FIFA World Cup (Men's)

Argentina got their World Cup qualifying campaign off to the perfect start on Thursday when Lionel Messi's early penalty gave them a 1-0 win over Ecuador in a lackluster match in Buenos Aires.

The Argentine FA piped fan noise around the empty Bombonera stadium and the chants of "Messi! Messi!" were vindicated as early as the 12th minute when he put Argentina ahead from the spot after Lucas Ocampos was fouled inside the penalty area.

CONCACAF and FIFA provided an update on the 2022 World Cup qualifying process with an announcement that the First Round is being pushed back to March 2021 due to COVID-19 concerns. 

Update on the Concacaf Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 https://t.co/5OK6XtibM6

The preliminary draw for Concacaf 2022 World Cup Qualifying first round was revealed along with the schedules for teams in the Final Round on Wednesday. The usual Hex format has been scrapped with the new Octagonal. 

Eight nations will compete in the final Octagonal with five (USMNT, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras and Jamaica) automatically qualified. The three nations joining these five will come from this pot of nations.

Ever since Christian Pulisic torched the Premier League after the restart, many people have been wondering when he will be playing for the red, white and blue again. When is the next USMNT game anyway? Gregg Berhalter said in an interview with USSoccer.com the next USMNT game could be a friendly in October.

CONCACAF has unveiled a new qualification format for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar after COVID-19 forced a rejig of the usual system, the governing body for soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean said on Monday.

The new format, which will feature all 35 of the region's members, has been split into three rounds with the first being played in October and November with teams ranked from No. 6 to No. 35 in CONCACAF as of July 16 drawn into six groups of five.