Photo by ISIphotos.com
It appears that the U.S. men's national team will kick off its pre-World Cup qualifying friendly tour in the southeast.
According to reports out of Jacksonville, Fla., the U.S. men will host Scotland at EverBank Field — home of the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars — on May 26.
A match in Jacksonville would mark the third time in less than a year that the U.S. national team will have played in Florida. The U.S. men played Panama in the Gold Cup in Tampa last June and returned to the Sunshine State to play Honduras in a friendly in Miami in October.
The reported friendly would be the first of three World Cup qualifying tune-up matches. U.S. Soccer has already confirmed friendlies against Brazil at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., on May 30 and against Canada at BMO Field in Toronto on June 3.
World Cup qualifying begins June 8 against Antigua and Barbuda at a to-be-named U.S. site.
What do you make of this development?
Share your thoughts below.
+1000 The world’s largest cocktail party is one of the greatest events in all of sports with the passion between the 2 schools and the tailgating! I’ve been to a USMNT game in Jville and it was a good time! I believe it was the late 90s.
+1
Nevermind… forgot it’s Scotland, who we hold a losing record against.
Still, not a bad idea.
And seeing as we should roll Antigua-Barbuda, it might be a good time to hook some new fans with a nice W!
You should seriously start a petition for this or write a letter!
There will be plenty of unused seats in a stadium that big, so why shouldn’t the USSF let active duty Navy and vets in for free?
Don’t take the bait. Orlando’s fine. So is Jacksonville. I hope Orlando gets an MLS team so I can drive down and watch them play. It would be much better than having the nearest MLS team be in DC.
I believe that had as much to do with bad ownership as anything.
So what is your point? The Super Bowl in Jacksonville was bad, so they shouldn’t be allowed to host a USMNT friendly?
I’m with you on the stadium thing…
Any meaningful match (WCQ, Gold Cup, etc.) should be played in an SSS. Depending on the opponent, the location should be chosen for home field advantage.
If Mexico forces us to play at Estadio Azteca for every meaningful match, we should force them to play at LSP or Jen-Weld where there will be the bare minimum of seats available to away supporters.
For non-Mexican opponents, other SSS locations (Houston, Dallas, HDC, Toyota Park, PPL Park, etc.) would suffice.
Side Note: when I went to the US-Panama/Mexico-Honduras doubleheader in Houston during the Gold Cup, I saw Mexico supporters entering in USA t-shirts, then immediately putting on El Tri jerseys over them. I might have accepted the fact that they are fans of both, IF the US game hadn’t been first on the slate).
8pm start. It’ll be humid though.
or not…
They would have to build a soccer facility in Orlando to support an MLS team. The Citrus Bowl is a total dump. I wonder if you could do it near the Wide World of Sports complex. That is only about an hour or so from Tampa also.
What makes Orlando anymore of a “real city” than Jacksonville? Mickey Mouse?
I believe Jacksonville is the largest city by area in the continental United States. It’s sparsely populated and not a real city like Miami, Tampa or even Orlando.
Edwin, it was DC vs. Boston. NYC was never an option for the USA v. Brazil game. haha
Hey, if Orlando gets an MLS team, I (along with many of my friends) will make the 2 – 2.5 hour drive to see games.
i would put money on KC hosting the A&B game.
It’s technically the biggest city by population as well based on the city limits. But as a metro area, it is fourth behind Miami, Tampa/St Pete and Orlando.
Everyone love Indy. Hated Minneapolis, but I would say weather helped or harmed both.
Atlanta got screwed, too, because there was ice and a murder. There hasn’t been a sniff of having a new Super Bowl here, either.
And, unfortunately, the people that choose the Super Bowl (the owners) listen to media and football people when choosing another site.
It’s not Jacksonville — it’s the south. The south doesn’t have the professional sports heritage or populations to be known as sports towns. It takes a loooong time. It’s not personal. Atlanta still gets the tag despite having quite good MLB attendance.
I’ve never been to Jacksonville but like the choice for a variety of reasons.
First, US soccer is big in Florida, so Sam’s Army should make a good appearance.
Second, Scotland is a nice choice for the US because the Scots are a hard-nosed, physically-imposing squad, with some real quality (Charlie Adam, James Morrison, Jamie Mackie, Grant Hanley, Steven Fletcher). It’s important that the US prepares itself for World Cup qualification by playing a diverse selection of tune-up matches. And this one provides a nice contrast to the Brazil encounter.
Third, I like that we are scheduling fixtures in smaller soccer markets like Jacksonville but the capacity at EverBank Field is 76,867. If we can’t fill that place it may look like a poor turn out.
While I’m on the topic – I’d love to see the USMNT play more matches in smaller, soccer-specific stadiums that we can pack with US supporters. Places like Portland’s Jeld-Wen (22,000) and LiveStrong Sporting Park (18,467) in Kansas City come to mind. Down the road, the US may face World Cup qualifiers against countries like Mexico or El Salvador.
Playing those matches in smaller, soccer-specific stadiums in less populated locations would serve US Soccer a lot better than scheduling those fixtures in places like MetLife Stadium (the Meadowlands) or the Rose Bowl.
Fourth, I like the Jacksonville choice because, at that time of year, it’s going to be pretty goddamn warm down there. And the idea of watching 11 pale Scotsman labor their way through 90 minutes in a swamp makes me laugh.
Sounds like the Clash playing in San Jose.
Really? Despite having one of the NFL’s smallest population bases, the Jaguars’ average attendance last year would have been enough to lift the blackout in at least 7 other NFL markets. Our stadium capacity is larger than several other (larger) cities, including Chicago and Pittsburgh.
“That Super Bowl was not well regarded…” By whom? Not by the thousands of Eagles fans that came down here – they took this place over and seemed to be having a great time.
Some sports writers whined because they didn’t get to take a trip to one of the usual cities – yep, we’re guilty of not being New Orleans or Miami. So that’s proof that Jacksonville is a bad sports town? Try harder…you also don’t know what you’re talking about.
The United States actually BEAT Germany in JAX.
Worst game I ever saw — USA vs. Scotland @RFK. FInal tuneup for the World Cup. Hideous game.
Crap. Of course they’ll play there – I just moved to Seattle. PNW won’t be used now for a decade!
Too skinny. Love the place. Great sights, and steep stands lock in sound, but the brick walls are maybe 10 yards off football sidelines.
i’ve seen plenty of people play on that kind of grass, just that the skill level takes a little bit of a hit.
I love that idea, always like to see service men and women at any national team sporting events.
I think its unfair to say that Jacksonville and other Florida cities and some out west aren’t good sports towns. I think the fact that the population of this country started mainly in the northeast and is migrating south and west. Many people in those cities are relocated from or have ties to cities and teams in the north east.