COLUMBUS - Columbus Crew General Manager Mark McCullers announced today that The Crew will host a viewing party at Crew Stadium for the U.S.-Trinidad & Tobago World Cup Qualifying match on Wednesday, August 17, at 8 p.m. (ET). Tomorrow's game will be shown in the Huntington Club and is televised live on ESPN2.
The Huntington Club will open at 7:45 p.m. and admission to the viewing party is free. The Crew also hosts FC Dallas on Saturday, August 20, at 4 p.m. at Crew Stadium with gates opening at 2:30 p.m.
The U.S qualifier vs. Trinidad & Tobago is the last qualifying match before the much anticipated U.S.-Mexico qualifier on September 3 at Crew Stadium. The Labor Day weekend tilt in Crew Stadium, presented by Budweiser, will be televised live at 7:30 p.m. (ET) on ESPN Classic and Telemundo.
The U.S. is currently in second place in the final round qualifying for the 2006 FIFA World Cup with 12 points and a 4-1-0 record, while Mexico has 13 points and a 4-0-1 record. Both teams will be in action on August 17 as the U.S. hosts Trinidad & Tobago in East Hartford, Conn., and Mexico hosts Costa Rica in Mexico City.
Tickets for the U.S. vs. Mexico World Cup qualifier in Columbus, Ohio, on Sept. 3, sold out minutes after they went on sale to the general public on August 2. Anticipating the biggest international soccer event in Crew Stadium since the U.S. faced Mexico on Feb. 28, 2001, fans snapped up tickets during a week-long presale for select members of the U.S. Soccer community, including registered ussoccerfan.com members and Crew season ticket holders. The remaining tickets sold out in 20 minutes.
The Crew Stadium match will be the fifth World Cup qualifier hosted by the six-year old venue. The U.S. has a 2-0-2 record in qualifying and a 3-0-3 all-time record there. In 2004, the U.S. defeated Grenada on June 13 by a 3-0 score in a second round qualifying match before tying Jamaica 1-1 in the final match of the semifinal round on November 17. The U.S. matches at Crew Stadium also include the 2-0 victory over Mexico in Crew Stadium in the last U.S. final round qualifier vs. the Tricolores at home. In that match on Feb. 28, 2001, Josh Wolff and Earnie Stewart scored for the U.S. before a sold-out crowd of 24,624 fans who braved freezing temperatures.
The U.S., along with Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama and Trinidad & Tobago, is competing in the 10-game round-robin format tournament from Feb. 9 through Oct. 12, 2005, with the top three teams automatically advancing to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. The fourth-place team will compete in a two-game playoff to be held Nov. 12/13 and Nov. 16 against the fifth-place finisher in Asian qualifying.
