The Federation is based in Chicago, which is also somewhat central and has a big airport to handle travel.
The issue is shitty weather and the reality that if the Federation was banking on home field advantage versus Mexico, that’s not happening in Chicago.
I’ve seen pitches for St. Louis, Kansas City, Omaha, and more obvious suggestions like NYC or LA.
Okay lads you’ve got me. What’s the Lalas thing about?
Yeah, someone up there won’t let Giroud beat Henry’s record
Lalas? He’s just an ex-player who has transitioned from playing to bitter Roy Keane-esque pundit. He’s a hot take artist, not nearly as funny or insightful as he thinks he is and has said some pretty dumb shit on Twitter which makes me think our politics don’t exactly line up.
Remember him scoring against England in a friendly in a 2 0 win.
So the croats have won the first of two games today between the top two to decide who goes through in first, with Russia going into the playoffs having started the day top. Next up Portugal v Serbia at 7:45.
How do the playoffs work ? Just all the 2nd placed sides playing each other ?
Yeah, plus 2 best teams from Nations League. For Europe anyway. So they’ll be 12 teams in the playoffs, half will be seeded based on number of points in qualifying.
The 6 winners will then play in 3 finals, with the 3 winners from those matches going to the World Cup.
So Europe have 13 places at the World Cup then ?
Yeah. Deserve more really, considering we’re the best footballing continent 
Graham Taylor days I think. 1993. Between WC qualifiers
Yeah I tend to agree Europe deserve more, but I suppose it’s a global tournament and you want world wide representation. It’s a bit like how the 5th placed team in the EPL is going to be better than the Scottish Champions yet it doesn’t work that way for CL qualification.
Arguably not.
Celtic have comfortably beaten Liverpool when they’ve been in those very positions.
The Scottish Champions wouldn’t finish top 8 in the EPL these days. Maybe it was more competitive in ancient era’s though certainly.
Spot on 
Still too speculative an argument.
As far as ancient times go, that’s when Scottish champions were arguably better than the English ones.
You’d have to go back well over a decade to find any Scottish team that would be even remotely competitive with the PL top 6.
Both Rangers and Celtic bottom half of the table material now
There’s no doubt that the Premier league is by far the best league. I’ve long fought it as a fan of La Liga but at this moment it’s indisputable.
The Scottish League just doesn’t come anywhere near it, the quality of celtic and Rangers is top ten and no more tbh
They’d be mixing it with teams like Villa etc imo.
They just don’t have the money like the EPL does, no shame in it it’s just the reality.
Tbh mate people were saying this back in 2001.
However, since then, when Scottish teams have been pitted against English teams in Europe, they’ve been close run things.