The U.S. men's national team has an agreement in principle to face South Africa on Nov. 17th in Cape Town in the Nelson Mandela Challenge Cup, U.S. Soccer announced on Friday.
U.S. Soccer is still finalizing the deal, but once completed, it will mark the United States' fourth trip to the African nation in the past three years (twice to play South Africa, once for the 2009 Confederations Cup and most recently for the 2010 World Cup).
What do you think of this match? Excited to see the United States return to South Africa? Were you hoping for a European opponent? Planning to make the trip to lovely Cape Town?
Share your thoughts below.
south africa werent any worse than nigeria or cameroon this past summer.
i dont see how playing in countries like Ivory Coast or Ghana can be dangerous.Nigeria, maybe but the other two are pretty safe countries. Ghana has one of the best economies in West Africa. I kinda see playing in those countries sorta like playing in Central America like Guatemala or Honduras.
Dude, chill out. There are quite a few blacks and latinos playing in Russia’s top soccer league.
True, but this may help the US Bid which is decided in December.
$20 says findley and redcardo clark get the call.
y dont they have a game in antartica for global awarming while they r at it
I agree with the tinofoil set, this is a back being scratched and is good for 2022. We wouldn’t go there again for no reason, as nice as South Africa is.
Too lazy to check, is there the possibility of playing 2 games whilst we are there?
Don’t forget Lletget, Gyau, Renken, and anyone else we need to get capped soon..
eh. would have much rather play a better team if they are traveling that far.
Who said Italy wanted to play us? We just played Brazil what the heck more do you want?
As a fan has traveled to US friendlies overseas…I’d much prefer we played somewhere in Europe that was easier to get to from the East Coast. It would be nice if the Federation took into account overseas destinations its fans might want to travel to, in order to keep the momentum of US traveling fans. South Africa more than once in the same year is too much…we’re in a recession people!!
+1
What I want to know is whenbob is going to name the roster for poland colombia games. As for this game no complaining lets show mexico how to beat south africa.
Three Words : For the USSF, so they market how good we are against little teams, c’mon they can play someone else like Italy or something.
USSF doesn’t want this team to get better do they, all we play are clown teams who are ranked lower than us, we should be playing the best national teams to keep are squad sharp and competitive as well as giving them some experience. If you ask me we should be playing freindlies against teams like Portugal, Ivory Coast, Germany, and Japan to sharpen our skills against quality opponents not mediocre ones to make us look good and then get massacred by real competition. Mexico is playing quality competition to keep their players sharp, why don’t we? Gulati and co. need to wake up and get working, we should have an approval rating poll for our Federation.
This is not a bad move, if and only if, Bradley uses the opportunity to use some young untested players along with a few players who were bubble players. I would bring Gooch, Guzan and maybe Dempsey to lead the team, a few MLS players and some U-20/U-23 players. Get some young blood into the mix.
I LOVE Moscow in November!
another US-Ghana game would be great! Red Bull Arena maybe or else where on the East Coast. or even in Ghana…
Findley and Wynne might be unavaiable if they are still in MLS the playoffs..
replace with Alston and Braun.
Russians don’t like foreigners period trust me they hate alot of people their especialy latinos,blacks,asians, and yes the jews. Don’t like us americanos either.
It’s good to see the US play an African team. As South Africa is presumed the safest and has arguably the best facilities, it seems like a good choice. I would like to see the US play Ivory Coast, Nigeria and even a grudge match against Ghana, but playing those countries at home would cause a presumed security risk.
Less change in time zone, an away game against OK competition, relatively safe place… not a bad call at all. If you want to go someplace else in Africa, where would you send our players? OK, Egypt, but beyond that? Has to be safe/easy to manage + decent competition + near European time zones.
Ugh.
I think it is important to play against African teams – sub-Saharan African teams, to be precise. Twice in a row we’ve lost to a sub-Saharan African team in the WC. And it is pretty clear that we don’t fare particulary well against that style. Indeed, I think it was a major error for Bob Bradley not to have played a sub-Saharan African team in the run up to the 2010 World Cup, given our experience in the 2006 Cup.
But South Africa is not the team I’d want to play. I’d prefer a better test. Give me Ivory Coast or Nigeria or Cameroon or even Ghana again.
The only thing good about this is they’ll get some use out of that beautiful new stadium in Cape Town.
Most European teams are playing Euro 2012 qualifiers.
Playing across the Atlantic makes it easier for European-based players since they don’t have to change time zones.
MLS Cup final is Nov. 21, can’t count on having any particular MLS player available.
hahahahaha +1 yo. quality
i’d say we have a rivalry with Brazil considering how many times we’ve played them in the last decade or so but we’ve lost so many 😛
It’s not bad. I’d love for us to have a friendly against Ghana and South Africa during that timespan. It would be nice to play more and more African opponents. Plus it would stoke the growing rivalry we have with Ghana. And we share a lot of things with SA, let’s do it.
very good point.
Politics aside. I would rather have them travel to South America. Maybe Chile?
It is pert obvious why we would play a less then great opponent…. It is to field a team of new comers. At least that’s what I hope happens.
Here’s the team:
Adu – MF
Cooper – S
Arguez – MF
Bornstein – D
Cerci – GK
Convey – MF
DeMerit – D
Grella – S
Clark – MF
Wynne – D
Onyewu – D
Some Subs:
Johnson
Findley
Oh, don’t forget John O’Brien!
Please add to the list at your own disgression…
we’ll play mexico in Feb look at friendly history…it repeats itself
We always get our hopes up because we look good against mediocre teams. I want us to play good/great sides and in some place where the local support will rattle cages. Toughen our boys up a bit.
What’s next? Another winter friendly in LA against Sweden?
Don’t you think this might have something to do with winning favor for a key World Cup vote or two before December?
How many votes does that region get when it comes to the World Cup bids that are about to be cast? I think there may be some politicing going on….
This is a stroke game everybody so we get one of the World Cups… kabiche?
Two words: Pay Day
Ugghhhh why? It’s right in the middle of the MLS Cup Playoffs and I doubt many of our European based players are going to want to have to travel down to South Africa. Anyone know how much of an international break it will be? A whole week? Just a few days?
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Lame.
Croatia, Russia? Good on football terms, but imagine the abuse our black (and possibly Latino) players would receive in those countries.
After spending 2 weeks in Cape Town during the world cup I can’t blame the team for wanting to go back. Absolutely gorgeous city.
Several teams, but none real good.
Ya the USA should send fake players with Freddy Adu as captain.
I hear Togo has a real good team!
Yawn.
I would rather play Mexico. Or Ireland. Or France. Or just about anybody.
According to Christopher Walken’s Twitter account, in response to hearing this development, he simply said: ” I got a fever. And the only prescription is more vuvuzelas. ”
Thanks Christopher.
BORING!
We just played in South Africa, why not a more captivating opponent ie a Croatia, Russia etc.
Rubbish team and too much travel for our boys.
Why would we fly all the players that far for a not very good opponent. I say bad move. Playing either South America teams to prep for Brazil 2014 or play better opponents in Europe would be better calls.