We at Astroheader have complained about the FIFA World Rankings before. FIFA has outdone themselves with the October 2009 version. Just an FYI, these rankings came out after the last round of World Cup qualifying on October 14th. UEFA still has to play their play-off rounds.

• To start the BS, Croatia, who failed to qualify for the World Cup, moved up one spot to 8th. Makes sense.
• Argentina moved up two positions to 6th for barely making it in the last day of qualifying.
• Portugal, who has not even qualified yet and has to play in the UEFA playoffs, moved up seven positions to 10th. Who the hell are they stroking off at FIFA?
• The Czech Republic, who also failed to qualify for the World Cup, moved up three positions to 15th.
• And by far one of the most awesome examples of the stellar ranking system, Denmark. Denmark won their group (over high ranking Portugal) and was one of the first teams to qualify out of Europe but dropped eleven places to 27th.
• Serbia dropped seven positions for qualifying. Thanks for playing.

In a related story of FIFA douchebaggery:

The European playoffs for the World Cup are comprised of eight teams that play an additional home and home series for the last four places from the European region. At the beginning of qualification, these teams would be paired together by the means of a BLIND draw. Which means eight names go into a bucket, and are pulled at random.

After qualifying, since some of the bigger squads failed to qualify like France and Portugal (read above), FIFA decided against the blind draw and seeded the teams. Guess which teams got seeded and which got F’ed.

Results from the blind… err staged FIFA draw;

• Russia v Slovenia
• Greece v Ukraine
• Portugal v Bosnia
• Ireland v France

American keepers have been successful at the highest levels of English football. Everton’s Tim Howard (who started his English footballing career at Manchester United) might be one of the best.

Howard has been instrumental in leading Everton to the 2009 FA Cup Final against Chelsea. The final will be played May 30th at Wembley, and is the oldest football competition in the world.

Tim Howard and the Everton defense has also been given credit for an Everton record 16 cleansheets this season. After Everton’s 0-0 tie this weekend, Everton has gained a place in next season’s UEFA Cup. Any season that Everton earns a place in a European competition is a good season.

Howard, who is the number one keeper for the United States national team, is expected to lead the US to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Beckham has secured a new deal with AC Milan and the LA Galaxy. The dual contract will allow Beckham to stay with AC Milan till the end of the Serie A season and wont return to the United States till mid July. Beckham will miss 3+ months of the MLS season.

On the other hand, Landon Donovan is returning to LA this week. Scoring 4 goals in 5 friendly games for Bayern Munich was not enough to secure a more permanent move like LA teammate David Beckham.

Spanish La Liga leaders FC Barcelona have announced that they will not pursue an MLS expansion team in Miami insisting that current global market conditions make the deal hard.

The new MLS expansion team, the Seattle Sounders, have announced 20,000 season tickets have already been sold for their debut season.

United States Head Coach Bob Bradley has named his 20-man roster for the upcoming World Cup Qualifier against Mexico on February 11th in Columbus, Ohio.

Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Tim Howard (Everton)

Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Danny Califf (FC Midtjylland), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC)

Midfielders: DaMarcus Beasley (Rangers), Michael Bradley (Borussia Moenchengladbach), Ricardo Clark (Houston), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Robbie Rogers (Columbus), José Francisco Torres (Pachuca)

Forwards: Jozy Altidore (Xerez C.D.), Brian Ching (Houston), Charlie Davies (Hammarby) Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Landon Donovan (Bayern Munich)

I like to follow how Americans do in foreign countries, especially in Europe. Yanks Abroad is a great site that I watch closely. One of my favorite columns is 23 Tickets to South Africa. It is an article that places the top American talent in buckets based on the likelihood that they will be a member of the 2010 World Cup team.

We are about a year and a half from the 2010 World Cup and the young American talent has to start making a statement as we enter the final round of World Cup Qualifying (which will kick off here in Columbus against Mexico in February). I believe that Major League Soccer has risen the level of play of American soccer. We are better fit to complete on the world stage than we were 15 years ago. One reason is soccer is more popular, bringing more young talent in, but the MLS has provided better players and higher competition on a more consistent basis.

As I was reading the latest edition of 23 Tickets to South Africa, one detail caught my eye. There are very few MLS players on the list. Maybe a blog about Yanks in Europe would have a bias on players from across the pond. Possibly, but I don’t see any overwhelming mistakes. Maybe the level that is needed to play on the US National Team has risen above the level of MLS? Again, this is possible, but I don’t think we are quite to that level yet.

A quick breakdown from the 23 Tickets to South Africa article:

• Pack Your Bags Boys: 0 of 5 from MLS (though Donovan is on the list as Bayern)
• Nearly A Lock: 0 of 2 from MLS
• Fairly Safe Bet: 0 of 6 from MLS
• In A Battle: 2 of 4 from MLS
• Work to Do: 3 of 6 from MLS (including Marshall who is all but signed to play in Germany)

So, out of a possible 23 slots, MLS players hold 5. I don’t have a reason, or conspiracy theory on the original article. I just find it interesting that by 2010, MLS could have brought the level of play in the US up, then was surpassed. Meaning that playing in Europe is almost a needed skill to make the National Team.

FIFA has claimed time and time again that they have full confidence that South Africa will be prepared for the 2010 World Cup that is a little more than a year and a half away.

So confident in fact that FIFA approved the Finance Committee to take out a $650 million USD insurance policy in the chance that either the next two World Cups would need to be postponed or relocated due to terrorism, natural disasters, epidemics, war, accidents or turmoil.

The World Cup in 2010 in South Africa has bigger issues than the concern that the stadiums or overall infrastructure would not be ready in time, it is the security of the fans. No insurance policy will protect them from the high violence rates in South Africa.

Real Salt Lake opened the seventh soccer specific stadium last week. The Rio Tinto Stadium holds 20,000 fans and has real grass (I can’t stand fake turf fields). It is a beautiful stadium and cost $110 million ($65 million was private funding).

The Rio Tinto Stadium saw its first game last Thursday verse the New York Red Bulls. The game ended in a 1-1 tie.

The continual building of soccer specific stadiums shows the progress of soccer in the United States. These structures would not be added at $100 million if the league was failing. There is still some growth that needs to happen, but the MLS is on its way. Below are a few more shots of the stadium.

WHAT THE? is my review column of the World Cup Qualifiers and I only cover the interesting events.

This round of World Cup Qualifying was rather boring with the weekend seeing many draws and no awesome upsets.

-  Mexico was not able to handle Jamaica in a 0-1 lost. This is the closest thing to an upset all weekend. And while I love to see Mexico lose, I was hoping to see more.

- Italy was only about to grab a point against Bulgaria in a 1-1 tie.

- France had to come back from a 0-2 to end the game in a tie against Romania.

- Portugal was unable to score against Sweden in another intense 0-0 tie.

- On the other hand England was able to win (convincingly) against Kazakhstan, 5-1. This is bascially the way England is suppose to play considering the talent they have. The one goal by Kazakhstan was created off an error by Ashley Cole, which led to boos from the Wembley crowd. I get the England fans now, they want negative events to happen. Their team wins 5-1 and they boo a member of the team. England fans are pathetic.

Like I said before, it was a lame weekend of international games.

WHAT THE? is my review column of the World Cup Qualifiers and I only cover the interesting events.

-  The big upset of the day was Denmark coming back from 2 goals down to beat Portugal 3-2 in Libson. How embarrassing. The Danes scored in the 82nd, 89th and 90th minute to seal the victory. Ronaldo was not playing due to the ankle injury but Portugal should have easily won this game.

-  Luxembourg scored in the 86th minute to secure a 2-1 win over Switzerland. Luxembourg is the true definition of a European minnow and this win is a great victory for the country.

-  Miroslav Klose scored a hat trick for Germany but it still wasn’t enough as they tied Finland 3-3. Klose actually scored in the 83rd min. to tie the game.

-  Northern Ireland held a strong Czech Republic to a 0-0 draw to get their first points of World Cup Qualifying.

-  England hammered Croatia 4-1, but the real news came from who scored the goals. Theo Walcott, the Arsenal teenager had a hat trick as he started in place of David Beckham. Walcott does not even start for Arsenal…very interesting.

-  Brazil was unable to get all 3 points at home against Bolivia with a 0-0 tie. Brazil is now in tied for 2nd place in the table, 4 points behind South American group leaders Paraguay.

-  Argentina let Peru score a stoppage time goal in the 2nd half to tie the match 1-1. Argentina is now tied with Brazil with 13 points in the South American table.

That is all from World Cup Qualifying until the next round on October 11th.

FINAL: 3 USA V T&T 0

T&T had a greatly improved 2nd half.

But enough about them.

I’m worried. There’s a curse that has followed this team since at least 2006 and probably back much, much farther. The USA Men’s team has a severe deficiency in scoring during the run of play. And scoring off set pieces against CONCACAF teams does not make up for it. I saw balls at the feet of Ching, Donovan, Beasley, Johnson, and Kljestan in or around the T&T box that should have found net with minimal effort. How many times can a player hit a keeper’s chest and smile about it? You’re not Brazilian. Ronaldinho can laugh when he messes up because he plays for the greatest teams in the world, and likewise, the world knows he is one of the greatest. Dues paid. But Damarcus, just because Landon thinks you’re unlucky doesn’t preclude the rest of us from thinking you’re not good enough to earn the USA some respect in ‘10.

It’s very telling that the United States’ single goal in the 06 World Cup came during the run of play. Telling because in the presence of top-level teams we were only able to put one ball away, and telling because it didn’t come off a set piece.

The States squad has the type of players necessary to compete in 2010: Creative, quick thinkers who adapt and adjust. Adu, Edu, Dempsey, Altidore, and yes, sometimes Donovan, all have what it takes to evolve the program by streamlining our run-of-play play. Beasley too; I’ve seen it before. Ching, Johnson, Lewis… I’m sure you’re great guys but you’re not doing us any favors. Back to the minors with ya. You’ve got something to prove again.

Everyone else, figure out how to work with each other in flux, because that’s the nature of the game abroad. And South Africa will be very, very abroad.