It's amazing what a change in coaches can do. Just three weeks after Thomas Rongen (yeah, the same guy who coached the Mutiny, Revolution and Chivas in MLS and the US U20s) took over for American Samoa, they notched their first win... ever. And to follow up that 'miracle', they drew Cook Island 1-1 after they scored an own goal in a game which they dominated for extended periods of time.

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The U.S. men's national team's quest to qualify for the 2014 World Cup will begin at home.

CONCACAF released the schedule for the third round of World Cup qualifying, and the United States will open its campaign in Group A with a home game against Antigua & Barbuda on June 8, 2012.

By JOEY SAMUEL

When Argentina opened its campaign to qualify for the 2014 World Cup with a commanding 4-1 win over Chile, things looked to be back on track for the Albiceleste after a disastrous 2011 Copa America.

But only two games later, that optimism has completely faded away.

By FRANCO PANIZO

The final round of matches in the second round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying might as well not be played, as all the teams to advance are now known.

The six teams to secure their passage into the third round of qualifying were finalized on Friday, with Canada being one of the teams to secure its passage.

Argentina's qualifying campaign for the 2014 World Cup hit another bump in the road on Friday afternoon where, in the glorious Monumental sunshine, Bolivia took the lead and eventually held the hosts to a 1-1 draw in the third round ... Continue reading →

In under two hours, Argentina and Bolivia will be contesting their third 2014 World Cup qualifying match in the Estadio Monumental, and these are the teams that will be doing it. A late injury in training yesterday to Sergio Agüero ... Continue reading →

With the exception of the contracted Group C, all of the second round groups in CONCACAF's World Cup qualifying will finish with home-and-away matches between the same two teams. It is quite odd that CONCACAF chose to schedule the games this way instead of the usual double round-robin, but the schedule has created two-leg series with a twist in four of the six groups.

By JOEY SAMUEL

Different coach, same old inconsistency.

That was the story Tuesday night as Argentina slumped to a 1-0 defeat away to Venezuela in the second round of 2014 World Cup qualifying in South America. Despite replacing coach Sergio Batista after a poor performance at the 2011 Copa America, Argentina once again struggled against a lesser opponent under new coach Alejandro Sabella.

By JOEY SAMUEL

Last summer, Uruguay shocked the world by advancing all the way to the semifinals of the 2010 World Cup. On Friday, they started their path to the next World Cup in style.

Uruguay, which also won the 2011 Copa America this summer, opened their 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign in CONMEBOL with a 4-2 win over Bolivia.

Canada's quest to qualify for the 2014 FIFA World Cup has started off in fine fashion.

After beating St. Lucia convincingly on Friday, the Canadians topped Puerto Rico by a 3-0 scoreline on the road behind goals from Iain Hume, Simeon Jackson and Tossaint Ricketts to take early control of Group D on Tuesday.

A number of surprises at today's draw for the preliminary rounds of the 2014 World Cup. See the entire worldwide draw here. The big headline is that Spain and France were drawn into the same group, where the top team qualifies, along with the best second place team of the nine groups. The other eight second place teams pair off and play a home-and-home for the last four of Europe's 14 qualifying
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We may be nearly three years away from the kickoff of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil but the first major step towards determining who will take part occurred in Rio de Janeiro with the preliminary draw for World Cup qualifying on Saturday.

The United States, which gets a buy until the third round of CONCACAF qualifying, was drawn into Group A along with Jamaica and the winners of Group E and Group F from round two.

England will face Montenegro, Ukraine, Poland, Moldova and San Marino in their qualifying group for the 2016 World Cup in Brazil. The draw was made in Rio De Janeiro this evening. Fat Ronaldo was responsible for pulling England's name out of the hat.

photo by Andrew Katsampes/ISIphotos.com

By FRANCO PANIZO

Jonathan Spector has spent the last five years with West Ham United, but his time with the club appears to have come to a end.

Spector is officially a free agent after failing to agree to new a deal with West Ham, which will be attempting to gain promotion to the Premiership next season.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

CONCACAF has submitted its proposal for 2014 World Cup qualifying to FIFA, and under the proposed set-up, the United States and the five other highest-ranked teams in the region according to the March FIFA world rankings will begin qualifying in the semifinal round in June, 2012.

Yes, I know I was a little flip in my last post on the World Cup qualifying format, so it's time to write something more serious. First of all, here is the new format: First Round: National teams ranked 26-35 (10 teams) will play in five two-leg series. Second Round: National teams ranked 7-25 (19 teams) will join the five winners from the First Round.

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United States-Mexico World Cup qualifiers might not be a thing of the past after all.

CONCACAF officials have submitted a World Cup qualifying plan to the region's executive committee that would keep the current hexagonal format intact.

(Summary is not available.)

According to Andrés Cantor, CONCACAF's Executive Committee will meet in Panama to finalize the format for 2014 World Cup Qualifying. I had thought that it was a done deal (they had voted to switch formats in May), so I'm not sure if they are working out the particulars of the new format or still debating whether to maintain the Hexagonal final round.

The big match-fixing trial in Bochum is happening, and so the games themselves are rising to the surface. One such game arose today the above World Cup qualifier between Finland and Liechtenstein back in September of 2009. The fixer, Ante Sapina, said that he requested both goals come in the second half, which they did one off a penalty for absolutely no apparent reason (blind elbow?