re: CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying - Guatemala v USA

well first off, qualifying for each region or federation or whatever s different. like concacaf has their own system. it starts with the prelim rounds where the best 12 or 13 teams get a bye. the next 12 or so play a home and away series of aggregrate goals. winners advance to play the teams that got byes in another home and away series. the winners of this series (we played the bahamas) get placed into three groups. here they play everyone twice, once at home and once away (this is the stage they are at now). the top two teams from each group go to the final stage, a group of six. you play everyone in this group twice, once at home and once away. concacaf gets 3.5 bids to the world cup. so the top three teams from this final group automatically get to the world cup. the 4th place team plays a home and away with some team that placed like 4th or 5th in CONMEBOL (south america essentially) and the winner there gets to the world cup as well.

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Are the stadium lights torches?

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I thought it was my TV at first.

Absolutely terrible lighting.

few weak cards............

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Mexico wins 2-1.

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frick Mexico.

I hate them almost as much as I hate China.

ESPN2

0-0 at the half. I thought we were a lot better than them. But it's soccer.

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0-0 at the half. I thought we were a lot better than them. But it's soccer.

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Home field advantage is HUGE, too, in games like this. Look at those conditions. You can tell they're terrible even on TV.

Yeah the conditions at the field especially lighting are pretty bad.

You'll have some countries too that will play home games in qualifying in like 10,000 ft altitude, because they practice all the time at that level, and they're terrible at soccer, so that's the only way they can win.

Close call, there.