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What Americans simply refer to as the World Cup, the tournament
held in our country in ’94, is officially entitled the World
Cup Final. This is to emphasize the fact that the preliminary
qualifying competition held by the six continental confederations
is considered a part of the World Cup.
This competition began last year. The final round of the qualifying
tournament of North America’s soccer confederation, CONCACAF,
will begin on Feb. 28, 2001.
Our nation will play an interesting game on that date against
Mexico in Columbus, Ohio. In Federation Internationale de
Footboll Association’s most recent ranking of world’s men’s
national soccer teams, Mexico is the highest ranked from CONCACAF
at No. 12, and the U.S. is second on this continent at number
16 (203 nations are ranked).
The two countries have long been rivals on the soccer field.
And if the U.S. wants to finish first out of the six teams
in this round-robin final round, a not inconceivable possibility,
beating Mexico at home will be important, as the second game
against them will be in Mexico City.
The top three teams from CONCACAF’s qualifying tourney will
go to the 2002 World Cup, to be held in Korea and Japan, the
first World Cup ever co-hosted by two nations, and the first
to be held in Asia. After America’s dismal performance at
the last World Cup, France ’98, there was some concern about
the future of U.S. soccer.
But the team managed to finish on top of its group of four
in the CONCACAF semifinal round of competition, so things
are looking up again.
The U.S. v. Mexico game this Wednesday, Feb. 28, will be televised
live on ESPN2 at 6:30 p.m. Central Time.
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