Expand the Gold Cup

Is Expansion the Answer?

Is there a way to recruit another quality nation to join CONCACAF. CONCACAF is like the Big East in football. They are one of the weaker confederations. The Big 10 has added Nebraska to boost their image. The PAC 10 has added Colarado and Utah to boost their image. The ACC took 3 top teams from the Big East (BC, Virginia Tech and Miami) to boost their image.

I was wondering if CONCACAF could recruit a nation like Australia. Australia use to be the king of the Oceanic Confederation. They left for a better conference in the Asian CONFEDERATION. I was wondering if CONCACAF could recruit Australia to play in CONCACAF. This would provide another quality team. Just like the football conferences having a better Championship in football. Australia would make it possible to expand the Gold Cup to 16 nations. The Gold Cup could have USA, Mexico, Canada and Australia anchor each group. Back them up with 5 quality teams each from the Central America and 7 nations from the Caribbean. Finally CONCACAF could have the highly important group stage games.

If not Australia what about Greenland. Greenland is a North American nation.Greenland could provide the Denmark B team. Almost every European B side is much better that every Caribbean nation. Greenland could boost the image of CONCACAF and the Gold Cup. This would also give the Gold Cup some European exposure.

I think since the USA lost it’s bid to host the World Cup 2014, 2018 and 2022 they have to do something to improve the Gold Cup. How about inviting 2 European nations to participate. How about European powers like Ireland and Poland. These nations are very competitive and would have a huge fan base in the States. These European powers would strengthen a 16 nation Gold Cup. Place these nations in a group with Mexico and USA. These nations would provide badly need competition for the top CONCACAF nations. It would allow the Gold Cup to expand to 16 nations. It would create a buzz. It would give a World Cup feel to the Gold Cup since the World Cup is based on corruption the USA may never get it again.. It would have international stars like Robbie Keane and quality international coaches like Giovanni Trapattoni participate.

How about just combining with CONMEBOL and take the big step…..a

USA vs. Ireland (Ireland by a mile)

The USA is lacking in quality games as apposed to our European counterparts. Since I follow the Republic of Ireland (typical European team) I want to compare the 2 teams. Following the World Cup the USA has had 3 pathetic friendlies. Yes pathetic since they are friendlies. The game is an experiment for Bradley to see who can play when the important games come. More on the “important game later”. Ireland on the other hand has played 4 meaningful and competitive games. Ireland will play another 6 meaningful 2012 Euro 2012 qualifiers in 2011. The USA will play the Gold Cup in 2011. The games are only competitive in the knockout rounds. So if the USA makes the final they will play 3 so called competitive games.
To further examine the competition Ireland will be playing 4 games against superior nations. They will play Russia and Slovakia in home/away series. The 3 other nations (Macedonia, Armenia, Andorra) will severely test Ireland. These so called lesser teams have quality players. Andorra for example has 7 players playing in the Spanish league. Imagine if Guatemala had 7 players in the Spanish league. They would probably be Central American champs and be a real threat to win the Gold Cup. The yanks will play NO ONE ranked higher then themselves. Every nation in CONCACAF is ranked much lower than my yanks.
To take this a step further all of the so called competitive games the yanks will play will be on home soil. That right….my Yanks will be playing the Gold Cup on their home surface which gives them a HUGE advantage. Ireland has to play at 5 hostile venues against better competition.
This has hurt the development of US soccer. The interest is just not there even when the USA played Columbia the other night. There was under 10,000 in attendance. The game was hard to watch in the first half. The USA had no scoring chances. They looked like misfits in the 1st half. Ireland could not experiment with such games or they would be eliminated from Euro 2012. There was absolutely no flow to the game. I bet if the Yanks played Ireland with that pathetic display we would have lost by multiple goals.
I am here to state I think that Ireland, a middle of the road team in Europe, has a much better team than my yanks. I know the FIFA rankings claim that the yanks are 18th and Ireland is 33rd but ranking are garbage.
Imagine if someday my yanks had their players playing in the English premier league. Not just the bottom teams but the top teams like Manchester United, Manchester City and Everton. These players are not just on the team but are starters for the English Premier League teams. I am not just talking the USA 11 starters but imagine the entire 22 man squad playing in the English Premier league. Wow…now that would be a team that could beat most European nations. Actually we would be Ireland. That is Irelands team and they are only a middle of the pack European team.
My yanks can keep playing friendlies while the rest of Europe plays competitive game against much better competition.