For most of us, USA losing to Belgium was not only a tough loss, but a loss too soon in the World Cup. Worst part, we have to wait 4 more year till the next World Cup!! Or do we?
Every summer until the next World Cup in 2018, USA is scheduled to participate in major continental tournaments. It may not be the World Cup, the same level of opposition talent, or talent on our end, but what it will do is provide manager Jurgen Klinnsman 3 chances to see the younger guys. Some of which we saw this summer, a chance to start against regional rivals, a chance for the younger guys and “older” veterans to mesh together and see what we have. So if you did watch casually this summer, or did pick up “some” interest and want to see more but don’t want to wait four years, you don’t have to:
2015 Concacaf gold cup will be held in July 7-26 of 2015. This is a 12 nation tournament. USA, Mexico, Canada automatically qualify, with 4 from the Caribbean zone after the 2014 Caribbean cup, 4 from Central America after the Copa CentroAmericano, and a play between a Caribbean and Central American nation. The host country is still to be determined (most likely USA, Mexico, or maybe both).
Only taking a guess, but I think we will see players at the end of their national team careers like Beckerman, Rimando mixed in with young players like Julian Green, DeAndre Yedlin as starters. Maybe we might see Revolutions Andrew Farrell, or maybe EVEN Diego Fagundez get a USA call up? The winner of the cup will play winner from 2013 (USA) in a playoff for the 2017 Confederations cup in Russia, which I will mention later
USA won 2013 gold cup
In 2016 the South American soccer association CONMEBOL will be celebrating 100 years. And as part of the celebrations, they will expand their Copa America and join Concacaf for the 2016 Copa America Centenario. With only 10 countries in CONMEBOL they usually invite two foreign nations to participate to make it a even 12. The United States will be the host country too!
This could be a chance to save your pennies, or JetBlue sky points on your AMEX card to fly to a host city and see these teams play! One host city will be Orlando (MCO). I believe we will see some of the best Americans on this squad, as we will for the South Americans, we will also see a lot of the rising stars compete too.
In 2017 we will have the FIFA Confederations cup in Russia. It is a tournament held a year before the World Cup, in the same host nation (Russia hosting 2018 world cup). It is a 8 nation tournament made up of all the continental winners in the last 4 years, North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, 2014 world cup, and Russia. Since USA won the 2013 concacaf gold cup, if they win again next summer, then they qualify automatically. If another nation wins it, then they play in a playoff to qualify.
Also in 2017, the CONCACAF gold cup again. Although you gotta feel the USA is more interested in the Confederations cup, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a weaker side play in this tournament, if USA qualifies for the Confeds cup, that is where we will see the strongest side compete.
So even though the next World Cup isn’t until 2018, there is still a lot of soccer to be played until then. Potentially 4 major international tournaments. Many opportunities until the 2018 world cup to watch USA play, watch the development of younger players, and maybe become a fan of a few, but that will be up to you, if you are just a casual fan, or less. So mark the dates down to remember.
