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Believe it or not, we’re already less than a year away from the draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. On Monday, FIFA announced that the ceremony to decide which teams will play each other will take place on December 1st at a Kremlin concert hall in Moscow, Russia.
The draw will take place at the 6,000-capacity State Kremlin Palace, a grand structure built inside the Kremlin walls in the Soviet era to hold Communist Party conferences. Nowadays, the venue usually plays host to veteran Russian pop stars, ballerinas and awards shows.
While the United States men’s national team still has a lot of work to do to make sure they’ll be a part of that draw, expectations are that they’ll find their way there once the dust has settled in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.
For fans of the current 32-team format that the World Cup provides, enjoy it while you can. It will be the second-to-last tournament that will feature it until the approved expansion to 48 teams occurs in 2026.