++ [ originally posted by BigIzz ] ++
Malta, Slovenia, Israel, Cyprus, Bosnia, Luxemborg, Moldova, Belarus, San Marino, Iceland, Luthaina, Faroe Islands, Armenia, Northern Ireland, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Estonia, Andorra, Wales, Serbia and Montenegro, Azerbaijan, Albania, Georgia. All in Europe. All wouldn't stand a chance to qualify in CONCACAF.
Playing in CONCACAF isn't nearly as easy as it looks. I would like to see how many European teams would be able to go into a country like Costa Rica, Honduras or Guatemala and win a World Cup Qualifier. You will arrive in a foregin country a few days before the match starts. Every night, outside of your hotel room, thousands of that country's supporters will party and play loud music right outside of your hotel with the sole purpose of preventing the players from sleeping. Don't be suprised if you get a fire alarm or two in the middle of the night.
Then on match day, you will take a bus through the jungle to get to their countries stadium. It may be the national stadium, filled with thousands of rabid country men who feel this is the most important event in their country for that entire year. The stadium may be some tiny one, high up in the mountains. It may not even be the place where you thought you were going to play four or five days ago, because their FA moved it just to play games. You will arrive at this dilapidated stadium, with far subpar facilities, then be asked to play on a pitch that looks like a cow pasture. The referree is fearing for his life, and rightfuly so, so don't expect to get too many calls in your favor. The fans may be nice and call you obscene names all game. Or they may be mean and throw batteries, bags of urine or feces at you. Now go out and win the game convincingly against a very talented and very atheltic opponent. Playing in CONCACAF isn't nearly as easy as it looks.
Now don't get me wrong, obviously Europe is stronger. But all 3 CONCACAF teams did very well in the last WC, with Costa Rica very unlucky not to make the round of 16, Mexico winning its group and making the round of 16 and the United States making the semi-finials and losing 1-0, in part to a bad call by Hugh Dallas.
Yes the US did recently play Greneda (where the road leg was played at a cricket stadium durring a moonsoon on a pitch worse then the one at my high school). But that was the third round of qualifying. Things get much more difficult in the semi-finals and then durring the Hex. So give us North Americans just a little credit, please?