Philly closer to knowing which World Cup teams are coming after draw

Friday afternoon was the first step in finding out which teams Philadelphia will host in the FIFA World Cup as the initial draw to fill out the competitive groups was held with a lot of glitz and star power in Washington D C We won t have the full picture till the next morning afternoon but we have a shortlist of teams that could play at Lincoln Financial Field as well as how steep the U S national organization s path through the tournament will be The event at D C s John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts included Heidi Klum and Philly s own Kevin Hart as MCs and sporting greats Shaquille O Neal Tom Brady Wayne Gretzky and Aaron Judge as window dressing Music was provided by Andrea Bocelli Lauryn Hill and The Village People U S President Donald Trump was presented with a newly created FIFA Peace Prize Back in Philly a vocal contingent of local soccer fans gathered for a watch party at Stateside Live just moves away from the Linc where six tournament games will be played next summer They were joined by Pa Gov Josh Shapiro and the city s host committee co-chair Dan Hilferty I think you re going to see soccer just take over the tradition of this city this summer Shapiro explained event host Anthony Gargano during the event Attendees wore jerseys and gear from a great number of of the teams that will be playing next summer What they couldn t know yet was which teams will literally play in Philly which will host five games pitting teams in group play plus a round-of- knockout match on July From right Felipe Londono Brayan Perea and Gerado Cruz demonstrated up to Philly s Stateside Live watch party for the FIFA World Cup draw in national gang jerseys Nick Kariuki Billy Penn From left Phil Innamorato Gerry Grace and Ben Scott manifested up Philly s Stateside Live watch party for the FIFA World Cup draw with their national crew jerseys Nick Kariuki Billy Penn Soccer fans sport national crew jerseys of Ghana Poland Ireland Jordan and others at Philly s Stateside Live watch party for the FIFA World Cup draw Nick Kariuki Billy Penn The draw played out like this with the groups that will have a battle in Philly identified Chosen of them include a placeholder spot as teams are still vying for six remaining spots that will be decided by two sets of playoff series in March Courtesy of FIFA Group A Mexico South Africa Korea Republic Winner UEFA Playoff D between the Czech Republic Denmark Ireland and North Macedonia Group B Canada Winner UEFA Playoff A between Bosnia and Herzegovina Italy Northern Ireland and Wales Qatar Switzerland Group C Games in Philly Brazil Morocco Haiti Scotland Group D USA Paraguay Australia Winner UEFA Playoff C between Kosovo Romania Slovakia and Turkey Group E Games in Philly Germany Cura ao C te d Ivoire Ecuador Group F Netherlands Japan Winner UEFA Playoff B Albania Poland Sweden and Ukraine Tunisia Group G Belgium Egypt IR Iran New Zealand Group H Spain Cape Verde Saudi Arabia Uruguay Group I Games in Philly France Senegal Winner FIFA Playoff between Bolivia Iraq and Suriname Norway Group J Argentina Algeria Austria Jordan Group K Portugal Winner FIFA Playoff between the Democratic Republic of Congo Jamaica and New Caledonia Uzbekistan Colombia Group L Games in Philly England Croatia Ghana Panama With the draw complete FIFA will work overnight to complete scheduling for the games of the tournament the the bulk in its history and announce it at noon the next day As seen above teams from groups C E I and L could conceivably play here That includes Brazil World Cup winners England and Morocco all of whom were in town last summer with their passionate fan bases for the FIFA Club World Cup Other possibilities four-time World Cup champion Germany and two-time winner France along with perennial challengers like Senegal Croatia and Ghana and a Norway side that features one of the world s bulk prolific goalscorers Manchester City s Erling Haaland Or there could be an underdog surprise from Panama Haiti Scotland Ecuador first-timers Curacao and the eventual playoff winner Certainly that was the hope of specific at the Stateside event Everyone s got a stake Mount Airy resident Steve Jules was born in Haiti which has qualified for the World Cup just once before in Jules announced catching a World Cup battle would fulfill a lifelong dream especially if it s in Philly Mount Airy resident Steve Jules was born in Haiti and would love to see the national crew play a World Cup event in Philly Nick Kariuki Billy Penn It s good to see soccer in Philadelphia and to see we have such a ravenous hungry scene willing to encouragement and show the love of soccer he declared It s worth noting that Haiti and Iran are both in the present under a full passage ban by the Trump administration How that will line up with FIFA and the administration s initiative to prioritize U S visa appointments for World Cup ticket holders is unknown The Club World Cup games revealed that the the majority passionate fan bases didn t necessarily come from the most-recognizable teams with the biggest soccer stars though the names you re more likely to see on billboards and in video games did help fill the Linc s seats on gamedays Everyone s got a stake in humanity explained Michael Newmuis the city s director Every major event is so much more than just the big scores but about bringing people together It s about having that shared experience and no matter where you re from whatever country you are whatever language you speak we all share that in common And that s exactly what this opportunity is The U S national teams can t have too several complaints about how Group D turned out which can be modestly described as familiar and arrogantly dismissed as relatively easy I don t think we could have really solicited for a better draw explained Nick Custodio vice president of the Philly chapter of the U S supporters group the American Outlaws We avoided certain of the trap games in there like Norway or Italy So I think we re very solid Soccer fans watched the FIFA World Cup draw at a watch party in Stateside Live Nick Kariuki Billy Penn The U S association will first face Paraguay a organization they beat - in a friendly at Chester s Subaru Park last month on Friday June in Los Angeles They also face Australia who they defeated in October Lastly it s the winner of UEFA Playoff C either Kosovo Romania Slovakia or Turkey Turkey is the highest ranked of all prospective opponents and beat the U S in June USMNT and Bournemouth midfielder Tyler Adams stated he s taking no opponent for granted though There s no easy event in the World Cup In fact I think various of the hardest games in the last World Cup were against lesser opponents he reported For us moving forward we need to prepare in the right way But it s fun knowing that we ve played various of these opponents before Without having to play qualifiers for the tournament because they are co-hosting it coach Mauricio Pochettino and his unit have had to instill a sense of competition and edginess to keep them from getting complacent playing exhibition games Part of that has come from playing teams like Paraguay Turkey and Uruguay who never really play with an exhibition mindset They were friendlies while also they weren t very friendly reported Charlotte FC defender Tim Ream one of the national squad s veteran players And now you add in the heightened aggression and experience of a World Cup and they re all finals they all mean something now Everything is going to be ramped up exponentially The USMNT have to finish in the top three of their group to advance from the group stages First or second in their group would preclude them playing in Philly on the Fourth of July Two of the three third-place finishing scenarios the ones that send them to New York or Boston rather than Kansas City for the round of could follow with a championship in Philly on the nation s th birthday The post Philly closer to knowing which World Cup teams are coming after draw appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY