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USA-Egypt Friendly CANCELED

AltidoreEgypt (ISIPhotos.com)

The USA-Egypt friendly scheduled for Feb. 9th in Cairo has been canceled. The unstable situation in Egypt brought on by political unrest has led to the cancellation of the friendly.

“We were excited about the opportunity to play against Egypt, but due to the current situation all parties agreed it was best to cancel the match,” said U.S. Soccer President Sunil Gulati. “We appreciate the efforts of the Egyptian Football Association and the U.S. State Department as we worked through this situation.”

The United States will return to action in March with matches against Argentina, on March 26th in New Jersey, and Paraguay, on March 29th in Nashville, Tennessee.

The cancellation will hardly come as a surprise considering the political situation in Egypt, which would have even made moving the match a questionable option. The timing of the events in Egypt also made finding a new opponent impossible for a U.S. national team that hasn't fielded its full squad since October.

What do you think of this development? Inevitable? Wish the teams could have found somewhere else to play? Understandable given the unsettled situation in Egypt?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. to all authoritarian regimes:

    If you want unrest/revolution in your country, just schedule a friendly with the United States, refer to USA-Iran in 2009 and USA-Egypt in 2011…..

    Maybe we can schedule to play Burma, Russia, Venezuela, Bolivia and Belarus 🙂

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  2. seriously. i’m sure it’s not as easy as making a few phone calls.

    hell first you must find a new opponent. secure a venue and a training facility nearby. get new travel tickets for players and coaching staff coming from various points across the globe. then you must promote the game enough so the ussf and new-opponent can make a PROFIT off of the game. the USA won’t be a big draw for some countries so i doubt that will happen given only a week of promo.

    also if that new opponent does not have a friendly lined-up for the 9th it is because they have their reasons. their players will not be expecting a calling nor want one on short notice. many countries are coming off the asian up as well. these friendly’s are planned months in advanced for a reason.

    sometimes the negativity on this site is disgusting. tough luck guys. we need to find something else to follow on a wednesday afternoon big f’in deal. if you can help the ussf secure a new opponent for the 9th call sunil and ask him for an internship.

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  3. Right, that was probably the deciding issue vs a Plan B squad if we are feeling charitable – all the USMNT 1st teamers in Europe probably, secretly, are happy to get a few days off to recuperate.

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  4. And yeah I know the only teams available on short notice of a few weeks would not be top class opponents.

    So it could be that USSF thought about it and decided it best just to cancel, even after considering a plan B. But that would be giving USSF benefit of the the doubt ; )

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  5. Well…to pat myself on back, after 1st day of protest I said on boards friendly was going to be cancelled, it was clear that things would not settle down right away.

    And, even before that, after Tunisia, things were a little unsettled already in Egypt and other countries in region.

    Remember people lit themselves on fire in Egypt too?

    There was time to make a plan B – if Gulati/USSF was on top of things.

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  6. Gulati teaches one class per semester–a huge (and, unrelated, but incredibly popular) lecture that includes a lot of guest speakers. Speaking as someone who has 1) taken his class and 2) is currently a Columbia student, he basically shows up twice a week, if that, and the TAs do the grading.

    The point of this comment is that he has more than enough time to devote to US Soccer. Sorry the guy couldn’t stop the revolution and tell the Egyptian soccer federation to get itself and its team together and find another location despite the state of their country.

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  7. You don’t know what state the Egyptian soccer federation is in either. If they’re located in a major city, as I’m sure they must be, I can’t imagine that rescheduling a friendly soccer game is going to be at the top of their priorities.

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  8. there’s also the problem of getting players to and from the game, and issues with promotions, existing contracts, already sold tickets, revenues, etc. It’s difficult to do in 6 or 7 days.

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  9. I’m suprised a last-minute game couldn’t be scheduled. You do have the issue of finding a venue on very short notice, and selling tickets so it makes sense to cancel everything.

    Egypt owes us though.

    I guess a 3rd party option isn’t valid. I bet the USA/Egypt could play a game on short notice in Isreal, and tickets would sell well based on the novelty of the event.

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  10. Before you guys laugh…Guatemala doesn’t have a friendly. Will be good to see the Camp Cupcake version 2011 guys once again against a potential GC rival. Easily make it in L.A. and you’ll have success in the box office.

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  11. “LNG said in reply to LNG… I could be completely off-base”

    Yeah you are. First of all when the unrest went down, no one knew or knows now how long it will go on.

    If Mubarak had stepped down yesterday for example, maybe the country is back to a semblance of normality by the 9th. And maybe a game would be a welcome diversion. So they were unsure about whether they even had to cancel this game until just now.

    It’s not just a question of Sunil picking up a phone and asking Portugal or Spain what are you guys doing? Do you think arranging a game is like rescheduling your dental appointment?

    The reality is that by the time the unrest started it was probably already too late to get another game. Why do you think they’ve waited so long to cancel when most of us would have done it a week ago?

    All they could do was hope that everything got settled quick and that isn’t happening.

    Sunil’s competency can be questioned on a lot of things but the fact that you would question him about this ( especially when you aren’t privy to any inside information) says a lot more about you than it does about him.

    Organic revolutions of an entire country can be so incovenient, don’t you think?

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  12. Would probably be difficult for the Egyptian players to have their heads in the game for a “friendly.” These guys all have family and friends in Egypt that they’re most likely concerned about.

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  13. Seriously you’re debased. How does one predict a governmental overthrow (if this is what this ends up being)? I mean had that been the case, the boys in Wall Street would have had some puts on Egyption companies and middle east stocks in general….

    This close to a date, it’s next to impossible, it would take another country (Tunis next opponent?) having similar issues and a US venue.

    Sunil may be a lot things, but to blame him for not planning for an eventual uprising of 10,000+ in Egypt is just a little bit too much to ask. He’s given us Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay and the Netherlands and Chile in friendly’s. I’d say that’s quite a step up from Jamaica, venezuela and Lithuania. give the guy a break.

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  14. Yes, you are competely off-base. Your speculation that Sunil just sat on his hands, or bears any fault in any of this, are the deluded imaginings of a twisted mind. There’s massive freaking unrest in Egypt that, to my knowledge, no one predicted, and, as such, a soccer game was cancelled. Sometimes, bad/crazy things happen, and there’s no simple explanation or one person to blame.

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  15. Here’s an idea. Get two other weaker countries that have a friendly scheduled (ex: Andora and Moldova). Send like 25 players and play both of them. If it is a really weak team they will be happy to play the USA B team.

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  16. I know Jamaica is having trouble scheduling an opponent for that date because they can’t host due to their national stadium being renovated. The USA host them better then nothing.

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  17. These comments are quite disheatening. Whether you are for or against the revolution, a country is rioting and people are dying. Such a shame all that is getting in the way of a meaningless soccer match. I think a little perspective is in order.

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  18. This may already have been answered, but do the non-English transfer windows (Spain, Italy, Germany, France, etc) have a different closing time than England’s?

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  19. Unfortunately not everybody has access to espn3. It depends on if your internet provider has the proper agreements w/ espn. Cablevision in the NJ area does not have espn3. I have to find other streams to watch the games.

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  20. Hey – I’ve heard that Jozy is going to La Liga team, Levante, also that there was a deal in the works with Boraspur from the Turkish league – wasssssupppppp? Can anyone refute or confirm, the latest Jozy transfer rumors?

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  21. Uhhhhh….Chris. News to you – ESPN.3 is on your computer, on the internet! It’s FREEE-EEEEEEE-EEEEEEEEEE, eeee, eeeee, eeeee! Gol, gol, gol, gol, gol, go-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-l, golazo, azo, azo, azo, azo. Sorry got carried away. But, really man – if you missed USA v. Chile I think it is still archived on the ESPN web site at ESPN.3

    ESPN also streams Bundesliga, EPL, La Liga and Serie A games live, ALL the time. It is free mon, on-line. Have at!

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  22. Say what you want about Sunil but I’ve got to think that as soon as news hit about Egypt, Sunil was thinking about the game. After all, his job is to be thinking about US socce all of the time. Poor timing cancelled this date this and nothing else.

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