The Daily Bee: The USMNT Wastes Momentum Again, Draws With Jamaica

Good morning, everyone.

Last Friday, the U.S. Men’s National Team played one of their best matches in years, completely dominating their arch-rivals Mexico, and deservedly winning 2-0. The win propelled the USMNT to the top of the table in the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers, setting the team well on course to qualify for the World Cup.

Naturally, in what has become an all-too-common trend for the United States, the Americans immediately blew all their momentum last night, failing to defeat lowly Jamaica. They registered a measly two shots on goal over ninety minutes, and failed to take advantage of an early goal from Timothy Weah, allowing Jamaica back into the game less than 15 minutes later.

This result, accompanied by Canada’s 2-1 victory over Mexico in the frozen wasteland known as Edmonton, Alberta, pushed the USA down into second place. While they’re still in a place to qualify, they’re only one point above Panama in fourth place. If they do slip below Panama and Mexico, they would have to go to an additional playoff round with teams from the other FIFA conferences.

UEFA World Cup Qualifiers

The European World Cup Qualifiers concluded yesterday. Belgium and the Netherlands officially qualified, the latter officially knocking out Norway with a 2-0 win. This means that Erling Haaland will not be participating in the 2022 World Cup. By drawing Belgium, Wales managed to stay a point ahead of the Czech Republic and make the qualification playoff. Ukraine also beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0, allowing them to leapfrog Finland into the qualification spot.

That leaves the following teams to fight it out:

Portugal

Scotland

Italy

Russia

Sweden

Wales

Turkey

Poland

North Macedonia

Ukraine

Austria

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic and Austria didn’t finish in second place in their groups, but they qualified for the playoff because they were the first and second ranked teams in the Nations League, of all the other teams that hadn’t already qualified.

The twelve teams will be divided into pots and be drawn to play each other in a knockout tournament. The pots will be divided into three branches, and the winner of each branch will qualify for the World Cup, so three of the above listed teams will be able to make it to Qatar.

The playoffs are scheduled to begin on March 24th, 2022, and the final will be played on March 29th.

The Daily Buzz

Which European teams remaining in the playoff round will make the World Cup?