The U.S. men's national team will be facing a very strong Spain side when the team's meet in a friendly at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro on June 4th.
Barcelona teammates Andres Iniesta, David Villa, Pedro, Sergio Busquets, Victor Valdes and Gerard Pique lead the group, with Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas and Chelsea striker Fernando Torres among the other selections.
The Spain team will be without Xavi, Carles Puyol and Cesc Fabregas.
Here is the full squad:
Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas (Real Madrid), Victor Valdes (Barcelona), Pepe Reina (Liverpool).
Defenders: Alvaro Arbeloa (Real Madrid), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Raul Albiol (Real Madrid), Gerard Pique (Barcelona), Carlos Marchena (Villarreal), Joan Capdevila (Villarreal), Andoni Iraola (Athletic Bilbao).
Midfielders: Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid), Andres Iniesta (Barcelona), Sergio Busquets (Barcelona), Santi Cazorla (Villarreal), Bruno Soriano (Villarreal), Borja Valero (Villarreal).
Forwards: David Silva (Manchester City), David Villa (Barcelona), Pedro (Barcelona), Fernando Torres (Chelsea), Fernando Llorente (Athletic Bilbao), Manu Del Moral (Sevilla), Alvaro Negredo (Sevilla).
What do you think of the squad? Excited to see the United States facing Spain for the first time since the USA's Confederations Cup semifinal victory in 2009? Who are you most looking forward to seeing the United States face?
Share your thoughts below.
no way. Jonnie Bornstein, Robbie Rogers and Chris Wondoloski are gonna school these sukkas. only regret that Frankie Heydude wasn’t called up to boot.
Murdered? The faith some of you guys have in our national team is quite puzzling! We haven’t been blown out by a top international side in…..well never! I can’t remember anytime recently when the Spain’s, Agentina’s, England’s or any other country has put it to us…okay the czech republic did us dirty in the ’06 World Cup but that seemed like eons ago! Like someone mentioned on this thread, we tend to play up and down to our competition and until we get that winning attitude we’re going to continue to do so! We did just beat Spain two years ago though and we didn’t park the bus the game we actually pressured the ball, caused them to turn the ball over and were pretty fluid in our attack! Let’s do it again!
not that easy! ; assume that players not playing every week have enough built up energy to play twice in one week
The differences between Spanish futbol and American soccer can be best distilled in the the fact that Spain is selecting 7 strikers for this int’l friendly while the USA Gold Cup roster has 3 strikers available for a minimum of 3 games.
There were lots of ifs at the Confederations Cup, and we still got it done. 😉
Please, Timmy’s always on fire.
I personally thinks BB goes with some new blood on the back line seeing how terribly Gooch and Boca looked for Argentina. That, and this is only days before the Canada game. I wanna see Tim Ream show what he’s got. And Goodson has had an amazing season. Let’s also remember that Lichaj shut down Gareth Bale, he’s showing some things as well.
Who starts at LB?
JB?- Please NO!
Boca?- Slot him out left?
Lichaj?- he plays RB, slide him to LB?
The only set position in backline is Dolo at RB.
Clarence and Gooch center?
Anyway you stack it, we NEED Timmy to have
another game of his life like he did vs ‘tina!
I honestly think scheduling a game of this magnitude
3 days before the start of GC ’11 is a bit foolish.
Canada is going to be a challenge for us.
hahahaha nice. we’re gonna get murdered.
It’s not hypothetical. They lose Villa, Silva, Torres, and Pedro, who do they put in? 6’5″ Llorente, who has 70+ la liga goals for Europa bound bilbao and 7 international goals, playing the same top competition. You really gonna say K Cooper competes? CL qualifier Villareal btw is 4th and has 5 players on the team, Bilbao is 6th and has 2. It’s not just the first three teams and La Liga is plenty deep.
Puyol out? They still have crazy man Marchena and Pique. If one of them goes out, they slide in, oh, let’s see, Arbeloa from a little club called Real Madrid. Respect to Brunner and Purdy, but, really?
Reigning World Cup champions who beat Germany, Netherlands, & Portugal is formidable, no matter how many goals they scored. Sure, the US will compete because we’re badass, but I can’t believe i’m even taking the time to argue this.
Yeah, put Timmy in goal and hope he has a game like he did against Argentina! I still can’t get over how on fire he was for that match. Saved our backline atleast 5+ times.
I get playing friendlies against these top teams before World Cups and International Breaks, but I feel like playing against a lesser team would be better preperation for breaking down these CONCACAF minnow teams that will be playing bunker ball. It gets us into a better offensive rythem instead of playing a game where we will control the ball only 30% of the time.
Thought the same thing. Pepe Reina is your 3rd string. Geez petes
We seem to sometimes play to our opponent. I see the game going 2-1 Spain. We may score on a counter or set piece. They’ll have 55-65% possession. There will be lots of subs on both sides I think.
Rich, it is unfair to blame Spain for scoring 8 goals in 7 games. It is not like they parked the bus and hoped to catch the opposing team on a counter, like Greece did when they won Euro. It’s the other teams that played ultradefensive footbal against Spain hoping not to get blown out. North Korea adopted this approach against Brazil and played a close game. They opened up a bit against Portugal and got blown out of the water. Does it mean that Portugal was more dangerous and attack minded than Brazil? If you watched the world cup, the answer is no.
Let’s be realistic. Jozy didn’t really school anybody. He hit a side pass that Casillas should have easily stopped.
Taylor Time: 3 hr 15 min
Should be an easy game, 2-0 or 3-0 to the USA
That is Matt Taylor, the greatest American striker ever in BL3 and this year’s version of Wondo.
You’ve confused him with Marcus Tracy the greatest uncapped US striker ever to play in Denmark.
such a nasty roster
You might refer to the Argentina game for some idea of what BB will do.
The USMNT might stand a chance if we do a late call up for Marcus Taylor. I heard somewhere that he is the greatest American striker.
They’re powerless without Xavi! Mwahahahahahaha!!
Besides Xavi & Puyol they are pretty much complete. Even with Puyol & Xavi out, this is still a full A-team! Spain doesn’t have a B,C,D,E-team. They only have A-Teams.. A-team 1, A-team 2, A-team 3, etc… 🙂
Should be a good warm up for the boys.
I think we might get destroyed.
… her Waka Waka?
Damn, that’s true…
Relax.
Spain took this “stinking friendly” (quoting “The Special One”) for the money.
The Spain XI will be on holiday. Particularly Pique, whose head will be up Shakira’s…
Puyol
missing a couple of key players but it would still be easy to see them winning against any one in the world with that line up. fantastic warm-up game. i also feel the same about what some have already said: our stronger squad to start the game, and slowly bleeding some younger/reserve guys during the second half
I know, obviously them not getting along was a huge issue for them when they won the World Cup and Euro 2008. It’s really worked against them…
The only starter I see that’s missing is Xavi, who else would be starting that isn’t on the team?
i guess they want their honor back
Uh…. they are like pretty good.
Should be a stiff test for the US before the Gold Cup. I’m still not crazy about playing a friendly 3 days before the first game. But a good warm-up game if there ever was one.
Overstatement, meet Hyperbole.
The Portland Timbers?
Scary on paper! besides half of them don’t get along. Casillas and Valdes hate each other…Spaniards and Catalunyans is an ongoing conflict…Barca players want to represent Catalunya and not Spain..why Spain always chokes, except for the recent WC and Euro…Real Madrid vs Barcelona puts more emphasis on that every single time. Can’t imagine California wating to become independent all their life time and it carries on from generation to generation. and Landon wanting to represent California only and not the United States. We’ll be okay, they can’t get along.
Jozy, Bornstein, Agudelo, Sascha, and Bradley can go the full 90 seeing as they don’t get much playing time… Can toss Gooch and Adu in the mix too.
Most of our boys need minutes sadly…
“Who are you most looking forward to seeing the United States face?”
Joan Capdevila.
Specifically, looking forward to Jozy schooling him like he did at the Confed Cup. Still one of my all-time favorite goals.
Maybe this is the overstatement of the year? Spain won the world cup finals with a total of 8 goals over 7 games. They don’t play to terrify – just score a goal, and keep possession.
There’s a lot to be said about Spain’s starting XI. All playing for the top 3 clubs in La Liga, these guys are constantly exposed to top opponents and are familiar with each other. The drop-off from the top of the La Liga table (aka Spanish National Team player pool) is pretty steep. I know your statement is hypothetical about their 5th string, but I think you would also have confidence that say, the Portland Timbers, would be competitive with a 5th string Spanish National Team.
Dempsey will go 90, like he always does.
Is 6 subs the standard allotment for friendlies? So 4 outfield players will have to go the full 90 against spain. 85 of which will be spent in all out defensive mode.
I don’t think we’ll see the same group starting against both spain and canada.
Understatement of the year, lol. Their 5th string is terrifying.
Agree with Rich on the idea that a good chunk of the expected starting 11 vs. Canada plays the first 45 then gives way to the reserves.
Hopefully Spain plays their starters into the 2nd half, because it will be a great (even if it turns ugly at times for the US, so what) learning experience for younger guys like Adu, Lichaj, etc. to play against that level of competition. Good barometer for where their games are at currently.
Wow.
I think, with the level of experience we have on the team, it’s possible and desirable to let all of our “starting” 11 to play at least a half together vs. Spain. I’m sure players like Dolo and Dempsey want to feel what it’s like to play against the top team. The second half will mainly be to get some of the other players with fewer caps some familiarity with the pace of a top-level game.
I don’t think Bob is going to play to win this one, so I keep my expectations down. Just as long as he shuffles guys around in a smart way, so that when these less-experienced guys start against Canada, I can enjoy the improvement from the second half vs. Spain.
They are obviously great all over the pitch, but that list of goalkeepers is pretty impressive.
Still without their best player, this team is amazing. Pedro and Villa will give our fullbacks hell. Timmy Chandler would get a perfect test, but he is sitting on his butt playing XBOX.
Curious what people think about the U.S. line-up for the Spain game, which comes just three days before the U.S. plays Canada to start the Gold Cup. Does Bradley really field a full-strength XI with the Canada game (Gold Cup) a few days later?
Considering how unsettled our backline is right now, this game could be an ugly one. Will probably be more wide open when compared to the 2009 game, but can’t see us holding Spain to zero goals again. Should be entertaining, and will definitely be a great way to prepare for the minnows of CONCACAF and Mexico.
Even without Xavi, it is a strong squad. It should be a great way to tune up for the Gold Cup.
They are missing some starters but pretty strong line up.