I want Croatia, Tunisia, and Ireland. Sweden, Bosnia, and Morocco would be reasonable as well. Your thoughts/nominations?
Great opponents, but I think preparing for Slovenia will be critical. Winning or losing that match will very likely prove the difference between advancing and going home. Croatia is an excellent team that were a little unfortunate to finish 3rd in their group, and Slovenia has ethnic Croats and Serbs on it. For similar reasons, I want a closed-door scrimmage against Serbia in South Africa.
Going off the reportage from the buildup to '06, the standard is to spend of the bulk of the preparations on the first game. In-tournament scouting is then used for the remaining matches.
Agree. The other factor is that we're familiar with England. We're not all that familiar with Slovenia (a few players who play in EPL and BL1 aside), and when's the last time the USMNT played a live match (competitive or friendly) against a Balkan side? I think our players (not only our coaching staff) could really use 90 minutes of live football against a good Balkan side in preparation for what will be a critical match, perhaps THE critical match of the group for us. Similarly, beating Algeria is of great importance to us. I'd love to play Tunisia, a strong team who has a similar footballing culture and plays a similar style. It was only a loss the final matchday while Nigeria pulled off a victory that allowed the Nigerians through at Tunisia's expense, after leading the group for most of qualification.
Agree with the above. Figure we'll play about 12 friendlies between the New Year and the WC, and already having Holland and Mexico lined up (correct me if I'm wrong), plus knowing we'll play our traditional January friendly vs. Canada or some Scandinavian B-team...I'd like to see the following 9 teams round out the slate: Croatia Tunisia Ireland Germany Brazil Australia Czech Republic South Korea Nigeria/Ghana
to get idea of group members: tunisia, croatia, ireland other options for fun: germany, australia, portugal, france, south korea, ghana, czech republic
12 friendlies?????!!!!!!!!!!! With one FIFA date? Honduras in January, the Netherlands in March, possibly Northern Ireland in March or May, and maybe a match with Mexico. Then, the US is looking at 3 matches in preparation for the World Cup. Even if all of that goes right and the US is somehow still able to schedule 1 or 2 more friendlies on different dates, they MIGHT be able to get 8 or 9 games, and that's a big maybe.
I imagine it will be very difficult to set up friendlies on non-FIFA match dates during the Euro club season. I expect perhaps a couple of games (Honduras being one) with the US/Scandinavia based players in January, the Holland game in March, and 3 games in May (one of them being Northern Ireland it seems). And by the games in may, Bradley will undoubtedly have his roster set 99%. That's the "send-off" series. So if you're a Euro-based player like Freddy Adu...........you're essentially just looking at the Holland game as a chance to make an impression.
We should play at least one friendly each month and then a 3-game send-off with similar opponents to the ones in our group. I would prefer to play the best teams available, but that is not always possible. Can anyone confirm the Honduras match in January? Would this be considered camp cupcake? January: Honduras* OR Japan-most players are home-based and play March-Dec....play our Scand-Mex-MLS based players (Torres, Feilhaber, Holden*, Rogers, Bornstein, LD*, Cunn, Findley, Castillo, White, CB's, Adu*) Febuary: Chile (quality side, many home-based players) OR @Scandinavian country...mix the impressive players from Jan game into a more Euro based squad. March: @Netherlands* (FULL A-TEAM) April: Ghana or Nigeria (would probably be the hardest match to schedule in terms of available players as Euro seasons are ending) May(early): @Germany (right after the Euro season ends, FULL A-TEAM) May(late): Send-off (Brazil>Croatia>Tunisia, FULL A-TEAM) ----game1: Brazil, Italy, France, Ireland, or Australia ----game2: Croatia, Serbia, Russia, or Poland ----game3: Tunisia or Egypt Thats 8 games between now and the World Cup plus a probable Mexico match up sometime so a total of 9 games. I think that is a reasonable goal.
It sounds all fine and dandy when you simply say "We should play at least one friendly each month." But what good will it do for Bradley to have so many games where he won't even be able to look at 15+ players who will end up in South Africa? If he does force the clubs to somehow release the players, then that only hurts the players' future club prospects and therefore damaging their form heading into the World Cup. BS posters gotta stop living in Lala land.
Slovakia is no Balkan country. Regardless of its past behind the iron curtain, Slovakia is part of Central Europe.
Regardless of the different terminologies between regions, Slovenia is a smaller former Eastern bloc country with similar demographics to the rest of the former Yugoslavia, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, etc. You play one of those countries, you've played them all. Good technique and passing, bunker defense, and lots of guys who names end with -ic.
Well we already have Hondouras and the Netherlands lined-up. I gurantee we will play Mexico in Febuary. We are trying to get Northern Ireland in March. And We want the Czech and Austrailia to good sides. I like the quality of opponents we are going to play. I do not think we will play Germany because we have a verry good chance of playing them in the knockout stages.
"Ignorant" is the most pleasant word which comes to my mind. To keep it short and football-related: They didn't have a single "-ic-player" on the field when they beat the US. Austria, Holland, Scotland; when you've played one, you've played them all...
not to get off on a history rant, but czechoslovakia was part of the soviet union as was hungary and bulgaria like you mentioned, but slovenia was part of yugoslavia which was not part of the ussr, but an ally you could say. and for you people bickering, the balkan peninsula is the peninsula east of italy. if your on that your a balkan nation. so greece, ex yugoslav nations are, nations north of it arent
Austria and Scotland, yes. Holland not so much. I was trying to diffuse the situation and put it in relatable terms. If you want to show everyone how much of an expert you are and nitpick about geo-political labels and the official names of regions, do that in sociology class. This is a soccer board, and yes, most small eastern European countries play similar brands of football. If you're offended by my -ic joke, then put me on your ignore list so I don't have to post with your sensitivity in mind.
Who's in lala land? Key word in my post is "should". I clearly said that it is a possible GOAL to achieve. We are already playing the Honduras, Netherlands, Mexico*(?), and also a faux WC-type send off is probable as well. I only included another 3 games to fill in the space in between which is entirely possible. You don't think the other 31 countries are trying to do this also? Clubs and leagues know this is WC year and half the players on these clubs are going to be under pressure from club coaches and nat team coaches to play. Ex: Demps plays in Feb & March (fifa) match, but not April match, while MB plays March & April match, but not in Febuary. I don't see this being that big of an issue though I understand it won't be easy. I also only mentioned one "FULL TEAM" match during the Euro season. The rest are after. How many fringe players do we have who are trying to go to SA who won't be playing for clubs until March? This also depends on if some of them get transfered to Europe but...Holden, Rogers, Clark, Ching, Feilhaber Kljestan, Bornstein, Marshal, Goodson, Cunningham, Findley, LD, White, Torres*, Castillo*, Edu*, Adu*, and maybe some others. Out of this group only about 3 are sure to go to SA. The more looks BB gets on these guys in international competition the better. I admit i'm a bit optomistic about my expectations, but a little optomism right now will do more good than harm IMO. How about this....we play our full team in January and Febuary and if the clubs start moanin' and groanin' we just add the USMNT to MLS as an expansion team called the "Denver Afrikaans" and have them play until May. Then they forfit the rest of their games during May and June where we put the U-17 team in their place to finish out the season. They play, keep their form, grow the game in the states, etc etc...if it were only so easy...
they where satellites basically, eastern bloc states that had a major soviet influence after world war 2