It appears the U.S. Men’s National Team isn’t done lining up heavy hitters for 2018 friendlies.
According to ESPN, the U.S. is in the process of finalizing deals to play Brazil and Mexico during the September international window. The matches would be played between Sept. 3-11 in the U.S., according to the report.
The U.S. is already set to take on Italy and England and November, while the two September friendlies could conceivably be the debut of the team’s permanent head coach, who is expected to be hired this summer.
Next up for the U.S. is a friendly with Bolivia in May before June matches against Ireland and France.
I thing is great to have this friendly because we need to start using our young talent. Not only will help to get idea which ones are ready to be in the senior USMNT but to get them ready for the Olympic games U23 and who can be at the U20 World Cup. If we get a new coach and I hope is a good quality coach ala Martino or Bielsa they do like to check this type of competition. I just hope USA doesn’t get fking Osorio as a coach.
With both of these teams playing in Russia I doubt they will be bringing anything close to an A team. Most players will still be just returning to club teams after an extended rest after world cup
I am sure the developing schedule appeals to the snob element who reflexively buy “play hard teams to get better yourself,” but having been under a caretaker for the greater part of a year, after missing the world cup, if we hire a new coach, isn’t this the time period when a new coach would want to be implementing a system and evaluating talent? Is a murderers’ row schedule of England Mexico Italy etc the best schedule for bedding in a system and getting an idea of which players should play roles within it? Or will you end up with people with minimal international experience frantically trying to stay head over water when many are so new that a normal “Paraguay” friendly would be enough to make their heads spin some.
I mean, my initial reaction was, wow, my second reaction, more thought, is this is not a drilled veteran corps, this is going to be a children’s army. Either that or you get the urge to bring back veteran players more prepared for these type games, even though that is not in long term best interest. Maybe a baptism by fire works, but we need to talent evaluate and the usual process is not a first cap starting against England, so to speak. Feels at cross purposes with what our goals should be.
I mean my sense is the mentality is backwards, if I want a better team, first I recruit/scout/cap better players, and put them in some situations where they can learn my system and confirm they are worth my time, and then I test them with harder games. To see the fallacy in the counter-argument, if you run out Wondo and Kljestan and other passe players, they don’t magically become the players or team you want just because the schedule is Brazil and England instead of Jamaica and Bosnia. So it’s not the schedule that does it, it’s the talent. Once the talent is drilled then you keep upping the schedule towards what you think they are worthy of. But if it was as simple as scheduling England then any team playing England becomes awesome, regardless of their roster.
So who exactly could we schedule:
Africa: the top 48 teams in Africa will be participating in Africa Cup of Nations Qualifying during the Sept., Oct., and Nov. windows. So you are looking at Comoros(141) or Djibouti (198) and neither of those federations could afford to pay players to participate and no crowd would pay to watch it.
Europe: No team could come to the US to play because they have Nations League matches (hence why the US is going to Europe in Nov.) only the top 24 teams are even available because they compete in groups of 3, teams ranked 25 and below will be playing matches on each date this fall. So you could play Turkey, Denmark, Czechs if it happened to be a window when they only had one match instead of two and you played in Europe (England was one of a handful of teams available to play in November and all were ranked in Fifa top 40)
Asia: Near as I can tell there is no competition or qualifying going on this fall for Asian teams, travel would be the main issue here. Certainly wouldn’t want to go there with MLS teams in the playoff push and European players might not want to go at the start of there seasons either. Only the top teams would even have the budget to travel to the US and still be able to pay the players (political factors also eliminate several Middle Eastern nations).
South America: No competitions during the fall, the issue here would be we’ve played almost everyone in the last few years Venezuela, Colombia, Paraguay, Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil. We’ve played every team from SA except Uruguay in the last three years. Wouldn’t preclude us from playing them, but given half of the region is ranked in the Top 10 the easy victory chance would be limited.
Concacaf:
Only Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Panama are available everyone else is in Nations League Qualifying this fall. We see these four all the time so it’s nice to keep the rivalry with Mexico (and it fills the bank) but none of these four seem to be what you are looking for.
So not a lot of easy confidence building teams available. I would imagine the October matches will either also be in Europe or a South American and Concacaf split again.
IV: I understand what you’re saying, but as I pointed out there really are limited options for those fall friendlies because of the newly created Nations Leagues. Brazil is scheduled because it will sell tickets and it likely makes Nike happy as both countries are sponsored by Nike and ESPN/Fox will like the better ratings.
Since 1992 the US and Brazil have played 17 times or once about every 1.5 years, we are due having not played since 2015. The truth is if a player deserves to play on the USMNT he doesn’t need “blooded” because they have proven themselves for their club. The only way you need to “blood” players is if you are playing youth players based on where you think they will be in four years.
They are friendlies AFTER the World Cup. As 3 Goals states, they may very well be doing the same thing as the US–evaluating new talent for the next cycle. No need to get your undies in a bunch. Better than playing another CONCACAF team.
yup the new coach will get “baptism by fire” as you put it. i think the idea here is the new coach will quickly see who the in the player pool are the elite players to build around.
also USSF is probably looking to make up lost revenue from this summer.
after 6 very difficult games in 2018, 2019 is the time to really install their system with extended group times in January, the Gold Cup & Copa America and all the other friendlies through the year.
sure this first game vs. Brazil and other games this fall could be ugly but if its the right hire it will be beneficial long term.
When one is given an examination there is usually a mix covering a spectrum from easy questions to hard ones because the idea is not to completely overwhelm people to the point they shut down, or to make it so easy everyone looks good (like the games where Wondo scores 5). You can’t install a system when players are desperately running around, you can’t evaluate a team getting its tail kicked, and if a coach gets beat that bad is it his choices or just not an even contest.
I think Mexico will show up with an A side, as will the pre-World Cup teams, and I think England A/B Italy A/B or Brazil A/B are hardly scrubs. I don’t mind one or two of these type games but when you are trying to blood and evaluate newly capped players, I don’t think throwing them to the Brazilian wolves is the most efficient way of sorting out what we have.
gary page, beto, 3 goals: yes