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USMNT to face Russia in Krasnodar on Nov. 14

Photo by John Todd/ISIPhotos.com

The U.S. Men’s National Team’s long-rumored friendly against Russia was made official on Thursday, with the USMNT taking on the Russians in Krasnodar on Nov. 14th.

Currently ranked No. 12 in the world, Russia is enjoying a strong World Cup qualifying campaign and recently defeated Portugal to stay unbeaten in group play (4-0 without a single goal allowed).

The Americans have never beaten Russia, holding an 0-2-2 record against them. The last meeting between the two came on April 26, 2000, with the Russians posting a 2-0 victory in Moscow.

What do you think of this match? Excited to see how the Americans stack up against the Russians? Think the U.S. can get a result?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. When you are the second best American midfielder on the Union (Farfan), don’t expect a call-up anytime soon. Love, a big Adu fan.

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    • If you honestly think M. Farfan is better than Adu we don’t have such to say to each other. Injuries aside, there’s no contest Adu still beats him by a mile.

      One could argue that Marf has more upside long term, but you could simply say it’s a matter of him having less baggage than Adu and more trust from the coaching staff at Union, which would be very fair to say. But I think it will be years before Marfan will be an international caliber attacking midfielder. As a Union fan I hope he gets there, but it’ll be a few years yet.

      Reply
  2. Freddy, Freddy, Freddy……….Doesn’t anybody remember this guy =)..
    Come-on Klinsy….give this guy a “real” chance. He could really help in 2014…..He was one of the few that played well for U23 team….Don’t give up on him, please!

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  3. Is anyone knowledgeable about security issues here. It is very near some very volatile parts of the former USSR – both for player and supporter.

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      • Do the Yura Backers realize he’s already appeared umpteen times for Armenia? Ugly Rossi/ Subotic obsession, leave it be, he’s the ex that’s left you. Not in our league not in our colors even.

        I already knew Starikov hasn’t played much and is on the latest in a succession of loan deals. But he was once called up and he would be the local-boy for this one. At minimum you know you’re truly off the radar if our traveling circus comes to town and still leaves you out. If we played Denmark in Copenhagen, I’d assume Goodson, Parkhurst, and others get an automatic call. But they are also more integrated in the side. So, if anything, I’ll be interested to see if we bother.

      • He didn’t say call up Yura instead. Yes Yura is now cap tied to Armenia because he didn’t want to put his international career on hold while he waited for his US citizenship to arrive (nothing like Rossi/Subotic).
        “We’re not talking about Yura here” in that Yura is talented and currently leads the Russian league in scoring, whereas Starikov DOES NOT PLAY ACTUAL COMPETITIVE SOCCER GAMES.
        So why even bring him up?

      • Given that Yura is committed, throwing his name around is like comparing Subotic to one of the German-based lesser names we could call up. You’re like, well Movsisyan is better. So what. Subotic might be much better than some random German kid we’re watching. But the irony is, THE RANDOM GERMAN KID COULD ACTUALLY BE CALLED UP. Mentioning Movsisyan is an irrelevance.

        You wanna say, he barely plays, fine, but tossing in Yura’s scoring is like trying to double-count the not-playing argument, because the compared player is off-the-table.

        If you read what I was saying it was more a question and an I wonder than advocacy…”you’re truly off the radar if our traveling circus comes to town and still leaves you out,” etc. I actually think Klinsi might be justified in leaving him out, but I also think it would be interesting in a way if we went to Russia and he didn’t get a look. You know, if we go to Denmark and you play there and don’t get called, what does that say……

  4. How about a Bubble/Depth Team?

    —————–Guzan—————-
    Parkhurst–Goodson–Edu–Lichaj
    ——————-Edu—————-
    Adu———-Kljestan———-Shea
    ———–Gatt—-Boyd————-

    Reply
    • Yeah, Russia’s a pretty good team and it’s a quick turnaround to the Hex. So I’ll be interested how experimental it gets. For some of the Euro-based this is probably the only chance to audition before we get back going again in February/March for real. I assume January will be about MLS people and other players on break.

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    • dude. its october. plus, check the longitude…it matches up well with Nova Freakin Scotia. it may not be moscow, but you can bet it’s gonna be cold!

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      • Lol “check the longitude”?? Really? Do you not have any idea how climates work? Check where Nova Scotia lines up with other places in Europe. Russia has nice resorts on the Black Sea, we should be happy this isn’t in Moscow.

    • if you really want to troll the Russians, go with:

      Howard
      Chandler-Onyewu-Edu-FJ
      E Johnson-Jones-Williams-Beasley
      Boyd-Altidore

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  5. Interesting choice for Krasnodar. Not exactly the first place that comes to mind when you think Russia. It actually shouldn’t be overwhelmingly cold if wikipedia’s climate data is to be believed. Given, I’m from Minneapolis so my view might be slightly skewed compared to anybody from let’s say Phoenix.
    In terms of the actual game, I’m slightly ambivalent. On one hand, they failed to advance out of their group (given, the Greeks are always underrated) at the Euros when they really should have, on the other, they haven’t given up a goal in qualification and have won every match. From what I’ve seen, they’re very good going forward when the opponent get’s even slightly stretched. However, they never really impressed on any set pieces that I saw against Portugal or Northern Ireland which would really favor us. I dunno. We could get massacred or we could have another historic victory. Flip a coin.

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    • Actually, just looked on the map and this city looks like the warmest city possible in Russia! Ok, that may not be saying much, but its very close to Turkey.

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    • This is near the Black Sea. It should be chilly 35F low 50F high but warmer than Moscow.

      My response is more, odd choice for a fly in-fly out friendly. I assume it will be mostly if not exclusively Euro-based but even for them it is presumably an indirect set of flights. If you play in one of their cliched big cities it’s a straight shot.

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      • I would guess the team will gather in Germany before flying private directly to the locale. Literally just a guess though.

    • If that happens (which it likely will) I hope we try and sub on every black player we have just to piss them off. GAM and T-Ho likely won’t take kindly to racists

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    • No, I think the focus will be on soccer, Putin will keep the order under control, particularly with Russia getting ready to host the WC in 2018. Plus, there will be no BBC crew around to accuse the host country of racism as they did in their “documentary” about Poland and Ukraine prior to the EURO, encouraging fans to boycott the tournament because the host countries were portrayed as a hotbed of racism. How much racism did you see at EURO 2012? The most notable racist behavior belonged to English fans who taunted Balotelli, not to the Poles or Ukrainians.

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      • Eurosnob nailed it. The Economist has a lot more on that BBC-Racism-Euro Tournament saga if you want to search for it. I’m confident the Russians will by and large go support their team and enjoy the match. You may have the odd idiot here and there, but that is the case basically anywhere in the world. The real challenge for the US is going to be on the field. The Russians are highly talented and Fabio Capello just might instill in them much needed discipline and consistency that was lacking at the Euros in Poland & Ukraine.

      • True, e-snob, I would be shocked to see any bad fan scenes at that game. Will be an interesting game and a great test. Russia is looking good under Capello and a lot of fun to watch. I think they and we could be two of the major surprises of WC 2104. (man, i’m starting to get optimistic.)

      • As an American who started working in Germany about a year ago and was around for the Euros, there were definitely some reports of some racist chants (towards the black player on the Czech team from the Russian fans and towards Italy from the Croatian fans.) These were the only two things of note.

        Things like this only happen from a small sub-section of the fans. Unfortunately, this behavior has a tendency to grow larger if that sub-section feels that they have more freedom to do it because they will attract more like-minded idiots and some of the “go along with the crowd” simple minded people in the crowd.

        English fans taunting Ballotelli was NOT the most noticeable event. Frankly, I never heard any thing of the sort from the German, French or British media.

        I for one feel that professional athletes should be able to withstand some taunting, but racist chants or some personal chants cross the line. Unfortunately, they places where these things happen without punishment seem to be reflection of the attitudes of the society (to a certain extent). Whether it is eastern or southern Europe (Italy and Spain). Sometimes the people are not racist but are completely oblivious to the brash, cultural insensitivity of their actions (look at the Spanish basketball team and their Olympic advertisement mocking the Chinese for the Beijin Olympics)

  6. Hopefully we’ll see some young blood, new prospects. Nothing to lose on this one, we need to find the new players that will help out during the 2013 Hex Qualifying

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    • Yes hopefully we see some new blood in this game. Hope to see Mix, Boyd, Gatt, Gyau. Klinsmann will score big points with fans if he does

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      • Totally agree with you Noah. I don’t understand why people keep asking for Gyau to get a call-up to the National Team. I understand that the kid has speed and raw talent, but he’s getting like 0 minutes w/ St Pauli in the 2nd Bundesliga. Same thing with Seb Hines. This guy hasn’t even filed his one -time switch to the US yet and fans ask for him. I can understand wanting Gatt called up, hell, I can even understand wanting Lichaj to get a call up, but Gyau??? If memory serves me right, he had a good game w/ the Olympic squad in a friendly vs Mexico, and one the actual tournament kicked off, he hardly saw playing time.

      • Yep, too early for Gyau. First game this Sunday with the new coach, Michael Frontzeck, (Bradley’s former coach at Gladbach). If Gyau can convince Frontzeck to start him regularly between now and Christmas and if Gyau does well, I could maybe see a call-up for Camp Cupcake. Otherwise, Gyau needs to be allowed to develop and then Klinsmann can decide in May if the time is right.

        I got my fingers crossed that Gyau does well and wins the trust of Frontzeck. Gyau played in some friendlies the past two weeks and has scored at least one goal that I know of.

  7. Good test for the team. I hope we see LD and Deuce on the field together. Would also be interesting to see how Omar fared in this game. However, the MLS playoffs will still be going, so I don’t think we see either LD or Omar. Bummer.

    Reply

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