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Croatia announces November friendly vs. USMNT

Jozy Altidore USMNT 093

Photo by Kyle Terada/USA TODAY Sports
 

By CAITLIN MURRAY

Croatia’s national team played its inaugural game against the U.S. in 1990. Next month, the two sides appear set to meet again for the first time since.

The Croatian Football Federation announced Saturday it had scheduled a friendly against the U.S. Men’s National Team on Nov. 12 at Fulham’s Craven Cottage in London.

U.S. Soccer has not confirmed the friendly, though a source tells SBI the match is in the works, but not finalized. The friendly fits with the team’s announced schedule so far. On Nov. 18, the USMNT will face Ireland in Dublin.

“I am extremely glad to have reached an agreement with my colleagues from U.S. Soccer,” said Croatian Football Federation president Davor Å uker in a statement. “We are all aware what the 1990 match signified for Croatia and Croatian football. Nearly a quarter of century later, USA has an excellent squad, their football is expanding, and this encounter will promote both U.S. and Croatian football.”

Croatia sits at No. 19 in FIFA’s worldwide ranking, two spots below the Americans.

The USMNT faces Honduras on Tuesday in Boca Raton, Florida.

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What do you think of the possibility of a friendly against Croatia? Who would you like to see called up for the November friendlies?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Loving all these friendlies based in Europe, especially now that I live here. I’m a Scotland, Czech, and Ukraine supporter’s club member since I can’t get tickets through US Soccer!

    Reply
    • not buying this^…..there is a reason they play the game! They need to get better at maintaining possession but these young guns are talented and exude confidence in my opinion!

      Reply
      • Dunno about “rigged”, but Fred flopped and the ref gave Brazil some serious home cookin’ instead of the yellow for simulation Fred had earned, and I remember there were a couple other fairly glaring ref errors or omissions in that game too.

        Really put a nasty taste in my mouth for the opener, and I was actually surprised how clean the rest of the tournament went, considering the way it started.

        Dunno if the Japanese ref had his hand out or just let the home crowd influence him too much, but he definitely handed Brazil that match.

    • no, Croatia got knocked out of the world cup mostly because of poor goalkeeping, and besides, USA will be have an available Michael Bradley.

      Reply
    • Bad logic.

      While the Brazil match was unfortunate, Croatia only needed a result against Mexico to advance. They couldn’t get it. You know what team has gone 2-0-3 against Mexico during its most recent WC cycle?

      Second, you could also make the argument that the USMNT was robbed by the refs against Portugal. Portugal scored to equalize after 4 minutes of extra time were added, despite the lack of significant stoppages in play. He could easily have blown the whistle 30 seconds earlier. Sometimes, these things happen in football.

      Moral of story…don’t kid yourself about this match. The US is no pushover, and a cocky attitude might have you learning that the hard way.

      Reply
  2. Can’t believe any one continues to do business with that used car parts salesman Khan. His NFL franchise is the embarrassment of the league and he’s torn the heart out of Fulham. It’s all a farce to move his terrible NFL team to London, where he will continue to put the worst team in the league on the field, but blame the travel for their woes. Meanwhile, he’ll send Fulham down the leagues faster than al-Fayed brought them up.

    Reply
    • Khan didn’t tear the heart out. That happened when al-Fayed hired Sparky, then hired Jol, and then installed a statue of Michael Jackson. Khan has made plenty of mistakes, but he inherited a huge mess. The club hasn’t been the same since the departure of Hodgson, then Murphy. It’s on its way back though, and Khan is part of that.

      Reply
      • No idea what Fulham team you’re looking at, but the one I follow sits 22nd in the Championship table with only 7 points from 11 games. They’re also looking to hire their 5th manager in just over a year. Attendance is down significantly, partly because the team continues to charge premier league prices for Championship matches. Kahn also backed out on his promise to provide free coaches for away matches when they went down. The front office was decimated and the IT support is so poor its nearly impossible to do something as simple as buy a ticket or a team jersey through their on line site. ALL of this happened under Kahn and the local support is dwindling.

        Yes, the team was in trouble when he got it, but anyone who knew the first thing about soccer would see Jol was an issue and would have fired him immediately. Kahn didn’t because he knows nothing about soccer. And Mark Hughes took Fulham to 8th in the table in his one season at the helm, so I really don’t know where you think any of the blame goes to him.

        Kahn is not part of any rebuild, its a scam for him to go to the other NFL owners and get his team moved to London, and now US Soccer is adding to the credibility of this two bit salesman.

  3. Another match to look forward to. Hope to see the continued call ups of young players who could have significant impact for the US over the next 3 years.

    Reply
    • Maybe we’re alternating that plan? The game next week, with the 6 “veteran” callups certainly doesnt follow it.

      Also, I really hope JK looks at other young players besides Corona, Wood, Bedoya as those guys are really not very special

      Reply
      • Thoughts:

        1. We still have a Gold Cup 2015 to win. Players who are in the picture for 2018 may not have emerged by next summer. Likewise, players like Jones are still playing at a high level. Also, even though Bradley and Besler are “vets,” they’re still a reasonable age for the whole next cycle.

        2. There are still plenty of young guys in camp.

        3. I know opinions are divided on Bobby Wood’s performance, for example, but I was encouraged (we could use some tenacious depth in the forward corps, and I don’t see A Jo muscling defenders off the ball like Wood was doing any time soon). You seem to be in the other camp, but I’d encourage you to rewatch the highlights for Wood, and see just how many good positions he found himself in. Also…that squandered opportunity at the end? If he hadn’t battled his way through 2 defenders to create that chance FOR HIMSELF, we wouldn’t be talking about him missing it. That seems a bit unfair. Let’s also not forget he isn’t even an established starter at his club and this were his first meaningful international minutes.

        4. Corona was pretty bad against Ecuador, but he was a solid contributor in last year’s Gold Cup (cue “inferior competition argument”), so I don’t think it’s time to completely write him off.

        5. I haven’t been super impressed with Bedoya lately, but he seems to quietly cover a lot of ground, and the squad seems to get less organized when he comes out. JK and Nantes seem to see something in him too.

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