Like he has many times on the field, U.S. international goalkeeper Kasey Keller used his hands to take the suspense out of the USA's concerns about their second-round opponents at the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying draw Sunday.
After CONCACAF minnows Barbados and Dominica were paired in the first opening-round confrontation, Keller then picked a name out of Pot A: USA.
No more wondering, no more waiting. Different venue, same old Keller.
Now it's up to coach Bob Bradley and the rest of the U.S. national team to make reaching the World Cup here as smooth a ride as possible.
The USA will start their quest for an unprecedented sixth consecutive World Cup when will take on the winner of that total goals, home-and-away series from June 7-29.
Barbados and Dominica aren't exactly world-beaters, let alone CONCACAF beaters at that. So, the USA should be overwhelming favorites regardless who they play in the aggregate goals, home-and-away series in June.
The degree of difficulty, however, should be much steeper in the semifinal round against two familiar foes -- Guatemala and Trinidad & Tobago -- and a new one (Cuba), if the first round goes according to form. That six-game round-robin series will begin Aug. 20.
"It will be competitive," Bradley said in the mixed zone at the International Convention Center. "It will be a group where we have to play very well."
The USA has taken on Guatemala twice this season, playing to a scoreless tie in an international friendly on March 28 and a 1-0 win in the CONCACAF Gold Cup on June 7. They've had their way with Trinidad & Tobago through the years -- the most important win in modern U.S. soccer history had to be the 1-0 victory at T&T to secure its first WC berth in 40 years, setting the stage for everything we know about MLS and the U.S. team internationally today (imagine if Tab Ramos, John Harkes, Eric Wynalda and company never had the opportunity to go overseas to home their skills to play reasonably well four years later at USA '94 and help establish MLS).
Cuba, a forbidden land to the USA, certainly would be an enticing foe for many reasons.
"Certainly an opportunity to play in Cuba can be significant," Bradley said. "I think the players would look forward to it."
But first things first: Barbados or Dominica.
First of all, the first-round series will mark the second consecutive World Cup qualifying tournament that the U.S. will play a Caribbean side. The U.S. defeated Grenada 6-2 in a home-and-away, total goals series in 2004.
Neither U.S. foe has participated in a World Cup and both countries were eliminated early in the 2006 competition.
Barbados could not get past the first round, losing to St. Kitts and Nevis 2-0 and 3-2. Dominica bested the Bahamas 3-1 in the second leg, after playing to a 1-1 tie in its first match in the opening round. However, Dominica met its match and then some in the second round as it was drubbed by Mexico by an aggregate score of 18-0 (8-0 and 10-0 losses).
If they USA can't get past either side, they might as well pack up their stuff and never play soccer internationally again. That's how much of favorite they should be. After all, the sport of choice on both islands is cricket and not soccer.
Barbados is 124th in the latest FIFA rankings, just behind Liechtenstein and a spot ahead of the Solomon Islands. Tourism is a big, big deal on an island with a population of 280,000.
They are searching for soccer players in Barbados. On the home page of the federation website, there is a message for prospective players:
Are you Barbadian by birth, nationality of descent?
Let us check it out for you.
Do you play football professionally?
Would you like to become a member of Barbados' national football programme?
Send us a note at bdosfootball@caribsurf.com or ronalddac@yahoo.com.
Digicel Cup, CONCACAF Gold Cup, World Cup 2010 South Africa beckon.
Give Barbados a chance.
Barbados' key player is midfielder Paul Ifill, who performs with Crystal Palace in England.
"Certainly we know that Barbados would be the favorite to advance," Bradley said. "They are a team that typically is physically talented and are starting to have more players competing overseas."
Then there's Dominica, which doesn't have a website at the moment. So measuring Dominica's soccer pulse is even more difficult. Dominica's entire population -- estimated at 72,000 -- can fit into Giants Stadium with several thousand seats to spare.
Dominica is ranked 189th, behind Afghanistan and ahead of the Central African Republic. Its latest result was a 5-0 loss to Barbados on Sept. 17, 2006, according to the FIFA website.
For the record, Barbados and Dominica met in the early rounds of the 1996 competition, with the former prevailing 1-0 in the total goals series.
Looking back
The U.S. played Barbados during the qualifying competition for Korea/Japan in 2000, which was only seven years ago, but something that seems light-years away.
On paper, the two games against Caribbean side in 2000 looked like a cakewalk. The first game, a 7-0 demolition in Foxborough, Mass. certainly was. The second game in Watertown, Barbados, in which the USA needed to win to reach the CONCACAF final round or see their World Cup hopes go down the drain.
They did, but not without much drama and nail-biting. U.S. coach Bruce Arena was serving a three-game suspension for that match for his conduct after a controversial late penalty kick call in a 2-1 loss at Costa Rica earlier that summer. Ditto for Claudio Reyna, who was finishing out a two-game ban.
Arena brought in 34-year-old Tab Ramos to run the national team. With Kasey Keller not getting much playing time with Rayo Vallecano in Spain and Brad Fridel just joining the Blackburn Rovers in England, a familiar face was called upon. Tony Meola, just off his regular-season and playoff MVP season with the then-MLS champion Kansas City Wizards, was called on to guard the goal. Clint Mathis, who just completed a career season (little did we know it he would never get close to those totals -- 16 goals and 14 assists -- again), made his qualifying debut.
Assistant coach Dave Sarachan took over the coaching reins while Bob Bradley, then coach of the Chicago Fire, came in to help out.
The game was played on a bumpy field that had ruts and even a major injury waiting to happen, thanks to a broken sprinkler.
"If we lose this game it's going to be embarrassing," Ramos said at the time. "This is not going to be an easy game by any means. I don't think we're going to win by more than two goals."
He was wrong. The U.S. won by four goals -- 4-0 -- although the visitors were forced to sweat it out, finally scoring on the hour on Mathis' goal. Then the dam broke and the U.S. cruised into the next round.
"I think the major lesson from that game is that World Cup qualifying is always challenging," Bradley said Sunday. "When you go away, the games can be difficult."
Looking ahead
Bradley never has been one to count his chickens before they hatch, but he took advantage of his two-week stay in South Africa to do some advance planning for the 2010 World Cup and the 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup.
Bradley said he enjoyed his stay, which certainly was helped by a 1-0 U.S. triumph Nov. 17 at Ellis Park in Johannesburg.
"The people are wonderful," he said. "They are very excited for this World Cup and we were treated unbelievably well everywhere we went. I knew the talent of the players here. We know them from other World Cups. We know some of the key ones from playing them in Europe.
"Following the game, I had the chance ... to start the process of looking around. I think clearly one of the challenges of this World Cup will be the weather, the altitude, it will be the winter. There's five or six venues where altitude will be a factor. So trying to find the right balance, trying to find out how prepare the right training camp, those are important things to start thinking about and getting a look at all the possibilities during this week helped us get going."
Of course, if the U.S. doesn't past the likes of Barbados, Dominica, Guatemala, Trinidad & Tobago and Cuba, all of that will have gone for naught.
Michael Lewis covers soccer for the New York Daily News and is editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He can be reached at SoccerWriter516@aol.com. Views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
