Tuesday, March 21, 2006

US pre-cup friendly schedule

Something I missed while I was out... the USSF announced three pre-World Cup friendlies: against Morocco, Venezuela, and Latvia.

Er... these are three quality opponents who will test... oh who am I kidding? These three are essentially minnows; only Morocco even came close to qualifying for the Cup.

The problem here is one of getting quality opponents to come to America on the eve of a tournament in Europe. In 2002, with all teams needing to fly to the Far East, scheduling friendlies was no problem. But you don't want to fly your squad over to Europe in mid-May, bring them home, and fly them all the way back again in a few weeks. And likewise, European teams preparing for the Cup are not going to want to come here. So it is understandable that this is the best we can do, but still... I would have liked at least one marquee match in the build-up.

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