usmnt friendly in december?

Re: Re: usmnt friendly in december?

If the LA Times correctly reported Chuck Blazer's comments in its 10/9 story, the "top five" from the last qualifying round won't start until February 18th, meaning we'd play on qualifying dates 3-6 and this may be a friendly.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/socce...6125993.story?coll=la-headlines-sports-soccer

 

Heard from a friend at MLS HQ that it's Germany and Columbia at Lockhart in early January. No confirmation anywhere on the web, though.

 

Why would Germany's MNT play against a college? Oh, you mean ColOmbia!

 

I do indeed. Sorry about that - I hate it when people do that switch. Careless on my part.

 

Both games at Lockhart?

 

*cringing*

Belgium are so boring to watch. If we were to send one of our lackluster teams, that could be beyond boring.

 

I agree, no Belgium. Romania and Ireland would be my first choices but in terms of WC preparation Poland, SAM, Finland are the styles that maybe we should look at a little more. When is Euro2004 Playoffs?

 

I think Greece would make for an interesting and good friendly opponent.

 

I'd like to see us play Greece. They won their Euro 2004 qualifying group and gave England a heck of a scare in the last game of WC Qualifying. Play them in Chicago and we could make some nice coin off of it too.

 

november 15th and 19th

 

Fine with me, they' d have a home game in NY.

 

I would love to play England but I doubt that will happen.

I hope we can schedule a strong non-CONCACAF team considering we will be playing them in WCQ.

Maybe Uruguay, Argentina, or Brazil, if European teams are out.

 

Most EUFA or COMENBOL teams will give us a run for our money (good thing) CONCACAF only Mexico. Bottom line is we need serious teams to improve on our quality of play. I would love a game with the Orange Machine (Holland) or revenge against Brazil.

 

Or........ say............ Melbourne.

USA versus Australia at the MCG. Sounds pretty inviting...

However, the travel to this part of the world and getting players together, for both teams, might be a bit of a challenge.

 

Makes sense, though, when you think about the trend in recent years of the USA having January friendlies in warm-weather venues, such as in Florida and California.

 

I agree that having places like Florida and California is a perfect excuse to host a friendly. Think about this: Germany, and a number of other leagues, have a 4 week window during the december/january time frame when they aren't playing league games.

Why not have a bundesliga-only German side against an MLS-only US side in Florida (where there are Americans, obviously, and a lot of German tourists in Jan/Feb)? Okay, we played Germany twice last year (wc, rostock friendly), but there are other leagues like this.

The downer would be that a number of the MLS guys would be rusty, but it would also give us a chance to play an MLS-heavy lineup, one we might see again when qualifiers come around and we can't get all of our Euro players over for them.

I don't honestly see a downside. Play Hungary in California. Play the Czechs in Phoenix. Something, but get a game done. No reason not to. Give young guys (Martino, Clark, Buddle, EJ, whoever) a chance at a senior camp and some time in front of the nat head coach, get them some time against a Euro side...why not?

 

I,m the first to admit that the MLS has come a long ways, but we are not (as a league ) up to par with European teams. What most peaple seem to forget is that the majority of our national team is composed of players that do or have at one point played in Europe. ANY MLS team would get slaughterd if we were to play a big boy like Man Utd., Real Madrid or even Gala from Turkey. We are still lacking in experience.

 

I have read (can't confirm) that the USA team won't play in qualification until Feb 18th. I am anxious to hear of any friendly before qualifiction.

 

I hate to be a voice of reason here, but what benefit is it to have youngbloods in a friendly against a team like Germany (or even Greece, Romania, or Ireland).

As great as it would be to see a friendly against quality competition, I can't see it as necessary in order to prepare a largely B- team against the likes of the Dominican Republic or Turks and Caicos.

I'm sure there will be a friendly to prepare them, but I'd expect it to be against El Salvador or Canada or some other dreadful CONCACAF side--a side that would mirror our imminent competition.

 

I've seen that on the site for awhile. It very well could be an event sanctioned by US Soccer but run by a promoter that will bring in South American/Central American/Caribbean teams for a round-robin. The fact thatthis is at the Orange Bowl, and not Lockhart, also makes me think it's a typical "let's make some money off the ex-pats" event.

 

Ain't no shame in that game. If we can use other teams to line our federation's coffers, I have zero problem with it.

 

Concur.

 

If I remember correctly, this a a yearly tournament with club teams from around the South American/Central American/Caribbean. It will be mostly HIspanic in the teams invited and I would be shocked if any US teams were invited.

Switzerland who recently won their qualfying group has a 6 week break in their schedule for a winter break. Most of the first-team players play in Switzerland with the exception of a defender at Liverpool, a midfielder at Marseilles and a striker at Rennes. It should not be too difficult to get them to come over and spend some time in the sun. Most of the Swiss league teams spend the last three weeks away somewhere warm anyway. Last year, two spent time in Morroco, and one was in Mexico. They would give the US a good game.