By DAN KARELL
The U.S. Men’s National Team could be facing a pair of European powerhouses in the run up to the 2015 Gold Cup.
According to a report in Sports Illustrated, the USMNT are lining up a pair of friendly matches in early June 2015 against the Netherlands and Germany, with both matches taking place on the road. The match against the Netherlands will reportedly be on June 5 while the German match has already been confirmed by the German Football Federation to take place on June 10 in Cologne.
The report also claims that for the second consecutive year, the U.S. are likely to meet Mexico in a one-off friendly match in April.
U.S. Soccer has not yet commented on these reports.
All three of these proposed friendly matches are in preparation for the 2015 Gold Cup, which will take place from July 7-26. The tournament will take place in the USA but venues haven’t been announced.
The USMNT last faced Germany at the 2014 World Cup, where the USA suffered a 1-0 defeat. Despite the loss, both Germany and the USA advanced to the knockout round. The USA also memorably beat Jurgen Klinsmann’s native country, albeit a weakened Germany side, 4-3, in Washington D.C. in June 2013.
It will have been five years since the USMNT last faced Netherlands if the friendly is confirmed. The USMNT fell to the Netherlands, 2-1, at the Amsterdam Arena in March, 2010. The game was memorable for the Nigel de Jong tackle that broke Stuart Holden’s leg, as well as Carlos Bocanegra’s goal.
Tim Howard, Jozy Altidore, and Michael Bradley all started in that match and the latter two could take part in a potential Netherlands friendly. Maurice Edu, DaMarcus Beasley, and Alejandro Bedoya came off the bench and could be in the friendly match squad as well.
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What do you think of this report? Excited to see the U.S. team challenged ahead of the Gold Cup? Do you see the U.S. having a shot of winning? Who do you see making the Gold Cup squad?
Share your thoughts below.
Why play Germany and Holland when we can play “TEAM X” in house:
—————–T. Boyd–————–G. Zardes——————–
—————————–J. Torres————————————
—E. Castillo—————————————L. Donovan——-
—————————–Maurice Edu——————————–-
–Parkhurst——Goodson———Marshall———–E. Lichaj—
—————————Johnson—————————————–
subs:
Tim Ream
Brad Evans
Brek Shea
Ethan Finlay
Michael Orosco
Bobby Boswell
Damarcus Beasley
Conor O’brien
Coach: Bruce Arena / Ben Olsen
Hahahahahahaha……talk about a scrimmage.
bizzy,
Team X will never have played even one game together .
How hard do you think it will be to beat them? It’s a waste of time.
Lots of thoughts here:
1. FIFA International Dates are June 8 – June 16. Does that mean we wouldn’t expect to see the better Dutch players since clubs wouldn’t have to release for a June 5 date?
2. Why are these friendlies over a month in advance of Gold Cup? I can’t believe Klinsmann would release players after June 10 only to have them return a week or two later for Gold Cup prep. So now you’re talking about players arriving in early June (a few days ahead of June 5) and be released on July 26 (I’m assuming we make the final). That’s nearly two months of the team together. That seems excessive.
should be a great run of games. hopefully we look good!
Schedule as many games in Europe as possible, pretty soon that won’t be an option.
Good tests scheduled so far, probably some easier games in the States in January and March to come.
Delusional comment Newcoach. US soccer is not “harmed”.
Dude, those rivals play nothing like the opponents we are gonna face in the Gold Cup! These are useless games!
Our warm ups for the 2013 Gold Cup were Germany and Belgium. Seemed like eveything went okay.
The Belgium/Germany games were warm-ups for the June 2013 World Cup qualifiers against Jamaica in Kingston, Panama in Seattle, and Honduras in Rio Tinto Stadium. All three wins. The USA’s only warmup for the gold cup was against Guatemala in San Diego.
It’s hard to do apples-to-apples in a non-WCQ year, but the point is that we are using the last official FIFA friendly window before the Gold Cup to play these teams. We might be able to squeeze some off-the-calendar friendlies in in the interim, which would probably be a good idea.
We know how to beat North American teams. We’ve known for over a decade. Playing them again and again will not improve our team.
We have little idea, as a team, how to beat European and SA teams on the road. Klinsi has improved us in that regard, but if we’re going to push the program further, it has to be because we’re playing better teams than El Salvador.
I don’t see how anyone can complain about these friendlies. Playing the highest level of competition possible in these games will also give us a good hint of who is ready to step up into the true first team. We don’t need any prep for CONCACAF style of play. We’ve all grown up playing against Hispanic teams and the US plays them many times over every cycle. There will be no surprises when we take the field against Nicaragua or whoever. The Germany and Holland games will be great experience for the team and help show who one the bubble of the squad is truly ready to step up.
I would prefer one friendly against germany or netherlands, and the second against a more managable team that will actually allow us to possess the ball and work on our gameplan. Getting blown out twice might not be the best prep for our regional championship tournament.
now this is a troll attempt. Useless? What is better than playing the best teams in the world? Who cares if they are friendlies. They are great sport, the reason we watch the game.
For all the harm done to soccer in the US due to Klinsmann, you have to give the guy credit for his “name power”.
Not only does his name finally make the world open their eyes and wake up to how good the US has been becoming for years under Arena and Bradley and due to the contributions of MLS and its player development (though the world stupidly credits Klinsmann for anything), we are now getting good opponents almost at our beck and call. Well, at least we have “name power”. At least there’s that.
bitter much?
Nice troll attempt.
There’s a small segment of SBI posters they genuinely share the same sentiments as this nutbag. That’s the amusing aspect.
+ 1
I don’t understand. Why do you think this was a troll attempt. .Jurgen is great at marketing. The team hasn’t drastically improved under him. Similar results, good and bad. JK’s ego is a problem for me, but hey I would fire Jim Harbaugh because I think he is a jerk even if the results are good. I just have a different perspective on what a coach should represent.
Does that make me a troll?
We played Argentina and Spain going into the 2011 Gold Cup.
As long as Jurgen doesn’t overwork them again in the camp and De Jong doesn’t break anyone’s leg.
Let’s hope they come in conditioned then since a few notable names are riding the bench making sporadic cameos.