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USA-Belgium set for Sept. 6 (Updated and Confirmed)

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The long-rumored USA-Belgium friendly has yet to be announced by the U.S. Soccer Federation, but the Belgian FA isn't wasting time promoting the match, posting an announcement that the friendly is set for Sept. 6th in Brussels.

UPDATED- U.S. Soccer officials confirmed to Fox Soccer on Friday evening that the USA-Belgium friendly will take place and an announcement will take place next week.

If the friendly is finalized, it would give U.S. Soccer another tough test as Belgium boasts one of the best collections of young talent in Europe. Led by such standouts as Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku and Vincent Kompany, Belgium is currently ranked 35th in the world. USA is ranked 24th.

What do you think about a potential USA-Belgium friendly? Which players would you like to see called up for such a friendly?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. How about George John and Brad Davis. John is way better than Ream or Gonzalez. Davis has been the best midfielder in MLS this year leading the league in assists. Oh wait, didn’t Bradley trade away Davis about 4 or 5 years ago so he could play another player ironically named Bradley.

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  2. Great point “who” — The people who rip JK on the Bayern incident have never checked on the full story. JK wanted changes in the roster and he couldn’t get the board to support it. He also was trying to change Bayern’s style to be much more attacking oriented and the board wasn’t in agreement. After the disagreements resulted in JK’s departure, the board went out and spent 12 million euro on 6 new players. A month later they brought in Arjen Robin for a another chunk of change. JK may not walk on water but before bad mouthing his experience people should do some serious fact checking.

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  3. Young MLS USMNT Lineup:

    —–Agudelo–Sapong(he’s in better form than Bunbury)
    Shea-McCarty-Kitchen-Pontius
    Loyd-John-Gonzalez(Ream)-Franklin
    ———-Hamid————-

    Yes we don’t have the greatest youth development system in the world but I think this is actually a pretty solid group of young players developing in MLS. If we can get a few solid players from this group to our youngsters developing overseas I think we can have a solid team in 2014.

    (That does not however mean I’m giving the Get out of Jail Free card to Bradley, he should definitely go, and we should definitely continue revamping our youth development as well)

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  4. marouan fellani (probably spelled wrong) is one of my favorite players in EPL to watch. Go everton, should be a good match

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  5. Yeh, I’m not sold on any of them. Grella hasn’t performed well for Leeds or his loan teams, but neither did Adu, just saying it’s an option, not that I would personally bring him in if I had the option.

    Starikov is the most likely of the forwards to possibly break in, even though he didn’t have a solid January camp. He is playing in Russia’s first division which has some solid squads so that is certainly beneficial for his growth (and he does actually play more than once a season).

    Boss is just the up and coming centerback, not necessarily to say he needs to be brought up yet, but he is one of the young rising stars of the US. I’m simply saying, sometimes the young guys may be able to help more than the veterans on some occasion due to their athletic ability. Another player I wouldn’t call in personally, but an option going forward.

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  6. No thanks at all to Grella. He was never impressive as a U18 or U20 player. He isn’t full international quality.

    Yev Starikov MAY be but he hasn’t shown any real hints of that yet. Was reportedly far from impressive in camp in January.

    Boss is only 19 and should not be with the full team at this point. I believe we will see him post-2014 WC. He has virtually no pro experience at all. You can’t throw him to the wolves in this kind of situation. Let him play, grow, and develop without the ridiculous expectations that we have piled on Juan Aguedelo.

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  7. Last year in the tourney in here in GA when he scored. He wasn’t able to get released from club for U20 qualification and they didn’t qualify, so he has been playing with Israeli national team but still wants the US.

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  8. I’ll refrain from giving Gulati credit as he’s still in the negative for the timing of the Spain friendly…

    Also I’ll refrain from giving a man credit for voting for Sepp Blatter, despite obvious corruption, and failing to abstain entirely from the process in protest.

    Gulati is a joke.

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  9. awesome. We need to keep looking for players that can contribute to team. Sounds like a great opportunity to evaluate.

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  10. Let’s see, Bradley had 62 players on a match-day squad in the last 12 months. I am not sure how that qualifies as a stagnant squad.
    Of course, many of those players were simply being evaluated to see how they would fit it with the team in a realistic setting (hardly month-long trials, but better than trying to compare players who play in a variety of leagues and countries at varius levels).
    This is a difficult stretch for any coach, new or old, as proven performers must be reevaluated as they age and young talent must be tested to see if it measures up. It is no small task to bring in new players who will inevitably replace the veterans and keep divisions from arising that have the potential of poisoning the team effort that is important for any success the us will have, while at the same time trying to get some results. (A US coach does not have the luxury of pulling a half-dozen stars from Champions League teams and trusting that their talent will pull them through.)
    As the recent Argentina-Bolivia game demonstrates, even the later star strategy can come up short.

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  11. Klinsmann would be nice. Back to reality though. I hope to see the roster look something like this:

    Goaltenders: Howard and Guzan

    Defenders: Cherundolo (if back from injury), Lichaj, Chandler, Whitbread, Goodson, Boca, and Spector

    Midfielders: Holden (if back from injury), Mixx, Donovan, Adu, Dempsey, Edu, Jones, and Bradley

    Forwards: Altidore (if back from injury), Agudelo, Bunbury

    Lineup replacements or possible candidates including on the cusp players:

    Feilhaber
    Bedoya
    Gonzalez
    Grella
    Starikov
    Ream
    Klestjan
    Boss

    Starting Lineup

    ————Guzan————-
    Chandler-Whitbread-Boca-Lichaj
    ————Jones————-
    Donovan—–Holden—–Dempsey
    ————-Adu————–
    ———–Altidore———–

    *Could switch Adu and Donovan due to Donovan’s skill to find the right pass and Adu’s ability to play wide as he did against Mexico.

    Subs:
    Bradley for Jones
    Edu for Holden
    Mixx for Adu
    Agudelo/Bunbry for Altidore

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  12. Jason Kreis is a potential USMNT coach of the future but hopefully not immediate future as a replacement for BB. Kreis still has a lot he wants to prove at club level. Is there any other more seasoned MLS coaches that would be more savvy than BB?

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  13. Marshall? Child Please. At least Ream can pass the ball even though he gets beaten like a drum. Cincy > Columbus

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