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This week in US Soccer: The 2026 World Cup triumvirate

By Michael Harshbarger

NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 10: Sunil Gulati, (center) president of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), Canadian CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani (left) and Mexican Football Federation President Decio De Maria sign a unified bid for the 2026 soccer world cup on April 10, 2017 in New York City. Canada, the United States and Mexico launched their bid to co-host the 2026 World Cup at a news conference atop the Freedom Tower in lower Manhattan. The leaders of the three country's soccer federations are seeking to host the first World Cup with an expanded 48-nation field. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 10: Sunil Gulati, (center) president of the United States Soccer Federation (USSF), Canadian CONCACAF President Victor Montagliani (left) and Mexican Football Federation President Decio De Maria sign a unified bid for the 2026 soccer world cup on April 10, 2017 in New York City. Canada, the United States and Mexico launched their bid to co-host the 2026 World Cup at a news conference atop the Freedom Tower in lower Manhattan. The leaders of the three country's soccer federations are seeking to host the first World Cup with an expanded 48-nation field. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) /
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The countries of North America unite to bid for the 2026 World Cup, USWNT steamroll Russia and Americans abroad show out.

North America’s crazy bid for the 2026 World Cup maybe isn’t that crazy

The United States, Mexico and Canada have agreed to submit a bid for the 2026 World Cup together. Leaders of all three soccer federations came together to make the announcement atop the One World Trade Center in New York on Monday. There are a lot of questions — mostly how? and why? — surrounding this unprecedented decision.

The first thing that jumps out about the declaration is simply the show of unity by the three North American countries. Mexico joining the United States in any endeavor on a global stage is impressive considering the current political climate. Given the President has said a whole slew of not nice things about our neighbors to the south, and is currently trying to build a damn wall between the countries, it’s a wonder this agreement was even suggested, let alone agreed to.

But that is one of the main benefits of this joining of forces: the attempts made at employing a “travel ban” would seem to severely hamper a solo bid from the U.S. Mexico and Canada coming on board, and promises to FIFA that any World Cup qualifying country would be permitted to enter U.S. (sigh), greatly increases the possibility of World Cup games being played on American soil.

The benefits of a North American World Cup are obvious: the three countries already have the facilities and infrastructure to host the the tournament when it expands to a 48-team field. The 1994 World Cup hosted in the USA is still the record holder for overall attendance; Mexico has already hosted the tournament twice; Canada hosted the Women’s World Cup in 2015 and the total attendance was well over 1 million (how they would deal with their artificial grass stadiums remains to be explained).

Additionally, and rather surprisingly, SB Nation’s Kevin McCauley reported that USSF president Sunal Gulati said that President Donald Trump was completely in favor of the unified bid and “…was ‘especially excited’ that Mexico was involved” which is … something.

One hopes the current American political unrest will be but a bad memory by 2026, but it weighs heavily on this quest to host the World Cup, especially in light of the fact CONCACAF intend to call for an acceleration of the bid process that could see the decision made as early as the end of 2017, instead of in 2020, as originally planned.

If you haven’t already guessed, the majority of the World Cup matches would be hosted in the U.S. — 60 matches in fact. That leaves 10 each for Mexico and Canada. Also, all the matches from the quarterfinals on would take place in the United States.

With the 2018 and 2022 World Cups taking place in Europe and Asia, respectively, the USA-Mexico-Canada joint bid would really only be competing with whichever South American countries decide to throw in. That being the case, it’s hard to see how FIFA doesn’t award the 2026 World Cup to North America. And that’s wonderful news.

Related Story: 25 best club soccer teams of all time

Extras

The USWNT beat the tar out of Russia over the course of two friendlies last week, scoring nine goals while conceding only one. Crystal Dunn found the back of the net four times, scoring a brace in each match, while Allie Long scored twice in the opener. Newcomer Rose Lavelle opened her USWNT scoring account in the second match, but it was this soul-stealing move from Thursday that made fans take notice:

https://twitter.com/ussoccer_wnt/status/850158488991006720

Quite a few USMNT members playing overseas had a nice weekend for their clubs. Bobby Wood had a game-winning assist for Hamburg, Eric Lichaj scored for Nottingham Forest and Mix Diskerud, on loan from NYCFC, netted his first for IFK Goteborg. But this header from Hertha Berlin’s John Brooks takes the cake:

https://twitter.com/futbolsoccer79/status/851082941656596483

Any striker would love to claim that goal.

Same place, same time next week for more U.S. Soccer goodness, friends.

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