If you want to schedule a January friendly, just dial up a Scandanavian country! Their domestic leagues have long winter breaks, and you're pretty much guaranteed to get your offer accepted; after all, would you want to spend January in Trondheim or Gothenburg?
This time around, our Scandanavian guests are Norway, the country famous for being Slartibartfast's award cow. And unlike last weekend's US-Canada game, this one will be televised: 5 PM Sunday on ESPN2.
Which may or may not be a good thing. In 1998, as we were gearing up for a European World Cup, we arranged a friendly against a Swedish team who saw the match primarily as an opportunity for a wonderful Florida vacation. The result was a match in which the Swedes were so uninterested in attacking that Gregg Berhalter's chance to make the France 98 squad by impressing the US coaching staff with his defensive skills was pretty much 86ed, since he essentially had nothing to do. (The result was a boring 1-0 win for the US, thanks to a 1st minute Roy Wegerle goal).
Apparently, however, the first match in the Norwegian winter tour, a 2-1 loss to Mexico, was a pretty energetic affair, so we'll see. They have a squad of primarily domestic-based players, having not recalled any of their overseas stars.
Biggest priority for the US, I'm imagining, is for someone to actually put away some freakin' chances. There is one attacking spot in the US starting eleven that is totally up for grabs: either for a striker or a right sided midfielder (depending on where Landon Donovan plays.) It's hard to say how much Arena will shake things up fron the Canada starting lineup, but it would be interesting to see Chris Rolfe and Todd Dunivant get opportunities.
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