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USMNT announces matches with France, Ireland, Paraguay

The U.S. Men’s National Team’s 2018 schedule just became a bit more clear.

U.S. Soccer announced on Monday that the USMNT will take on Paraguay, France and Ireland ahead of this summer’s World Cup. The U.S. will face Paraguay on March 27 in Cary, North Carolina before visiting Ireland and France on June 2 and 9, respectively.

In addition, U.S. Soccer says that more matches will be announced for September, October and November at a later date as the team promises to play “one of the most demanding non-tournament schedules in MNT history”.

The U.S. opened the year with a friendly draw against Bosnia & Herzegovina to close the annual January camp.

Comments

  1. these three matches will be best viewed if you can somehow listen to the away team’s audio. the reason is because the away commentary will mostly focus on the game on the field and the English speaking commentary will be focused on matters off the field such as why the usa didn’t qualify for Russia.

    it can be done. search the Internet for foreign broadcast and run audio cables to your computer. try it.

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    • a little trick i learned, if you are using the five speaker surround, turn off the center channel, boost the rear speakers. that way you hear the sound of the crowd, the on field mic when they kick the ball hard, the songs and chants from the supporters groups and other ambient sounds (makes you feel like you are there!) without hearing for example Wynalda’s persistent whining. works great!

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  2. I see the $$$ adding up but we dont have a coach and I dont want to see the last lot again. Wouldnt you think they would hire a coach first, then see what he has to say about these games?

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    • Scheduling games/opponents takes month to finalize. If there is a chance to schedule games against opponents with any kind of relevance than you do it. France, Ireland, & Paraguay are all better options than playing throw away games against CONCACAF Minnows.
      We’ve just elected a New President of our federation. His 1st priority will be to higher a GM who is actually versed in the sport. The GM will then look to establish a list of candidates for the coaching position. Many of the candidates on the list are likely to be coaches who are actually going to be attending the WC, so don’t be surprised if we don’t hire a coach until after July.

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  3. These games don’t matter. What mattered was the World Cup in Russia and the last two Olympics. Past failures don’t go away by winning friendlies. The new boss is same as the old boss. Awful.

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  4. Can be promising, AS LONG as the squad includes young players that will actually get meaningful minutes, instead of a rehash of the same old….Veterans are okay, as long as only a few to provide mentoring/stability on the field, but they shouldn’t be a majority group

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  5. I like the Paraguay and Ireland games even as much as i like the France game. Those teams are roughly as good as ours. I know that FIFA rankings aren’t perfect, but they put those teams as #31 and #32, which is close to our 25. The US’s young team will have a better chance to play offense and test all aspects of its game then it will when we get badly out-posessed by a powerful France side whose players are fighting hard for starting spots. we do need to learn how to play these elite teams (we’ve often focused on D and quick goals on counterattacks), but I’d rather see us spend a larger portion of our time getting our young team (which is only the equivalent of an A/B or B team assuming we are leaving some our best players off the roster due to age) ready to face the types of teams that are more common in the hex and the group stages of the world cup.

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  6. I fully expect Sarachan to be in charge until after the WC or at least until after the European season. Lets face it, no coach we would really want is both currently unemployed and would want to coach the USA. In fact, the pool of potential coaches is ra ather small window of those good enough the US would want them and those hungry enough for a challenge that they would be willing to take on the US job.

    Now is the time to begin the search, but at this stage, it is more define what is expected of the coach, is he just the full national team coach, does he direct the coaches of the youth national teams, does he have some formal role in helping to sort out the jumble of youth and professional leagues in the US? That totals 2 to 4 full-time roles and requires a mix of skills not likely found in a single individual.

    It is straight-forward to see how the coaching roles could work out under a single head, but the real work of figuring out how to bring some sense of order, a common purpose and a system that does not constantly have its parts warring with each other is a herculean task. I would also add that US Soccer does not control a lot of the factions within it in a direct way, but it could use the powers it does have to coerce and persuade the various groups to work for the common good. Of course, that means some groups giving up their pretense of being more than they are and others being willing to surrender some of the power they currently enjoy.

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  7. If we beat France we will be angry we beat a team and we aren’t in the World Cup. If we lose to France we will be angry because we can’t beat a team that is in the World Cup. People are going to be upset regardless of any outcome

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  8. This is uncharted territory since 1990 – we aren’t going to the world cup so who can we play and who wants to play us? I think we need to be excited that France has included the US as a pre-tournament warm up.

    Ireland; Paraguay – blah,but we need to play someone. It is going to be a long slog to get us to a meaningful game with a new squad.

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  9. I understand the desire to have a manager but honestly, if a manager is available its because his team didn’t qualify, he’s been fired by his club, or no club wanted him this fall.

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    • I’m not disagreeing at all but I do think there are some qualified ones out there that are waiting for the right opportunity and definitely some that would be an upgrade to what we have and have had the last year(Tuchel, Berizzo, Silva and if u want to go American maybe Porter) . Some of these guys have coached at big clubs and may not be right for a national team and may have no interest at all but might be with a shot.

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      • Verizon was only at Sevilla for half a season and had some homophobic comments as a player of course that’s been almost 20 years ago so maybe not a big deal.

        Silva was just fired at Watford “for using an unwarranted approach that led to deterioration in focus and results.” according to his former boss.

        Tuchel is being rumored for the biggest clubs in Europe not saying any are true but he seems in line for Arsenal, Chelsea, or Man United. Would think he’d also be a front runner at Bayern. Not mention BvB was awful defensively under Tuchel.

        The pool will be much larger this Summer, even if that’s just waiting for the end of the club season in May.

    • An incredibly shortsighted view. For one thing, perhaps someone who is managing a foreign club right now would be willing or anxious to take a national team, especially if the pay is right. Secondly, we have a wonderfully qualified manager right now in MLS–Tata Martino. However much Atlanta is paying him, US Soccer could probably up the ante. Then it’s just a question of what job he would want more. Certainly no reason to wait until after the WC to start sending out feelers and inquiries.

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  10. So with only 1 game in March window and it’s in the US I doubt they bring many big Euro based players unless maybe new manager is chosen by then or have a quick turnaround and have a game in Europe with a totally different and only Euro based squad which would be interesting to see 2 totally different teams in the short span

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  11. We wanted to play the Real Guay but after missing Russia we can only schedule Paraguay.

    Do we plan on having a coach for this schedule or are we going to continue to waste our chance to get a head start on the 2022 cycle?

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  12. I hope we have a good, permanent manager by the June matches. All 3 games should be good tests, especially for our young players. Much better than playing the Guatemalas and the like just to fill in dates.

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