usmnt friendly in december?

[fidlerre]

brian mcbride was on the radio here in columbus the other day...

one of the dj's is a pretty big soccer fan and had some good questions for him, unlike the crap he usually gets around here when he is interviewed, and one of them was if there were going to be any friendlies upcoming for the mens national team.

he mentioned there were some rumors going around the national team circles of a early-mid december friendly, anyone heard anything about this or the possible opponent?

[onefineesq]

No i haven't, but that would be absolutely wonderful. The US needs a couple of friendlies before qualifying starts so that we can try out a few of these guys like Buddle, Ricardo Clark, Twellman and some other guys who really deserve a shot (maybe even Gaven at 17).

[sch2383]

It would make sense to have one. MLS season would be over as would the U20 WC, I think we could just pull our roster from those two teams. You figure they would get together, play the game, break for Christmas and get back together in early January to prep for the WCQ match.

[afgrijselijkheid]

i vote for england - it'd give us a chance to stuff some crow in the face of those F365 trolls

[nicodemus]

It will be insane if they don't have one. WCQs start in January. A friendly is a necessity since the team won't have played since the Gold Cup.

[Casper]

Originally posted by bluedaddy19
i vote for england - it'd give us a chance to stuff some crow in the face of those F365 trolls

International fixtures should, whenever possible, be scheduled to help resolve message board conflicts.

[IASocFan]

The EPL doesn't take much of a winter break, and there's a good chance that England will be in the November playoffs. :) ;) There probably won't be much interest from many Euro sides.

[afgrijselijkheid]

Originally posted by Casper
International fixtures should, whenever possible, be scheduled to help resolve message board conflicts.


that was funny as hell... but what i actually meant by 'us' was BS posters

[jamison]

Germany does take a winter break, and I think we might be able to convince them to spend a week in Miami for a friendly in early January.

England, as mentioned with the full season, Champions league in November, Euro qualifiers and the various FA stuff, won't have time on the calendar.

How about Yugoslavia? Or throw a bone to one of the "coalition of the willing" allies like Hungary?

[nicodemus]

Originally posted by jamison
How about Yugoslavia?

Serbia & Montenegro now. And yes, they'd be an excellent choice. Bulgaria wouldn't be bad either.

[Dr. Wankler]

Originally posted by nicodemus
Serbia & Montenegro now.

And for whomever provides text-commentary, "SAM" is the prefered abbreviation, tempting though "S & M" may be.

Let's see: I think it will have to be either a European team, or a CONCACAF team not in our first round group, since I assume that a South American team will be too worried about their own. But if it's a European team that isn't playing in Euro 2004, you can pretty much write off the chance of playing against any big stars, as it will probably be rebuilding time for them (and I don't think any team that qualified will really want to take a chance on what to them would be a meaningless friendly). So while we'll really need a game there, it's going to be tough to find a terrific opponent.

An African opponent might be fun, but I have no idea what their schedules are like, nor how they would be able to get their best players away from club duty in Europe. It occurs to me that Japan or S. Korea might be available, however...

[afgrijselijkheid]

Originally posted by jamison
Germany does take a winter break, and I think we might be able to convince them to spend a week in Miami for a friendly in early January


or the US could travel to... say... hamburg

[bilmalk7]

there will be some re-shuffling as a result of the USWNT stumbling; the venues and dates now open up. yeah we need maybe two or three friendlies, but i think we get one on the left coast. btw..go arnold!

[soccerfan]

I would like to see our Nats go on a continental tour ( Europe/S.America), playing games here at home is cute, but this guys need to play more games away from home.

[firstshirt]

belgium? france? any number of south american countries? would love to get australia up here

[nicodemus]

Originally posted by firstshirt
belgium? france? any number of south american countries? would love to get australia up here Honestly, I just assume skip Australia. Not because they aren't good, but precisely because of that. We don't need to lose to an Oceania team :D

[Simon Birch]

Would love to see Germany and Russia this January in Florida, and maybe a side like Peru or Urugauy this fall. Having at least one South American side would be nice before WCQ's and playing two tough Euro sides while their domestic league is on break would be good.

[atorres4]

my brother heard on telemundo that we were playing italy in a friendly...but who knows...that would be nice though :)

[Blong]

Originally posted by atorres4
my brother heard on telemundo that we were playing italy in a friendly...but who knows...that would be nice though :)

that's the women, in KC later this month

[old boy]

The other CONCACAF sides will be looking to get together their teams in preparation too and Arena will want to play against a team or teams with similar styles to our qualifying opponents. Probably here since we don't travel to Central America for friendlies very often. The Europeans have pretty heavy schedules already. The South Americans are a better possibility.