The road to the 2014 World Cup looks like it will be familiar for the U.S. men’s national team. U.S. Soccer announced that the CONCACAF qualifying proposal it has sent to FIFA for approval includes the traditional six-team round-robin final stage, known as the “hexagonal.”
The United States also would avoid an opening-round series against a Caribbean minnow, which was good only for inflating statistics.
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It may not be easier than a rumored earlier proposal that would have split the final stage into two groups of four, but it will keep qualification compelling by preserving the home-and-home series between the United States and Mexico.
D.C. United forward Charlie Davies nearly gave the United States its first victory in Mexico City when he scored the opening goal in a 2-1 loss in August 2009, and Mexico is 1-9-2 vs. the United States north of the border since 1999.
Two groups of four might have made it easier for the United States and Mexico, the region’s top two teams, to get to Brazil, but avoiding one another would have deprived soccer of one of its best rivalries.
