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Report: United States sets El Salvador friendly (Updated)

U.S. Crest

If you were hoping that the U.S. national team would play a friendly between its Honduras and Netherlands exhibitions, you may have just received your wish.

The U.S. team will continue its World Cup preparations by playing host to El Salvador in a friendly on February 24. The stadium in which the game will be played has yet to be confirmed.

The news of the potential El Salvador friendly comes just days after head coach Bob Bradley downplayed talks of a rumored February friendly against Mexico. The U.S. team is currently holding its annual January training camp, which will conclude with a friendly vs. Honduras on Jan. 23.

(UPDATE- So where might this match be played? Reports are suggesting that Florida and Texas are possibilities. Florida would actually make sense as a possibility with several MLS teams likely to be in Florida for spring training during that time.)

What do you think of this potential friendly? Happy the USSF scheduled a friendly considering the game doesn't land on a FIFA date? Wishing the opponent would have been out of CONCACAF? Glad it wasn't Mexico (again)?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. To be more precise, in the USA NBC/Telemundo has exclusive Spanish language broadcast rights to the Mexican national team, while the Univisión group(including Telefutura and Galavisión) has exclusive Spanish language broadcast rights to the USMNT.

    When we play each other this presents a problem. Hence the lack of the US-Mexico friendlies/coffer fillers for both federations the past couple years.

    Whether that’s good or bad is hard to say, although I would hazard that giving top MLS players international experience against Mexico would help the US in the long run, and the money certainly helps. It might even help Mexico, as they seem to have some trouble getting good friendlies.

    In general, having only one FIFA date seems to be a disadvantage for less established soccer countries like the US.

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  2. Yeah because we (El Salvador) simply couldn’t match you guys in the Qualifiers right?…

    BTW, becuase of USA/MEX are having Broadcast disputes, El Salvador will now face Mexico in a friendly on Feb 24 in the Rose Bowl…news according to http://WWW.OEM.COM.MX.

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  3. Hey Ives, why does the USMNT not schedule more games in the Bay Area? I mean we got Standford stadium, the Oakland Collosium, Candelstick Park…etc. I understand not playing Qualifers here because of the large amount of Latinos in the area…that would eliminate home field advantage for the US. But for friendlies like these it would be nice.

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  4. This is the point that everyone seems to be ignoring. USSF wanted this to be a match against Mexico (read: money in the bank) but Telefutura and Univision (both of whom have an unreasonable amount of sway with FMF) couldn’t settle a hissy fit over rights so no one gets the goods.

    El Salvador is all we could line up at this point, so we take what we can get.

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  5. Disappointed but i understand the reason for playing El Salvador. We wont be fielding a full strength squad but the chance to beat Mexico is all toooo enticing!

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  6. People act like we’re readying our WC team by playing El Salvador. This is a good opponent for our fringe players. Sure don’t want the bench of our bench to face Mexico again.

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  7. Decent opposition. They aren’t anywhere near the caliber of the worst teams in the World Cup, but it’ll provide a decent test for the fringe players.

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  8. SI is reporting that a game against Mexico was nixed because Telemundo and Univision couldn’t agree on television rights…so instead both Mexico and the US will settle for El Salvador

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  9. SO who would you have come in? The guys that play in what league? Still waiting? How can you prepare depth, four your squad if you never test the untested? Thank the heavens your not coaching.

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  10. It’s good for both teams. El Salvador has to introduce its new coach to the team, and they have enough talented players to really give our MLS boys a run for their money. In fact, the El Salvador team might be favored to win such a match. Remember that a lot of these guys were on the Gold Cup team that struggled against Haiti and was pummeled by Mexico in the Gold Cup final. A good test for the Not Ready for Prime Time players.

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  11. Clearly, the game is intended primarily for North American-based players. Some of the Scandinavian-based players might be willing to come, though I suspect they’ll be back in pre-season training. It’s not a FIFA date, so the guys playing in the U.K., France, Germany and Greece (I’m kidding about the Greece boys) won’t be able to make it — which is fine. It’s a chance for Bradley to get another look at the guys in his camp now, before he makes any final determinations.

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  12. El Salvador? That’s just lazy. Considering the location of the World Cup, I would like to have seen push for a friendly with a sub-Saharan African team in order to ready the team for that style of play.

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  13. who cares. It’s just one of those annual MLS pity cap friendlies where players who have no business getting anywhere near the USMNT get caps.

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  14. Do we really think Bob Bradley has any choice in the matter in who they play?? It’s not like he went to the USSF and said I want to play El Salvador because I’m an idiot and don’t know how to coach?? People need to lay off Bob when he doesn’t even have an impact on these types of decisions!!!

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  15. Terrible decision to play it in the sunny south. It is going to be as cold as balls down in Africa come June, we need them playing in the coldest temperature we can to prepare them. Put them in DC (so I can go!), NY (so maybe I can go!) or somewhere where the temperature is going to be similar to South Africa’s. Every chance to get these guys playing in a condition similar to where they are heading is needed. If it has to be hot, I’d rather them play away so they can get used to having a stadium full of opposing fans and a lot of crowd pressure.

    But Texas or Florida?!?

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  16. Most of the comments show how little people know about international soccer. This game is NOT on a FIFA date, thus no club team is compeled to release players. The only US players will be MLS and out of contract players and no European country will travel here on a non FIFA date. If you want a team from outside of CONCACAF, how about Australia?

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  17. good point. We need to keep our MLS guys ready on point. Hard to schedule an decent African team at this point and hard to get a Euro team. it’s better than Canada, right – lol.

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  18. everyone looks for every chance to criticize BB, he’s not the best coach in the world, but he has done a pretty good job, its not a FIFA date, African Teams have their tourney right now, Asian teams probably not trying to fly over here, pretty much limited to CONCACAF, Costa Rica probably doesn’t draw enough fans to a game, Mexico probably doesn’t want to play us/we don’t want to play them, too much bad blood and chance of injuries, leaves a decent El Salvador who can fill a stadium

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  19. under the circumstances with this not being on the international calander and in the middle of the euro season its not a bad move. Gives the mls based guys another game to show their goods

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  20. Would much much rather have seen Mexico. The February friendly with El Tri has become a staple of the US Soccer calendar, and our boys need more high-level competition before S. Africa.

    Playing the weak sisters of the CONCACAF poor (sorry El Sal fans) just won’t cut it.

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  21. Come on USSF, you can do better. This game serves as minimal competition. Why bother?

    (SBI-It’s going to be a match to test the fringe players and MLS prospects. Doing that on a date that isn’t a FIFA date isn’t exactly easy. Also, considering how tough El Salvador played the USA first team in qualifying I’m not sure how you can say it will provide minimal competition.)

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  22. why would scotland field a team in January in the middle of their league season and fly to the US to play us? obviously they wouldn’t the european teams aren’t playing right now

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  23. Yet another reason BB is worthless…El Salvador…why not Scotland to give us a real test against a team similar to England.

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  24. Any ideas where the El Salvador match might be played?

    Is it too early to approximate the weather and altitude from the WC opening matches?

    I know it will be winter in SA when the WC is played.

    J

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  25. no need for the A Team to be playing El Salvador, but with these guys, doesn’t matter too much the opponent, El Salvador is sufficient to let Bradley see what he needs to, better than a mexico game I think, too much hoopla when we play mexico, not what we need right now

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