Ghana, France, Chile Ghana and France play the classic game of their continents, and Chile had an impressive run at qualifying: placed 2nd in conmebol. They(chile) would be a good gaudge of where we stand with the other developing national teams. I wouldn't mind gauging our talent against Australia, S Korea, or Japan either
We'll probably be able to set up a couple of friendlies in between the end of the European club season and the start of the World Cup. (Remember there's only one FIFA match date before the WC, which we've already filled with Holland) And it won't be easy to convince WC-bound teams to treck all the way to the states for a friendly. In 02 we played the Netherlands, Jamaica, and Uruguay at home......none of whom were going to the cup. In 06 we played Latvia, Venezuela, and Morocco at home........none of whom were going to the cup. If we want to play these world powers as some of you are suggesting, we need to be willing to play the games on the road. Which is fine by me.........except I'm sure the USSF would like to have a "send-off series" like in those past cups. If we want to play the games at home.........perhaps a series of non-WC participats like Tunisia, Ireland, and Czech Republic would fit the bill very nicely indeed.
http://www.itv.com/sport/football/news/generalnews/bradley-welcomes-highprofile-encounter-848992224.html "Bradley revealed that the USA were trying to set up friendlies with Holland, the Czech Republic and Australia in preparation for facing England."
My first choice opponents for the send-off series in the States: Croatia, Ireland, and Tunisia. Reasonable alternates would be Bosnia, Sweden, and Morocco. We already have a March FIFA date friendly scheduled against Holland in Amsterdam (kudos to USSF!), and we'll probably have a closed-door scrimmage in South Africa with one of the qualified teams, and Serbia would be a great choice for that one.
We already have Holland on the schedule (on a FIFA date!). The Czechs and Australians would be good choices as well, though my first choice would be Ireland. I'm more concerned with a match against Croatia and a match against Tunisia. We're less familiar with Slovenia and Algeria, and it would be very important to get a dry run against teams that play similar styles (in particular, the Slovenian team has Croats and Serbs on it, the similarities are more than simply geographical, though the tactical organization of the Slovenian nats looks different than that of Croatia). A closed-door scrimmage session in South Africa with Serbia would be a good thing as well, for the same reason.
If this succeeds, RoboBob will have done well for the team. Kudos to him, if so. The Czechs and the Slovenes have similarity of style. As do Australia and England. As for Holland, well, anytime you can play a hothouse of talent like that it can only be educational. Now for Morocco or Tunisia, and we have all the bases covered [as far as friendlies specifically aimed at our group opponents]
Northern Ireland are set to take on the USA in a friendly as England's Group C opponents build up for the World Cup finals in South Africa. The Americans have asked the Irish FA for the game, which would take place in March or May. IFA president Raymond Kennedy said it has a number of offers for friendlies but the USA was the front-runner. He added that the match would likely to be staged away from Windsor Park to make it "financially feasible." http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/internationals/8397952.stm
http://www.diez.hn/Selección Nacion...ticias/Honduras-Estados-Unidos-el-24-de-enero Honduras FA confirms the friendly USA-Honduras Jan. 24 at the Home Depot Center.
Group 3 of UEFA Qualifying (Slovakia also bolded because of our recent friendly) Slovakia: 22 pts Slovenia: 20 pts Czech Republic: 16 pts Northern Ireland: 15 pts Poland: 11 pts San Marino: 0 Lost 2-0 away to Slovenia, won 1-0 at home. Lost 2-1 to Slovakia on the road and 2-0 at home. Last time they qualified for a Euro Championship or the World Cup was Mexico 1986. FIFA ranking: 39 (currently between Honduras and Costa Rica, to compare to CONCACAF), ELO ranking: 74 (between Canada and Panama), according to Wikipedia. So, not a dominant side by any means, but not one where you expect to win 4-0.
About as good as Latvia.....ok, ok, I kid, how useful is that comparison? About as good as Panama, say, in Concacaf.
Since we're at least thinking about picking opponents who match the styles of the teams in our group, I wonder if other world cup-bound teams want to play us because of our stylistic similarities to teams in their group. What teams would that be?
But with a completely different playing style I'm guessing. It will be good to win at least one of our friendlies heading into the cup. Maybe this one will be the confidence booster.
The one time we scheduled friendlies against teams who theoretically played similar styles to our WC opponents, we lost all three games. The time when we played as many games as possible against strong teams, regardless of perceived playing style, we kicked ass in the world cup. Please pay attention to history.
probably in this thread already, but yesterday on Sportsweek Bob Bradley specifically named the following teams as friendly possibilities: Netherlands (which we've all known) Czech Republic Australia
US v Mexico in Feb., being finalized. An additional rumor is that it'll be on Feb. 24th in the US, but neither is confirmed.
so the 24th followed by the early march match in the netherlands... wonder is the same squad does both, or whether the first is msotly domestic, with the latter being mostly euro based
England wants to schedule Australia apparently to prep for us. It wouldn't be that surprising then if Serbia or Ghana or Germany wanted to schedule us to prepare for Australia. Although by this point all the deals might well be hand-shaken upon.
That's not bad at all. I still want a match against preferably Tunisia or else Morocco. We've played so little against North Africans.
Holland is a go already. The Czech Republic would be a great friendly, which prepares us for Slovenija, as well as a friendly against Northern Ireland, which is about 75% confirmed. Australia would be a great friendly to tune up for England. There is also the rumored Mexico Friendly, since Mexico stated they were playing two matches in the US in February. We also have the confirmed Honduras friendly for camp cupcake. If all these friendlies happen, this is not a bad schedule. Netherlands, Czech Republic, Northern Ireland, Australia, Honduras, and Mexico. Basically, what we then need to do would be to play two African teams (I would pick Morocco and Tunisia), one more top-class Euro team (I would pick Russia or Germany), and one more second-tier Euro team (Israel, Ireland, Poland or Croatia look good). 10 friendlies is what you really want before a World Cup, and that schedule would ensure the US is prepared for the World Cup.