The USA knew they wouldn’t have an easy time at next summer’s World Cup in Brazil, but Friday’s draw did them no favors whatsoever.

The Americans were drawn in Group G with Germany, Ghana, and Portugal, arguably the most difficult group of the eight. They were also drawn in the worst possible spot in the tournament for travel, and will have to journey nearly 9,000 miles between the three games – including a game in the rain forest in Manaus, in the north of the country.

Former USA midfielder and current Minnesota United head coach Manny Lagos summed up the draw, from an American perspective. “I’m like everybody else,” he said. “It’s not ideal.”

The USA were not one of the eight seeded teams in the event, meaning that they were guaranteed to be drawn against one of the top eight seeds, one team from Africa or South America, and one team from the remaining European teams. Unfortunately for the Americans, they drew one of the best teams from each of those three categories.

Lagos wasn’t willing to call it the worst possible draw for the USA, noting that they were lucky to avoid the Netherlands from the group of European teams, but his assessment – not the worst possible, but “up there” – was the same as many fans’ reactions.

ESPN, using its “Soccer Power Index” rankings, gave the Americans just under a 40% chance of finishing first or second in their group and qualifying for the knockout round. Germany was given a 91% chance, with Portugal just ahead of the USA at 40% and Ghana at 28%.

The Americans have a recent history with each of these teams at the World Cup. Most famously, they were knocked out of the tournament by Ghana in both 2006 and 2010, losing both times in their final game of the tournament against the Africans. They lost to Germany in the 2002 quarterfinals, 1-0, despite outplaying the Germans for long stretches of the game and having a clear penalty kick denied them in the second half. In the same tournament, though, they beat Portugal 3-2 in their opening match, one of the upsets of the tournament.

Local USMNT expert Dana Wessel, contrary to the negative reactions from most, said via email that he was optimistic about the draw. “It isn’t nearly as bad as it looks,” he wrote.

Wessel pointed out that, despite the star power of Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal struggled to get through an easy qualifying group to make it to the World Cup. He also noted that the USA outplayed Ghana in both losses, and that if you had to pick one team’s coach to be able to break down Germany, it would be former German coach and star Jurgen Klinsmann, America’s manager.

“The people freaking out on social media over this group are stuck in 1998,” he wrote. “People do realize we are good at soccer, right? We are coming off our best year in federation history, and I guarantee you supporters of Portugal and Ghana were not happy when they saw themselves land with the United States.”

The USA’s opening match will be against Ghana on June 16; they play Portugal next, in the rainforest on June 22, and finish with Germany on June 26.

NOTE: This appeared first at SoccerCentric.

Last summer, MLS commissioner Don Garber caused a stir by announcing that the league plans to add four new expansion teams by 2020. One of them, in Orlando, has already been announced for the 2015 season, but three are still up in the air – and on Tuesday, Minnesota soccer fans got the clearest indication yet that Minneapolis is on the league’s short list.

During Garber’s state of the league address ahead of this weekend’s MLS final, a slide was displayed with five cities marked as potential expansion destinations: Miami, Atlanta, St. Louis, San Antonio, and Minneapolis. (NOTE: The commissioner said he hadn’t seen the slide before the presentation, so make of that what you will.)

You can watch the whole event here, but the commissioner confirmed that the two markets that are farthest along are Miami, which has an expansion bid led by David Beckham but needs to find a stadium to play in, and Atlanta, which is fairly close to finalizing a deal that would land an MLS team in the Falcons’ new stadium, which is projected to open in 2017.

The Atlanta/Miami/Orlando triumvirate would fill the Southeastern hole on the current MLS map, but Garber specifically mentioned the Midwest as another hole. According to the league’s official website, he said, “”There are a number of other markets that we don’t have teams in that are large swaths of the country… The Midwest is one of them, which is why we’ve thrown Minneapolis out [as a potential destination]. There are a number of cities in Texas which are intriguing to us. San Antonio is one, Austin is another… St. Louis could be another great market.”

The map ignores a number of other potential destinations for MLS, notably Sacramento and Detroit. That said, virtually every city of any size in America has at least a small group pushing for an MLS franchise in their town; if every place that wanted an MLS franchise got one, it would be a 75-team league.

A team in the Midwest, whether in Minneapolis, St. Louis, or elsewhere, would help serve as a potential rival with Chicago and Kansas City; the league has leveraged built-in geographical rivalries, especially between Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver, to help drive its growth over the past few years.

The new Vikings stadium might be the most likely destination for a potential expansion team, but the cavernous dimensions of the new field could be a concern. Vancouver, which plays in 54,000-seat BC Place, reduces the size of the stadium for Whitecaps games by stringing white sheets over the field, as a makeshift roof for the stands, thus making their stadium a little more intimate. Renderings of an MLS setup for the new Falcons stadium show a similar system in place.

The Wilfs, the owners of the Vikings, floated the possibility of MLS in Minnesota several times during the stadium negotiations, but have never revealed any serious plans of bringing a franchise to town. It is possible, of course, that those rumors were mostly a canard to help push the stadium through the Legislature, as a partial answer to concerns that the new stadium will be a billion dollars that are being spent on ten Sundays per year.

Minnesota United FC owner Dr. Bill McGuire has insisted that his focus is on operating his team in the NASL, rather than positioning it for a potential MLS expansion bid.

As always with talk of an MLS franchise in Minnesota, many, many questions remain. But it’s clear that, in the league’s collective mind, Minneapolis remains an intriguing possibility.

NOTE: This appeared first at SoccerCentric.

Minnesota United continued to fill out its 2014 roster on Tuesday, as it announced that ten more players from the 2013 squad have had their options picked up for next season. The ten include goalkeeper Matt Van Oekel; defenders Justin Davis, Brian Kallman, Cristiano Dias, and Brent Kallman; midfielders Floyd Franks, Simone Bracalello, Kentaro Takada, and Michael Reed; and forward Nate Polak.

Forward Pablo Campos, center back Aaron Pitchkolan, winger Miguel Ibarra, and fullback Kevin Venegas were announced as the first pieces of next season’s team at the team’s mid-November press conference, so today’s announcement brings the 2014 squad to 14 players.

The team also continues to work towards potential contracts for several free agents, including center back Connor Tobin, winger Omar Daley, and goalkeeper Mitch Hildebrandt.

For the second straight year, United’s back line will see the most continuity of any group. Davis, Brian Kallman, Dias, Venegas, and Pitchkolan all saw significant time in the back four, and Van Oekel was the team’s starting keeper for most of the year. If Tobin re-signs as well, the team’s defense will be more or less intact from the end of 2013.

Up front, the team remains quite thin. Campos’s return means the team has one proven scorer, but Polak played just seven minutes last year, after a blood clot in his shoulder ruined the first half of his season.

The announcements leave eight players from 2013 as free agents, most notably striker Max Griffin and winger Lucas Rodriguez. Rodriguez has been in Minnesota for four years, and in some ways was United’s most consistent option on the wing in 2013, if not their most dynamic; it was a surprise to see him not on the contract list. Griffin showed a ton of promise, but could only score once in fourteen appearances; given Minnesota’s lack of forwards, though, I thought he might return as well.

Also on the free-agent list is keeper Daryl Sattler, who began the season as first choice between the pipes, but spent the entire second half of the season on the disabled list with a torn labrum, and Mike Ambersley, who came to Minnesota during the summer break in the Etienne Barbara trade and played in 13 games at forward without scoring.

The final four free agents are midfielders Edi Buro, Sean de Silva, and Luis Heitor-Piffer, and striker Travis Wall.

NOTE: This appeared first at SoccerCentric.