World Cup Draw 2014: Are the United States Winners or Losers?

On Saturday, July 30, the preliminary World Cup draw took place in Rio De Janeiro. For CONCACAF, this was the draw for the second round of qualifying. There were 30 remaining CONCACAF nations, and the six top-ranked teams get to skip the second round of qualifying. 

According to the FIFA World Rankings, the top six squads in the region are the U.S., Mexico, Honduras, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Cuba. (I can't believe Cuba is ranked ahead of Panama and Canada, but the rankings used were from before the Gold Cup.) The four pots of teams ranked from seven to 30 were made into six groups of four, with most of the teams minnows, who have no chance of qualifying.  

Then, after the second round had been drawn, it was time for the third round. There were three pots. Pot 1 included the U.S., Mexico and Honduras, while Pot 2 included Jamaica, Costa Rica and Cuba. Pot 3 was made up of the possible winners of each second-round group.

They were drawn in to three groups of four. The U.S. was drawn in Group A with Jamaica, the winner of Group E (Grenada, Guatemala, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Belize) and the winner of Group F (Haiti, Antigua and Barbuda, Curacao and the U.S. Virgin Islands).

Mexico landed in Group B with Costa Rica and the winner of Group A (El Salvador, Suriname, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic) and the winner of Group B (Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Barbados and Bermuda).

Meanwhile, Honduras ended up with Cuba and the winner of Group D (Canada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Puerto Rico and Saint Lucia) and the winner of Group C (Panama, Dominica, Nicaragua and the Bahamas).

So, did the United States win or lose? Well, considering no matter what the groups turn out to be they should top their group anyway, you could say they won. But they probably didn't do as well as they hoped.  Drawing the winner of Group E (who I think will be Guatemala) and the winner of Group F (probably Haiti) isn't the bad part. It's easily Jamaica. They definitely drew the best and most talented team from Pot 2, and although the U.S. beat them 2-0 in the Gold Cup quarters, Jamaica showed us they are very much on the rise. Nonetheless, the States should win their group handily and progress to the fourth and final stage of qualifying.

As for Mexico, they landed with Costa Rica, a tough, physical team. They will also face the winner of Group A (most likely El Salvador) and the winner of Group C (probably Panama, but Nicaragua could sneak up). So, if El Salvador and Panama come through, they will have to face three physical and defensively tough Central American teams, one of whom was a semifinalist in the Gold Cup. But they are expected to, and should, handle it.

And finally, Cuba is snickering. They got a draw with the Honduras, by far the worst team in Pot 1. The only bad side, is they got drawn with the two most quality second-round groups, with Canada and Panama likely emerging from them to form the most interesting group of qualifiers, in my opinion.

We won't even know the actual groups until November 2nd, when the second round of qualifying ends. But until then,  I think the United States got a good draw.

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