The U.S. men's national team is ready to play its first game in Europe under new head coach Jurgen Klinsmann, and while recent opponents Mexico and Costa Rica posed their own problems for the United States, facing Belgium in Brussels today (2:30pm, ESPN2) will present its own set of difficulties.
The Americans are still searching for their first win under Klinsmann, but that isn't likely to be the focus today. The focus will once again be on testing players and seeing how they stack up against top competition.
Players such as Jose Torres, Brek Shea and Kyle Beckerman should get the call today as they, and some others, look to solidify their newly-found roles with the national team. For some, like Edgar Castillo, Michael Orozco and Robbie Rogers, today's match will be an opportunity to show that their subpar performances against Costa Rica were not fair measures of what they can bring to the national team table.
SBI will have a live commentary for the match, which we'll start at about 1pm. For now, let this be your place to discuss today's match. Who do you hope to see start today? Who are you hoping does NOT get a start today? Think the United States can knock off Belgium in Brussels, or do you fear a blowout loss for the United States?
Share your thoughts below.
I called dolo at left back tho. Good 2 see that.
Dissapointed we arent seeing Kljestan & Beckerman start… I would have chose them over Rogers & Edu. Kljestan plays in Belgium. Idk why Klinsman would leave him out.
Hey, look at that. Klinsy saw my post and decided on my lineup. Genius.
One thought on playing out of position and wing backs: for Philip Lahm has been played “out of position” for Germany. One side of the field for Bayern. The other side for Die Mannschaft.
——Jozy———
-Shea-Demps-Rogers-
—–Torres——–
——Edu———-
——————-
Dolo-Boca-Good-Chan
—-Timmeh———
Not bad. Dempsey playing the false 9 like he does with Fulham.
Agreed. Clint had performed for the NATS and been, I think, the NATS best field player over the last few years.
I’d like to see something that looks a lot like this line-up. It would be great to see Chandler and Dolo on the field at the same time, and I think Chandler could thrive on the right wing. It would be hard to do much better with our personnel right now than this.
o.O
Dolo as a left back? I was not expecting this…
would*
Yeah, just last week Klins himself said that he not play players outside of their natural positions.
Pretty amazed at the number of people placing players in positions where they dont play for their club teams. It isnt going to happen under klinnsman that often.
Dolo will never play left. Would not be surprised to see castillo in again.
This is an old argument. Clint Dempsey has possibly been our best, most consistent player over the last 2 or 3 years.