USA 8 Barbados 0

[Adam West]

In World Cup opening qualifiers. I realize Barbados is not a soccer powerhouse, the U.S. was expected to win 4-nil or so but it was 8-nil and it looked like U.S. was scoring at will and had a few goals called back.

I don't think anyone else mentioned that the U.S. tied Argentina (ranked #1 in the world) a couple of weeks ago so maybe the U.S. is slowly getting better and solidifying their starters.

It also appeared that although Mexico beat Belize 2-0, it really should have been by a bigger margin considering that the U.S. and Mexico are the only halfway decent teams. Canada, Costa Rica, Trinidad & Tobaggo can sometimes field something but nothing really of high caliber (not that the U.S. or Mexico are considered top tier teams by the rest of the World).

[toys2cool]

I'm not to much into soccer,but good for them

[Hector]

Adam, IMO...FIFA should get rid of the CONCACAF qualifiers, and bundle the entire Americas into one qualifier...I'm just sick and tired of seeing the big two (USA and Mexico) beating up on small Central American countries and Caribbean Islands...enough of that stuff.

USA and Mexico keep playing small because they keep playing small countries.

In order for them to improve is to match them with powerhouse like Brazil and Argentina on a more regular basis.

The USA and Mexico would get a lot more respect if they qualify to the World Cup if the beat South American teams, not the Barbados and Belize's of the world.

Besides, both the USA and Mexico would still be very competitive against teams like Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay...obviously the toughest would be Brazil and Argentina.

Get rid of the CONCACAF.

[Adam West]

Adam, IMO...FIFA should get rid of the CONCACAF qualifiers, and bundle the entire Americas into one qualifier...I'm just sick and tired of seeing the big two (USA and Mexico) beating up on small Central American countries and Caribbean Islands...enough of that stuff.

USA and Mexico keep playing small because they keep playing small countries.

In order for them to improve is to match them with powerhouse like Brazil and Argentina on a more regular basis.

The USA and Mexico would get a lot more respect if they qualify to the World Cup if the beat South American teams, not the Barbados and Belize's of the world.

Besides, both the USA and Mexico would still be very competitive against teams like Colombia, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay...obviously the toughest would be Brazil and Argentina.

Get rid of the CONCACAF.

Point well taken.

On the other hand, it does give an opportunity for a Costa Rica or Trinidad & Tobago to qualify where they would otherwise not have a shot if combined with South America. It is nice to see some teams from each continent represented even though they have no realistic chance of winning the whole thing especially when some of the teams from the Middle East make it.

It is also interesting to see how differently the various styles of play throughout the world.

Right now, the Netherlands is the best soccer team in the world in my opinion. A team that can beat both Italy and France each by 3 goals is just incredible and it could have been a bigger blowout.