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USMNT to play November friendly against Portugal

We may now know one of the friendlies the U.S. Men’s National Team intends to play in Europe next month.

The Portuguese Football Federation announced a pair of November friendlies that include a game against fellow World Cup entry Saudi Arabia on November 10 and the U.S. in Algarve on November 14.

It will be the first time the two nations will place each other since the 2014 World Cup to a 2-2 draw. That match saw Jermaine Jones and Clint Dempsey score for the U.S. and Silvestre Varela equalizing for Portugal with nearly the last kick of the match.

U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati said on Friday that the U.S. plans on playing two European friendlies in November before playing as many times as possible in 2018.

Comments

  1. IF there must be a “send-off” match for Dempsey, Howard, etc. it would be senseless to hold it OUTSIDE THE US.

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  2. I suspect whoever the next coach is, he will not fill the roster with the young players everyone seems to be clamouring for. I expect it will be a blend of experienced players and youth, more youth than experience.

    There is no point in putting out a team that has just met each other a couple days before the game. The results would likely help to destroy confidence of young players and have fans here going nuts about how terrible they were.

    While the US defense is hardly stellar, it is especially true that defenders have to be on the same page and that takes more than a couple training sessions; it will be a delicate balance, too many players new to the roster and their confidence will likely get shaken, too many veterans and the youth does not get the chance to assimilate. I fully expect at least 10 players from the last roster to be called up and that 5 or 6 of them will start.

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  3. I’d like to see an all-Euro team, with a definite eye on what the team might look like in 2021-2022.

    Morales, Wood, Horvath, Miazga, CCV, Williams, Brooks, maybe Johnson and Chandler, Yedlin, Hyndman. Hell, give Mix another shot. It’s all about evaluating players for the future.

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    • Mix is 27, Anyone who will be over 30 in 2022 does not need to be tested now. They only players who should make the squad at that age should be players who are playing so well for their clubs that they demand being on the roster or they fill a specific hole on the roster.

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  4. teams are very particular about releasing players but if they could

    —————WOOD————–GREEN——————–

    ————————–PULISIC——————————–

    F. JOHNSON————————————–CHANDLER

    ————————-D. WILLIAMS—————————

    LICHAJ—CARTER-VICKERS—–CAMERON——-YEDLIN

    ————————-YARBROUGH ————————–

    SUBS
    TIM REAM
    MATT MIAZGA
    LYNDEN GOOCH
    EMERSON HYNDYMAN
    ALFEDO MORALEZ
    ARON JOHANNSSON (YUP FIGHTING FOR A SPOT WITH WERDER BREMEN)
    ETHAN HORVATH
    HAJI WRIGHT
    PERRY KITCHEN
    KENNY SAIEF (IF HE’S NOT STILL INJURED)

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    • @Bizzy, Some good calls but I’d like to go even younger.

      You and me might be the only two on this site who’ve asked to call in Morales. Guy has the most Bundesliga minutes of anyone under 30 after Johnson and Chandler. Morales has over 100 Bundesliga appearances but has only gotten spot sub minutes from JK and nothing from Arean or BB. Guy is 27 now too so will be 31/32 by next WC. Feel terrible that he never really got a real chance. Same goes with Williams too. All because of the MLS poster boy prince-ling, Sir Jogsalot.

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      • 59 Bundesliga appearances, 38 starts, given who will likely be available worth a look, but not likely to be a big contributor going forward. He was an average player on a below average Bundesliga promoted side, he has five starts for the USMNT and thirteen appearances so had some opportunity to claim a spot. If I remember right played often in 2015, but maybe got injured in GC and then lost his spot with Ingolstadt for awhile, but maybe the injury was later in the fall.

    • Near as I could tell Saief is still injured, listed as “in hospital” by Gent but I’m guessing that’s a translation error meaning out with injury. This is an international window teams have to release their players. Although Leon may ask to keep Yarbrough given the travel and being in the race for Liga Mx playoffs.

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    • I seriously doubt you will ever see TC play in an advanced position for the MNT, Forget about Green. The guy is floundering in the 2nd division. I’d rather see Josh Sergeant or someone else get a chance.

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  5. These two games are in Europe, send off games happen at home. Hate to be Captain Obvious here.

    Would love to see us bleed the youth against Portugal and Ronaldo. Let them get blitzed all day so that after that they know its only better from then on out.

    Possible Roster:
    FWs: Wright, Wooten, Wood, Green

    MF: Pulisic, Adams, Hyndman, McKennie, Gonzolez, Gooch, Scott, Kiesweitter, Gaines

    DF: Yedlin, CCV, Miazga, EPB, Robinson, Payne, Olosunde, Moore, Glad,Fossey,

    GK: Horvath, Hamid, Gonzolez

    Potential lineup at 433 with Pulisic at CAM:

    Green———Wood———-Gooch

    —————-Pulisic——————-
    —–McKennie———Gonzolez—–

    Robinson–CCV—-Miazga—-Yedlin
    —————–Horvath—————-
    –Yedlin, Pulisic, Wood only holdovers and just for some familiar faces. Pulisic’s my captain going forward, he’ll be 23 next WC and he’s young but he’s going to captain next WC might as well get him ready now, other captain option could be Yedlin.

    Bring Wood off at half for Haji Wright. Players who need at least 30 minutes and where on the field.Hyndman for Pulisic at CAM, Scott for McKennie, Kiewetter for Green, Gaines at CAM, Adams for Gonzolez, EPB for CCV, Moore for Yedlin.

    Love watching the youth. Youth movement starts now.

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    • Goofed, meant to have Romain Gall on too and used as CAM subbing in for Pulisic at some point over both matches too, not Gaines.

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    • As for your lineup I would like to see Emo in the middle and CP on the right instead of gooch. Emo can be that creative player that can open things up for CP on the wing. I wish he would get more time at Bournemouth but he still probably the best option other than CP in the middle and if they can get 2 play makers on the field in positions where they are comfortable it can only be a food thing. Mckennie and Gonzalez I’m ready to see only if mckennie is healthy by then. And the back line I think yedlin and miazga should be locks for these games and ccv will probably get a call but starting probably not. So I’m sure there will be a few vets in there also but this is a great time to test these players and get them on the right path.

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      • I rate Hyndman too and would like to see him at CAM as well as Roman Gaill at some point during the two matches for extended periods. From what we saw on the 60 Minutes piece on Pulisic with him bringing Horvath over to do his GK work during the shoot, Pulisic’s already the ringleader and alpha dog of this group, time to let him lead it.

        On Hyndam, man was he making some real progress with Rangers last year and a real shame on the timing of his injury both for him and NT I believe. He’s a real options going forward and I do rate him for the little I’ve seen him play.

    • I would be surprised to see any of the MLS guys if their teams are still in playoffs. I would imagine we gave Portugal some assurances of the squad we will bring so some more veterans will likely be involved. Wooten is 28 and hasn’t played since Aug. 4 due to injury. Novakovich would be good to get a look at instead. Likely we’ll see Cameron, Ream, maybe Morales and Williams just to make it somewhat of a contest.

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    • Updates on a few of your roster hopes
      -Kiesewetter hasn’t dressed since Aug.27 and hasn’t played since Aug. 6.
      -Green has an apparent injury didn’t dress and posted a pic on a stationary bike on twitter with the caption “be back soon”
      -From what I could find Fossey hasn’t dressed for Fulham’s U23s this season and since he played quite a bit for them last year I am assuming injury perhaps still related to the groin injury that kept him out of U20 WC
      -Keaton Parks 20 year old midfielder plays in Portugal for Benefica II, played in all nine of their matches and has 2 goals.

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      • Thank you, Johnny, sometimes people like to spew names without checking their status first.
        I think we will at least call 3 from the “Geritol” group for now. I think Cameron for sure, probably Ream. The selection will give us an idea how much the federation wants to look at new blood or players that haven’t been looked at because of coach’s choice. i.e. Morales, Johannsson, Chandler, and Williams. Hopefully, Brooks and Saief may be ready for some action. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sargent in here, Tab (if he is the coach) likes him a lot.

  6. Dempsey needs a send off game in Texas. Howard can just be shown the door. He took a sabbatical from us now its our turn to take a sabbatical from him. A permanent one.

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  7. I’d have to venture a guess that this would mostly be a European-based roster…hopefully with some youth level call-ups (J. Gonzalez, please). Get him in the senior team set-up.

    As far as Dempsey goes, I’m guessing if he is headed out the door…look for him to be showcased in the January Camp, and to be given every opportunity to break the record there.

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  8. After today’s performance, we could do worse than a combination of our U-17 and U-20 teams, plus McKennie, Pulisic, Haji Wright and maybe a couple of “veterans” like Yedlin and Miazga.

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    • waiting to see the roster and interim coach before making that statement. I would love to watch a team full of our most promising youngsters take on and struggle against one of Europe’s best teams

      it is a no-win if we send the older core. play well its where was that a few weeks ago, play poorly it would just confirm what we already know and waste time that prospects could have seen.

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  9. We should. But we absolutely should not be doing a swan song or trying to do stuff like give Clint Dempsey a send-off while getting him the scoring record or suchlike. Apologies to Demps but he doesn’t deserve the record; he failed to score when it mattered and the time for a top-to-bottom rebuild is absolutely now. The USMNT doesn’t have time to waste; what we need to do is choose a system – we keep talking a high-press 4-3-3 and never get around to implementing it – and then start looking for young players who fit that scheme going forward.

    We do that, we are a very different, much deeper, much more capable team with a lot more accountability in the 2019-2022 cycle. On the other hand if we muck around getting Dempsey and Howard and Beasley and the like their ovations, nothing will change.

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    • Your criticism of Dempsey is totally unjust. In less than half an hour he forced the GK into two good saves and had a shot hit the post. He did more in his time than Altidore and Wood did together in 180 minutes. And as for the record, Dempsey has scored as many goals as Donovan in fewer games, is the only American to score in 3 World Cups, and more of his international goals have come from open play than with Donovan who got a lot more from PK’s than Dempsey, so Dempsey deserves the record. It’s understandable if he doesn’t play since we need to bring up our young players, but your statements about Dempsey are just way out of bounds.

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      • The US Soccer fan base has lost touch with reality a bit in the past week. Dempsey is an absolute US legend. Have some respect please.
        It is entirely possible to be angry/upset/whatever and still have rational thoughts.

      • I still laugh at this idea from some that because LD scored several goals from the PK spot that they are some how less than ones scored from open play. The fact remains that LD was our best PK taker, and alot of those pk’s he scored were won by him. Dempsey is a ST by nature, a goal scorer, so for LD to even have the record as a creative, attacking player who creates for others is impressive in and of itself. Maybe if Dempsey was the sure thing goal scorer from the spot that LD was he’d had the record by now, but we know he wasn’t. I think CD deserves to get the record no matter what the conversation is but this constant diminishing of LD scoring record because of penalties is ignorant and overlooking other factors.

      • He went ice-cold down the stretch, Gary, which is part of why we’re not in the World Cup. We tweaked our system to accomodate guys like him because they were perceived as irreplaceable and ended up not being good at anything or having any kind of philosophy. Are we attacking today? Defending? Maintaining possession? Dunno. And neither did the players or coaches.

        We need to be like Germany: pick a style, pick an approach, and start building with younger players who fit the system. Make the expectations and pecking order crystal clear. As a wise man called Einstein once said, if you can’t explain what you’re doing, it ain’t worth doing.

        Send-off games for Dempsey & Co. don’t fit into that. I don’t believe in “punishing” him, but we got a TON of stuff to do if we have any intention of being competitive in a few years. Time flies.

    • Its time to give the kids the keys. Heres the 11 against Portugal:

      ————Wood————
      Arriola—————-Pulisic
      ———Mckennie———-
      Saief——————-Acosta-
      ———–Gonzales———–
      Johnson—————Yedlin
      —–Brooks–Zimmerman—
      ————Horvath————

      Let them line ip against Christiano and get the competitive blood flowing.

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