The Soccer Thread (Version 8)

Didn't think of that. That would be a nice touch. But having it on the day of would be kind of a distraction from the celebration. I remember (barely) how huge the bicentennial was.

If the final is on a traditional Sunday, it would either be on July 5 or July 12 that year, which would be fine.

 

The soon-to-be built stadium in Los Angeles will be the site.

 

If it isn't LA it will almost certainly be MetLife Stadium then.

 

Kind of interested where the sites would be.

Brazil split 64 matches among 12 cities. Roughly the same ratio would be 80 matches in 16 cities (roughly), though Japorea smeared their 64 matches across 20 cities.

I would think one of the things you'd have to do is regionalize things so you wouldn't be flying from Dallas to New York to Mexico City.

Here's an idea for four "clusters":

West: Vancouver, Seattle, Los Angeles, Bay Area (Levi's)
South: Arlington, Houston, Mexico City, Guadalajara
North: Toronto, Montreal, Minneapolis, Chicago
East: New York, Boston, Washington, Atlanta

Because it's FIFA, let's add one to each cluster for:

West: Vancouver, Seattle, Los Angeles, Bay Area, Phoenix
South: Arlington, Houston, Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterey
North: Toronto, Montreal, Minneapolis, Chicago, Kansas City
East: New York, Boston, Washington, Atlanta, Tampa

I'm sure I'm missing some, but I'm curious as to where they would take this. Putting the final in LA again would be something of a nod to at least the Mexicans. Could put semis in Arlington and New York, quarterfinals in Seattle, Houston, Chicago and Boston (or Washington or Atlanta, who cares?) and go from there.

 

During the last World Cup, they had an absolute blast saying "Schweinsteiger!"

 

Considering FIFA's staging World Cups in the middle of the desert now, they'll adjust. For all we know, they'll be playing at 24 McDonalds parking lots throughout the continent.

 

All good points, and I was spitballing, of course. Only reason I left Denver out (probably would throw it in the "North" cluster) was having four near-sea level venues and one at altitude, and even that's kind of flimsy. (As opposed to the Azteca and Jalisco, which are both way up there.) As for Florida, who the hell knows. In '94 they played in the Citrus Bowl in the daytime, which makes almost no sense at all.

As for surfaces, though they played in the Silverdome, it was on grass. Considering systems like U. of Phoenix, temporary grass pitches laid for several other tournaments and 10 years of technological progress, I'm sure they'll figure it out, especially if it means a World Cup final played in Los Angeles in July outdoors or a World Cup final played in Los Angeles in July indoors with AC.

 

MLS goal of the year - already.

David Villa Makes Ridiculous Goal vs. Philadelphia