World Cup fever has swept the United States in the past few weeks. Everywhere you look, it seems to be there. In fact, Nielsen is reporting that World Cup soccer telecasts aired on all English and Spanish language networks have reached an estimated 34% of all U.S. TV viewers. That's an incredible number when you consider how large the population is in the United States.

More photos » Matt Slocum - AP

Stadiums. It's all about stadiums. The 2022 World Cup will be here. Count on it.

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I'm not much an activist, demonstrator or crusader, but I may become one today.

The news of Bob Bradley returning to the US National team post for this new World Cup cycle is encouraging news for US Soccer. Paul Kennedy of Soccer America writes why retaining him for four more years became the only realistic option for U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati.
Spain victory trumps Ghana loss.

We now know that the 2022 World Cup will be held in Qatar. Here is a quick look at some of the venues that the games will be played at. Many of these soccer stadiums have not yet been built but from for look, it seems that the new stadiums could have played a role in Qatar winning the 2022 World Cup bid.

"Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright; The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light, And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout; But there is no joy in Mudville - mighty Casey has struck out." --Ernest Lawrence Thayer, from Casey At the Bat The United States lost its 2022 World Cup bid today to tiny Qatar, a tiny (and I know this isn't politically correct, these days) Middle Eastern.

The United States' video for their 2018/2022 World Cup Bids has it all. God Morgan Freeman narrating. Check. A (clearly disowned) Englishman telling FIFA to bring the World Cup to a country that accepts him. Check. 90 million fans across the country supporting every team in the world except the US Men's National Team.

Give it to us straight, Jon.
By lunchtime Thursday everyone (at least everyone that cares to know) will know the host nations of the 2018 and the 2022 World Cups. Certainly know which European nation will host the latter tournament is important to those with a horse in the race, but for the sake of American soccer we're watching the 2022 announcement with great anticipation.

The Al-Khalifa Stadium in Doha, Qatar.
The Guardian is reporting that FIFA and Sepp Blatter are set to announce that the 2018 World Cup bid process will be limited to European countries while the non-European bids will chase after the 2022 World Cup.
Believe it or not, I think this is a good move.

It's fairly absurd that the World Cup a full generation away from us in 2026 is critical for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting bids, but there's a chain reaction if China signals even a little more firmly that it will bid for the 2026 World Cup before FIFA's 24-man Executive Committee makes its determinations on 2018 and 2022 in December.

It's fairly absurd that the World Cup a full generation away from us in 2026 is critical for the 2018 and 2022 World Cup hosting bids, but there's a chain reaction if China signals even a little more firmly that it will bid for the 2026 World Cup before FIFA's 24-man Executive Committee makes its determinations on 2018 and 2022 in December.

More good news is emerging as the United States looks to bring the 2018 or 2022 World Cup home. China's Football Association has expressed interest in bidding for the 2026 World Cup. If the bid moves forward, China would be a strong candidate; FIFA would love to bring the world's biggest sporting event to the world's most populous nation.

Six months down the line, the general consensus seems to be that the World Cup held in South Africa this summer was the worst on record.

Far too many god-awful games, a peppering of overwrought gamesmanship, flagrant continent rape on FIFA's part and the tinnitus-inducing drone of the relentless vuvuzelas did not a 'Rainbow Tournament' make rather, a bit of a botch all things considered.

PARIS, France - FIFA president Sepp Blatter says Qatar's neighboring countries could host games at the 2022 World Cup. Qatar was designated the 2022 World Cup last week, despite concerns that the intense heat poses a serious health risk if the tournament is played in summer. In an interview with sports daily L'Equipe on Thursday, [.

Sepp Blatter appears to support a winter World Cup in Qatar. (AP Photo)

I thought I was done talking about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar but this news has me a bit excited. FIFA President Sepp Blatter and General Secretary Jerome Valcke expressed interest in moving the 2022 World Cup to winter in order to avoid the sweltering summer months of Qatar.

Sepp Blatter appears to support a winter World Cup in Qatar. (AP Photo)

I thought I was done talking about the 2022 World Cup in Qatar but this news has me a bit excited. FIFA President Sepp Blatter and General Secretary Jerome Valcke expressed interest in moving the 2022 World Cup to winter in order to avoid the sweltering summer months of Qatar.

It's come down to this folks... This coming Tuesday the US World Cup bid committee will cut down the list of Host cities from 27 cities down to 18. All this as the U.S. looks to get either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup.

Miami Fans have come out and supported this bid like never before and it is a good sign that almost 11,000 people have signed up already.

The USA World Cup bid has a lot going for it. Stadiums in abundance. Infrastructure up to the task. The capacity to make enough money that even FIFA should drool at the possibilities. Aside from that pesky "just hosted in 1994" problem, there are no holes in the American bid. If FIFA chooses to go in another direction, it won't be because the United States isn't the best place to hold the 2022 World Cup.

Union

With Saturday's win over the Energy Drinks (ending their five-game unbeaten streak), Peter Nowak says, "We think we can compete with any team. The tag of an expansion team is long gone." More reaction to the win from the Daily News, Goal.com (1) and (2), MLSsoccer.com, Soccer By Ives, Big Apple Soccer (Marquez blames tactics and "the condition of the field.

When FIFA voted to hold the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, it was promoted as "bringing football to a new world and a new culture" as well as bringing the World Cup to the "entire Middle East." And now, it seems that sentiment might be taken quite literally by the game's governing bodies as the 2022 World Cup in Qatar may very well change the way have ever held the tournament before.

The United States has been the favorite to win the 2022 World Cup bid since it dropped its 2018 bid to clear the way for a European nation. Going up against a Middle Eastern country, two Asian nations that previously hosted, and an island nation with little soccer culture, the U.S. has the money, media presence, and soccer infrastructure to guarantee a successful World Cup.

England bagged just two votes FIFA has released an official voting record for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups on its website. Unfortunately, we don't yet know who voted for what but it does confirm that England's 2018 bid crashed out in the first round of voting with just two votes. See the full records [.

The US Bid Committee has revealed it's list of 18 cities that be be included on the 2018/2022 World Cup bids.

The 18 cities are:

Atlanta, San Diego, Phoenix, Dallas, Seattle, Denver, Tampa Bay, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Nashville, Kansas City, Houston, Miami, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Washington D.

By Clemente Lisi - EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ (May 7, 2010) US Soccer Players -- The USA World Cup bid is looking to an unlikely ally to help land either the 2018 or 2022 World Cup: Mexico. Mexican Football Federation president Justino Compean announced that his country was enthusiastically throwing their support behind the US bid.

So shocked, I almost fell out of my chair.

Think Argentina will lift the World Cup? Bet with Betfair and get £25 free!

Quality CaughtOffside World Cup T-Shirts Available

Fifa are to investigate claims that Australia's team bidding to host the 2022 World Cup gave gifts to try and influence votes.

we will no longer be anything less than a world power in the sport of "football, futbol, soccer". We believe that the XI steps that we will unveil in the coming days are steps that must be taken over the next 12 year to result in the United States winning the 2022 World Cup, anything less is simply unacceptable

XI for '22

Over the next several days the SBN soccer bloggers will be posting a list of eleven ideas to take US soccer from being a decent side to be a great one.

by Vlad Bouchouev

We're barely halfway through the year and we can already say that 2010 was a big year for US soccer. In the past six months we have seen the construction of two more soccer-specific stadiums, the arrival of five more designated players, and the addition of yet another MLS franchise along with the announcement of a 19th MLS team.

For the second time in recent memory, the Americans are attempting to host a World Cup. The Go USA bid for 2018 and 2022 may have generated less media attention than its European competitors, but make no mistake: the Americans want it. Bill Clinton, Michael Bloomberg, Henry Kissinger, Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman have all lent their names behind the cause.

WASHINGTON, DC — President Barack Obama says FIFA made the "wrong decision" in awarding the 2022 World Cup to Qatar over the United States. The U.S. Soccer Federation spent millions of dollars on its bid. Former President Bill Clinton was highly involved in the process and participated in the closing presentation.

For someone like me who has ties to both England and the United States, the decision by FIFA to award the 2018 and 2022 World Cup tournaments to Russia and Qatar respectively hurts.

I watched the announcement Thursday morning on BBC World News from my cabin aboard the Norwegian Dawn cruise ship while sailing north west of Cuba on unusually stormy seas.

Quotes from US soccer personalities regarding losing the 2022 World Cup bid to Qatar:

US Soccer President Sunil Gulati
"It's politics, it's friendships and relationships, it's alliances, it's tactics."

"There are far too many permutations, especially with two World Cups being decided on the same day, and I am not smart enough to figure out how all those played out in these two elections.

Swamped today, but I wanted to get these things out there:

• Yes, the USA got hosed on hosting the 2022 World Cup. It happens. Jeff Bradley nails it in that this wasn't going to be The Thing That's Going To Make Us (no one thing is). This is how the game works now, boys and girls.

Let's admit it, from the perspective of the average football fan, the idea of holding the World Cup finals in a country controlled by Sharia law (though the civil judicial system also contains the Adlia court with roots in British common law). The World Cup finals, from the vantage point of the typical football fan, involves drinking numerous alcoholic beverages, the presence of many scantily clad women, and the consumption of numerous pork products.

Man oh man, what a few weeks it's been. Apologies for the brief hiatus but the finals crunch has proved pretty time consuming. So I figured now would be as good a time as any to introduce a new segment called "In case you've been living under a rock..." where I'll run through all the top events that I've missed since my last post.

With a few days perspective, Christopher Riordan and myself are set to give our thoughts on the decision to award Qatar the 2022 World Cup. On this edition of the Major League Soccer Talk podcast, we talk about the decision, FIFA corruption, American entitlement and exceptionalism, press failings, and how to move forward.

At the risk of sounding like American-hating, socialist-sympathizing, Hispanic-espousing, nothing-new-to-be-saying Paul Gardner...it's time for U.S. soccer fans to get over it. This decision that FIFA made on the 2022 World Cup: holding the World Cup in a country that could not qualify on its own, a country without a world-class player from inside its borders, a country whose bid book was wrapped in money.

The home city of the United States Soccer Federation, the nation's third largest city, the city that recently bid for the 2016 Olympic Games, the city that played host to the opening game in the 1994 World Cup, a city with a storied soccer history and a richly diverse soccer culture, my sweet home Chicago, is not on the list of cities for the United States' 2018 and 2022 World Cup bid, the Federation announced today.

This afternoon the U.S. World Cup bid committee announced the list of 18 cities that would be submitted as a part of the bid to host the 2018/2022 World Cup.

According to U.S. Soccer Federation president Sunil Gulati, the final list of cities average a stadium capacity of around 78,000, with the possibility of 5,000,000 World Cup tickets available for either a 2018 or 2022 tournament.

Shocking news. Absolute shocking news. Okay, sorry for the sarcasm but the news today that an European country will likely be awarded the 2018 World Cup is really no shock at all. The rest of the world will likely have to just wait for the 2022 World Cup now.

"From what I've discussed with the president of Uefa, Michel Platini, in the last few days in Moscow is that only a European candidate will be evaluated for the 2018 World Cup," Blatter said.

It's the Messiah and Ibracadabra! Oh dear, how we've missed thee. Anyway, our friends can't stop yelling Bobojan's names into our ears so we just had to put this up. This and the fact that Senor Pep was recently inducted an ambassador for Qatar's 2022 World Cup bid.

Hate these Saturday nights. There you are sat watching Doctor Who wondering why you'll never get the chance to go time travelling with Amy Pond when suddenly you realise the neighbours are having a party. What do you do? Ignore it, gatecrash it, call the police? Or just sit silently fuming, hoping they have a really bad night?