The United States, playing a JV squad, just needed to be on the field for 90 minutes, and that’s pretty much what they did, beating Barbados 1-0 on the road. America’s group in the next round will also include Guatemala, Trinidad and Cuba. Trinidad, a 2-1 loser in its first match, beat Bermuda 2-0 in the return leg for a 3-2 aggregate win. Guatemala and Cuba had little trouble in their series. Forecast: America should win the group, and second will go to Guatemala or Trinidad. How that head-to-head series goes will likely be the deciding factor.

 UPDATE: In Bermuda, they’re ticked because apparently Trinidad’s second goal, the one that sent them through, was scored DURING a substitution. A Bermuda sub was running on to the field when the referee whistled for the free kick that was headed in for the goal to be taken. (At least that’s what the Bermuda paper said. The Trinidad account I’ve read didn’t mention it.) The Bermuda paper said it was a miscommunication between the ref and the fourth official.

Group 2: Mexico, Jamaica, Honduras and Canada all moved on with little difficulty. Forecast: Mexico will win the group; none of the other teams can win in Mexico. Second is a tough call here. All three teams have shown moments. Canada was a big disappointment last time out, quickly falling by the wayside in this round. I’m going to go with them this time getting second. But it will be tough.

Group 3: This group will send at least one outclassed team to the final round. After Costa Rica, the other three teams in this group have spotty resumes.

 El Salvador, in a Turkey-like performance, got three goals in the final 20 minutes to pull out a stunner over Panama, which had won the first leg 1-0. After Panama scored an early goal in that game, it looked like it would be over. But El Salvador tied the game in the 70th minute, went ahead on a PK in the 83rd and won it on a goal in the 87th. By the end of the game, Panama was down to nine players, though the last got sent off three minutes into injury time. I haven’t seen an account of the game yet, but I’m guessing they were sore.

Suriname and El Salvador are the two teams to play in the first round to reach the third. After winning in Guyana 1-0, Suriname came home and won 2-1 for a 3-1 aggregate win. Knocking off Guyana isn’t exactly a stunner, but Suriname has even less of a pedigree. And finally, Haiti took advantage of an own goal to beat Netherlands Antilles 1-0 after a scoreless tie in the first game. Forecast: Costa Rica will win and El Salvador will take second, though I bet everyone in the group would be looking forward to a road trip to Haiti.

 Elsewhere around CONCACAF, there were three interesting resuilts. Mexico, playing Belize in a qualifier in Houston (Belize doesn’t have an acceptable field), was scoreless at the half and finally got two goals in the second to win 2-0. A 2-0 win over Belize on what amounts to a homefield is not good. Still, look for Mexico to rout Belize next weekend in the return match in Monterrey.

Costa Rica, playing a man up for the final 40 minutes, could manage only a 2-2 tie at Grenada. The Ticos have long been at the top of the second tier of CONCACAF teams, but they haven’t won in a year.

And finally, in a match that affects the United States down the road, Trinidad and Tobago lost at home to Bermuda 2-1. Trinidad is going to have to get a win on the road and score at least two goals next Sunday to advance.

Oh, and Brazil lost to Paraguay 2-0 in a qualifier. Brazil faces Argentina on Wednesday.

 And while there were no Billikens on the U.S. roster for the Barbados game, former SLU forward Dipsy Selolwane scored for Botswana on Saturday. Botswana, in a group with the Ivory Coast, looks like it has a good chance to move on to the final round of African qualifying.

 It was a great Sunday for watching soccer. The second half of the Turkey-Czech Republic game at Euro 2008 was compelling soccer. It’s been a great tournament to watch so far.

 From the Associated Press: 

 WESTPORT, Conn. (AP) — The Major Indoor Soccer League has shut down and is considering restructuring.

The league had been in operation since the 2001-2002 season and had nine teams in the 2007-2008 season. It ceased operation last weekend, a few days after commissioner Steve Ryan resigned.

Former league chairman John Hantz is also owner of the Detroit Ignition, and he says the league is considering restructuring that would allow long-term growth and expansion.

In addition to Detroit and the Chicago Storm, the league had teams this season in: Baltimore; Milwaukee; Philadelphia; Newark, New Jersey; Orlando, Florida; Stockton, California; and Monterrey, Mexico.

 Beginning today (Monday, May 26) through Thursday, June 5, ESPN Classic will air a condensed, one-hour version of a UEFA European Football Championship title match each weekday at 7 p.m. ET.  The network will feature each of the last nine UEFA European Championships starting with the 1972 championships in Belgium – a 3-0 victory by West Germany over the USSR.  The series will lead up to ESPN’s unprecedented, multi-media coverage of the 2008 championships (Euro 2008), scheduled to kick-off Saturday, June 7, with one of the two tournament host nations, Switzerland, facing the Czech Republic at 11:50 a.m. on ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes and ESPN360.com.

There’s a gap in the U.S. men’s schedule now,  with no matches until late May, so assuming all goes well, Twellman would be available by the time World Cup qualifying begins in June.  Anything longer than six weeks might mean he’s not available for those matches.

 St. Louis is the front-runner to be league’s 17th team, but beyond that things get a little competitive.

“The 18th team will either be a second team in New York, it could be Montreal, it could be Vancouver, it could be Atlanta, it could be Las Vegas,” Garber said, adding that there are other possibilities as well.

There has been speculation that MLS could grow to as many as 24 teams.

“It certainly will be more than 18. The question is when and how do we insure that player quality continues to remain strong and we’re able to manage it,” he said.

There were a bunch of other CONCACAF qualifiers today, involving the region’s minnows. Assuming the Americans get past Barbados, it’s now known that their group will be made up of Guatemala or St.  Lucia (which knocked off the dreaded Turks and Caicos Islands), Cuba or Antigua and Barbuda (which knocked off Aruba 4-0 on aggregate) and Trinidad and either Bermuda or the Cayman Islands. We won’t know that one until Sunday.

Netherlands Antilles knocked off Nicaragua. Not bad for the Antilles.

And the Americans knocked off Poland 3-0 in Krakow. The goals were by Bocanegra, Onyewu and Eddie Lewis.

—

On the previous item, a reader posted some ominous quotes from MLS Commissioner Don Garber on expansion, which made the St. Louis hopes sound, well, bleak. Jeff Cooper told me today he’s still very optimistic and that St. Louis is still on track for team No. 17. Cooper said ownership developments are a couple months away.

If the league is going to wait for Atlanta or New York to expand, it could be a long wait. Both of those cities are still pretty far away. But at almost every turn, it seems if there’s a choice between sooner or later when it comes to expansion here, later wins.

Surprisingly, no one got the needed 75 percent to get in off the regular ballot. (That’s the one I vote on.) Preki was the leading votegetter at just under 68 percent. (He needed 96 votes and got 87.) He was followed on the close-call list by Joy Fawcett (86 votes), Jeff Agoos (75 votes) and Thomas Dooley (71), who had come close the past few years and who I thought would jump up this year with no obvious candidates like in the past.