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Report: Venue chosen for USA-Ukraine match

Landon Donovan

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

By DAN KARELL

A venue in Cyprus for the upcoming U.S. Men’s National Team match against Ukraine has been announced.

After agreeing to move the match out of the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv due to civil unrest, the Ukrainian Football Federation announced on their website that the match will be held in Larnaca at the Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium, a 10,230-seat capacity stadium that’s home to Cypriot club Anorthosis Famagusta.

U.S. Soccer has yet to officially comment on the announcement.

The USMNT will take part in a training camp in Frankfurt, Germany before departing for the friendly match in Cyprus. Ukraine will be the last opponent the U.S. faces before World Cup a preliminary list of 30 players for the World Cup must be submitted.

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What do you think of this report? Did you plan on attending the match? Do you think this move will affect the match in any way?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. What a chance to watch a game! American of Ukrainian origin residing in Larnaca area.

    Dunno which team to support though:-)

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  2. I’m guessing the crowd will be smaller,because Cyprus are playing Northern Ireland in Nicosia on the same day.

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  3. At the time the Ukraine_US match was finalized and announced, there was still a lot of civil unrest in the Ukraine. I think whomever was responsible for picking the team to play and the venue without consulting the State Dept or those in the know, with such a big game at stake for the WC, have, hopefully, learned a lesson. That lesson being; “don’t take chances with that things that can go very wrong in a short period of time, and in doing so, jeopardizes the painstaking preparation the USMNTeam needs to mount a successful attempt at the WC. It would have been grossly unfair to some players on the bubble or out injured, to try and make the team after a cancellation of a key game.

    The US had chances to book many “safe” opponents, in countries which play a similar style of soccer like Germany’s, but instead, chose the Ukraine, and should have been aware of the the problems.with civil unrest

    The fact that the game was moved to a tiny stadium in a small country, does not diminish the importance of the game, but it gives pause to think the game could have been very well cancelled, OR it could have been played in a large stadium in a stable country has someone in USSF had the foresight to not take a gamble to play in unstable countries in an important game so close to the big event like the WC.

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  4. “Ukraine will be the last opponent the U.S. faces before World Cup a preliminary list of 30 players for the World Cup must be submitted.”

    Correct me if I am wrong, but isn’t the US scheduled to play Mexico in April (Non-FIFA date)? The preliminary 30 isn’t due until early May?

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  5. For those who don’t know Cyprus is the default nation for teams that can’t play at home. Lots of champions league games for teams from Israel at bad periods, etc. Fairly large American population for such a small country, large American embassy with lots of families who i’m sure will organize something for the game and as mentioned by other posters a really lovely country despite all the recent economic troubles. Also interesting, the team who’s stadium they are playing is a refugee team from Famagusta which has been occupied since 1974.

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  6. Does anyone understand why they chose to play in Cyprus of all the God forsaken places in that region? Was the Damascus Stadium already booked?

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    • Maybe the Ulkrainians wanted a vacation. It’s beautiful there. As far as spectators go, how many spectators are going to be at the way-out locations in Brazil? Can the locals afford tickets? Maybe this Cyprus location is a taste of what kinds of fans will be available in the World Cup games.

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      • Resort nation? Yes. Beautiful? Yes. The Cypriots I’ve meet have been wonderful people…but I wouldn’t want to be there the day the Greeks and the Turks decide they want to have a final throw down to settle that little brawl they had in 1974…Turkish military nowadays is no joke.

      • Such a fight between two NATO states would last .42 seconds before Brussels would be screaming at Ankara and Athens.

  7. When is the last time the US played in a stadium that seated so few people? (aside from closed door sessions of course)

    Honest question.

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  8. “The USMNT will take part in a training camp prior to the friendly match in Frankfurt, Germany, before departing for Cyprus. ”

    That sentence confused me. So are they playing a friendly in Germany before the game against Ukraine? If so, who are they playing? When is Klimnsmann naming his roster?

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    • Yeah, better wording is needed there.

      probably something like…

      The USMNT will take part in training camp in Frankfurt, Germany prior to departing for Cyprus for the friendly match.

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  9. what happens to people who bought tickets already for Ukraine. can they be refunded and credited for the move? wasn’t the original stadium like 30, 000? 10,000 is so weak. i doubt more than 500 Cypriots show up. are there any Ukrainians in CYRPUS? why didn’t they just move it to Poland?

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  10. Interesting that this is it before the preliminary roster is submitted in May. Is this preliminary roster made public or only the final 23?

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