USA-Wales (May 24th in San Jose)

If this is true, that should be a good match. Wales is playing well in Euro qualfying.

 

I hope you give the Brits a good stuffing!

 

Great news!

Incidentally, neither the Quakes nor the CyberRays are scheduled to play a home game that day. I wonder if that might change ...

 

This is dope, we need some more internationals here in the Bay, would they bring any of there first choice players, plus tell them they'll need to bring sunscreen, should be in the mid to high 80s.

 

I second the motion for a doubleheader. Quakes GM Johnny Moore has been working on getting the Nats to play at Spartan - hopefully his intention is to schedule it with an MLS game.

If it were to hapen it would be San Jose vs. DC United as they are the only teams that don't already have a fixture that weekend. All they have to do is reschedule their August 24th match in San Jose to May 24th. Seems pretty doable. I would definitely prefer that (a league match) to a friendly with an international club, which could be what they are planning.

 

Well done, laddy.

 

Wales on 5/24 then Boliva on 5/26?

Pretty quick turn around.

 

Awesome! I always wanted them to play Wales. But I have to admit I follow the US team more now!

 

great, so they are going to play it in bowling alley narrow spartan field? don't get me wrong, should make for an interesting match but do they really have to play on that narrow a$$ field? uggh...

 

Agreed. But it will give Giggs less room to maneuver. I shudder to think what he could do against Victorine. Then again they also have Bellamy down the right.

 

Not convinced if Giggs is going to make the trip-- pending Man Utd's progress in the Champions League. Anyone have the date for the final, being played at Old Trafford? That's a bit wait-and-see, IMO...

Spartan may be a bit narrow-- but it was widened a few years ago for the purpose of conforming to FIFA regulations so that it can be used for international matches. I know it has its problems, but it's just as legal as anywhere else within U.S. Soccer regular rotation of venues.

When was the last USA men's friendly to be played at Spartan? I know they played there in '98, against Macedonia, IIRC, right before leaving for the World Cup in France-- but has there been a game staged there since? Foggy memory is getting in the way here...

Cheers,
William

 

i know what you are saying it is just so narrow for an international match...

oh well, let's hope bellamy and giggs do NOT make the trip b/c they would give our wingbacks <regardless of who it would be> a lot of trouble...

 

Actually, I say that I'd hope that Mark Hughes (the Welsh manager) DOES bring Giggs and Bellamy. To become the best, you have to raise your game against the best, and Giggs and Bellamy are two pretty good players.

It's a challenge the USA wingbacks should not back down from...

 

There's Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, which hosted WWC '99 matches, and Network Associates Coliseum in Oakland, where the USMNT played China in a friendly about a year ago, IIRC.

 

stanford was actually pretty nice from what i remember people saying who attended wwc matches there...

the problem is the bbc article states the match will be held at spartan, oh well.

 

CL final is May 28.

 

OK. But it wouldn't surprise me if the match wound up in Palo Alto.

 

Thanks, Buff, per usual.

So if Man Utd get to the final, that would rule Giggs out of the friendly, if and when it should come to fruition.

I wouldn't be surprised if Stanford Stadium got it-- but I don't think it's as fan-friendly as Spartan. The running track there assures fans of being far from the action... just my preference from experience, that's all.

 

Actually, I think it's a good idea for the U.S. to experiment a bit with various sized fields to see what works best for our team.

I'm not that familiar with Wales, but say they have a better game on the flanks than the U.S. Playing on a somewhat narrower field like Spartan's would tend to bottle up their offense a bit and perhaps give us added home field advantage.

 

I'm going to disagree. We'll be playing on a FIFA standard pitch in 2006; if pitch size is going to matter for this friendly, it should at least be a standard-size pitch -- if not wider -- to give our defense a test against Giggs and Bellamy.

 

Good point, but I was thinking in terms of the qualifiers.

I would imagine that all WC Finals games are played on the same sized field, but aren't the field-size requirements for WC qualifiers the same as for any international game? That is, a length of between 110 and 120 yds and a width of between 70 and 80 yds?

 

Johnny Moore, Quakes GM, was quoted recently in an interview that he was trying to bring more international games to San Jose, and specifically to Spartan Stadium, as that was the Quakes home, and what their fans deserved. So I'm sure it'll be at Spartan.

Plus, we obviously want them to bring Giggs, Bellamy and whoever else, the best they have available. It's a friendly and we should want to face the stiffest competition we can; it's better that way all the way around.

Damn, maybe I can make this game!!!

 

Fortunately, ManUre won't be there