak has generated a lot of buzz.  But does he have what it takes to go to South Africa?  This is the debate that is going on in my head:

Take Him to Africa!  The man is scoring goals.  With Charlie Davies and Brian Ching still a huge doubt, Conor Casey’s stock falling, and Kenny Cooper unable to get off the bench at Plymouth (!!), it would be nice to put a striker on the team who is actually putting the ball in the net.

Leave him home!   Buddle is hot at the moment, but let’s have a little perspective.  After spending nine years without getting a sniff at an important position with the Nats, after four games he is our savior?  Let’s not confuse the flavor of the month with a gourmet classic.

But this hot streak is not out of the blue.  Instead of going home to New York this off-season, Buddle stayed in Los Angeles working out.  He hit the gym and the training ground, worked on his game, and came to pre-season training in top shape.  Buddle, who has been susceptible to running out of gas and losing a step after about 60 minutes is now working hard and battling for every ball for all 90 minutes.  The 2010 Buddle is the Buddle that he always should have been.

Buddle may be in good shape, but everyone’s focus on Donovan has given Buddle more room to play than he has ever had.  Every opposing MLS manager approaches their game against the Galaxy with one objective – contain Landon Donovan.  Donovan is quicker and has better ball control than any other player in MLS, and he has the ability to cut open any MLS defense.  As opposing teams shift to deny Donovan as much space as they can, Buddle has found acres available for him to drive to the goal and score.

Have you seen Buddle playing?  He is fighting though bodies for all his goals.  Last Saturday was a great example.  All game Buddle was battling RSL’s Nat Borchers whether the ball was at his feet or 50 yards away.  They were throwing each other to the turf and at times it resembled UFC as much as it did MLS.  However, Buddle kept his cool all game, fought through Borchers and several others for his first headed goal and darted through several defenders to receive Juninho’s pass, controlled the ball and blasted it into the RSL net for his second.

Even if we agree Buddle is good enough, is he what the Nats need?   Buddle’s game is similar to Jozy Altidore’s.  Buddle is big and strong, and what we need is deft and quick to pair with Jozy.  That is why the Davies/Altidore combination was so good, and if we play Buddle and Altidore together, where is the speed to match the brawn?

You are telling me what we need, and I am telling you what we have.  Having Davies healthy would be great.  Having another super-quick striker would be terrific.  Having Leo Messi decide to become an American citizen would be fabulous.  Unfortunately, Bob Bradley has to play the cards that are in his deck.  The fact of the matter is that the talent pool for the Nats at striker is pretty shallow, and if Buddle is scoring good goals in bunches, that has to count for a lot.

The next thing you are going to tell me is that we should take Herculez Gomez too. 

Actually, I think we should, but that is a debate for another time. 

Other random notes from the Galaxy-RSL game…..

• The new fashion in replica kit-wear?  I saw at least a dozen Galaxy fans wearing Donovan’s #9 Everton jersey at the game.  Moreover, four or five of those fans decided to show-off their inside-knowledge coolness by purchasing and wearing the Toffee’s away black jersey with Donovan’s name and number. 
• About 1,000 Galaxy fans showed up two hours before the game to watch British celebrities and ex-footballers play celebrities and ex-footballers from the rest of the world.  The Brits won 3-1.  Fox Soccer Channel’s  and ex Newcastle player Warren Barton got the first goal for the Brits and X-Men III and Snatch’s Vinnie Jones got the next two, including one from a nice cross by The Queen’s and Frost/Nixon’s Michael Sheen.  Heroes’ Santiago Cabrera pulled one back for the rest for the world at the very end.  Despite the Galaxy promising that Gordon Ramsey would be there, he was actually a no-show.  Ramsey, you are a disgrace!!

As Landon Donovan settles into the Everton, Michael Bradley becomes even more a fixture at the Bundesliga, and Stuart Holden and Ricardo Clark leave the US and take big career risks to fight for a position on European teams, many American fans are bemoaning the fate of the MLS. What if all our stars go to Europe? What if the MLS becomes just a developmental league for European teams?

It may be counter-intuitive, and perhaps a little heretical, but soccer in America, and MLS in particular, can thrive as an exporter of quality domestic talent.

As I have said before, there are plenty of great soccer nations that export all their quality players and yet command a fervent following from their fans. Nearly every great Dutch player plays outside of Holland, and that does not make the Ajax fans walk around bemoaning the state of their league. The majority of the Argentina national team plays in Europe, and the River vs. Boca Super Classico in Buenos Aires makes the Galaxy/Chivas Superclassico look like a garden party. And of course, there is not a single member of the Brazil starting XI who plays for a Brazilian club team (with the possible exception of the newly outcast Robinho), but there are still over 400 teams in the Brazilian Football Confederation.

For the casual US soccer fan, they need to know MLS is not some rinky-dink outfit full of future high-school soccer coaches and European geriatrics. Nothing affirms the quality of our domestic league like watching our players be able to compete in the best leagues of Europe. As Donovan, Bradley, Clint Dempsey, and Tim Howard move from MLS, lock down starting XI positions and square off on a weekly basis against the best talents in the world, casual fans begin to accept the product put out by MLS as worthy of their attention and support.

The more talent we export, or more precisely, the more MLS talent is craved in Europe, the more esteem MLS will garner among US fans. As US players head off to Europe, US soccer fans are affirmed in their decision to follow the teams that can create that type of quality. As the US fans learn, through the experiences of our US players, about the culture and atmosphere of European soccer teams, they will want to replicate that atmosphere here with our domestic league.

Most importantly, the success of soccer in America has far more to do with the success of the US National Team than it does Major League Soccer. Do you want to see full MLS stadiums this summer and fall? If the US team has a decent run in South Africa, it will make a MLS ticket one of the hottest tickets in town. For the US to do well in South Africa, its best player must spend a lot of time in Europe playing against the best the world has to offer. I don’t think anyone seriously argues with that (if you do, I have the US/Honduras game from last month featuring a mostly MLS team on my Tivo to show you). Will Donovan, Clark and Holden be better players this summer after their European experiences? There is little doubt they will be.

Sometime in the coming years, the US will hopefully produce a truly world class outfield player – a player who may start in MLS, but will go on to play an important role for one of the great teams of Europe. The moment when some US player takes off their Kansas City Wizards or Columbus Crew uniform and puts on their Real Madrid or Manchester United kit will be one of the great moments in MLS history – the moment when the MLS will have truly arrived as a great league worthy of the casual sports fans’ attention.