More Soccer!!!

Last month I wrote on the exciting summer that awaits soccer fans, and we are practically on the brink of all the excitement. Tomorrow is perhaps the biggest club team championship in the world as Manchester United and Chelsea meet up in Moscow for the UEFA Champions League title. Winner gets the title as the best club team in Europe, while the loser will have to deal with upset fans who expected more for another off season.

More importantly for American soccer fans are the three upcoming friendly games. First one takes place in a little more than a week, and could possibly be the most anticipated friendly in US soccer history. US will travel to Wembley Stadium and take on England on May 28th. This game could prove to be a stepping stone for the American men, and really give them same real credibility in the world of soccer. England isn't quite the giant they used to be, but taking the English to the wire on their home turf will go a long ways in getting this team ready for WC qualifying. Although this will probably be their easiest of the three opponents, it's probably the most important to get a victory out of, because of the image it'll portray to the fringe soccer fans in this country, and to those in Europe who look down on American soccer.

About a week after that is another huge matchup with Spain on June 4th. This game will probably be the toughest to come away with anything more than a loss. In fact, not to sound defeatist, but my hopes are for the US men to keep it close, and get a goal. To me it doesn't matter if they lose this game, but how competitive they are with Spain. Spain has some of the best soccer players in the world, and could easily be a favorite heading into WC 2010. Plus should the US come away with a victory over England, this game may be forgotten about since it's sandwiched in the middle of the three matches coming up.

The final game takes place on June 8th, and brings Argentina to US soil. This will be the best team of the three US faces, but on the plus side, the US will get them on their turf. A win over England would be huge, but IMO, a win over Argentina would send shock waves through world soccer. Even though these are just friendly's, it'll give the US a chance to show their strength, but also allow their three opponents to show that US soccer isn't quite at the level of sitting at the grownups table. If Argentina was playing Mexico, or even Canada, they would look at the game as just a friendly, that at the end of the day didn't mean a whole lot. However, a loss to a US squad would be looked at as a terrible failure. A good analogy, would be the struggles of the US basketball teams at world events. As American's we believe that there's no way foreign countries could better than us in basketball, and it's embarrassing to see the American teams lose in those competitions. Same thing goes for Argentina in soccer. Losing to the US would be time for panic in their country.

When it's all said and done, my hope is for the US team to go 1-1-1 in their three games. Going 2-1-0, or even 1-0-2, should be seen as tremendous progress for this squad, considering their horrible performance in the 06 WC. However, it all starts with that England game next.

Who to look out for in these games. First and foremost the young guns making waves worldwide, but still haven't found much of an audience (outside of dedicated soccer fans) in the US. People know Freddie Adu's name, but people will be surprised at how far he's come along since he made headlines a few years ago signing with the MLS while barely being a teenager. He's turned into the next Landon Donavan, as the team leader who has great foot skills, tremendous vision, and a killer free kick. Like I said last month Jozy Altidore is on the brink of being the US's first great worldwide soccer star. He's got everything that is needed to cross over and become the face of US soccer. Size, speed, power, quickness, and the only thing he needs to work on is the mental game, but that'll come with age. Maurice Edu is poised to become the George Harrison of the US team. He just may be the best all around player on the US squad, but will always be in the shadows of Adu and Altidore.

Elsewhere the US may have the best crop of forwards in the world, if they all play to their potential. Besides Altidore and Donovan, is Clint Dempsey, Eddie Johnson (both of whom are making heads turn in England) Brian Ching, and Josh Wolff. Any one of these players are capable of finishing when in the box, and for the most part there isn't a big drop off in terms of talent between any of them. Also Altidore, Donovan and Johnson give the US exceptional speed that many European countries can't come even close to matching. (See Poland game from earlier this year).

At the midfield you've got an interesting mix of youth and experience. Youth wise there is Edu and Adu, Michael Bradley, Eddie Gaven and Sacha Kiljestan. While on the experience side you've got Pablo Mastroeni, Eddie Lewis, DeMarcus Beasley who's just back in action after a terrible knee injury. All in all the midfield might be the US's weakness as there isn't enough experience with the youth for them to really take games over, and the veteran's don't have the speed the youth possess to make up for the shortcomings. Plus Beasley would probably have been the best at the midfield position, but with his recent comeback from injury you'd have to assume he isn't where he once was at this point in time.

At the fullback spot, US is going mostly with experience. For as much attention as the attacking parts of their team are getting from the youth movement, the fullback position is staying relatively older through this transition. Carlos Bocanegrea, Steve Cherundolo, and Frankie Hejduk have all been there and done that. I for one am ecstatic about Hejduk being apart of this group. He bring so much excitement and unpredictability to the game that it really puts the clamps down on the opposition. I hope we really see a lot out of him over the next few weeks, because he just might be the missing link. Any coincidence that Hejduk missed the 06 WC, and the struggles the US team had? It's pretty obvious that his services were dearly missed. Also in the back for the US is the first true "Big-man" to play soccer in the United States. You see players the size of Oguchi Onyewu all over world soccer, but up until his arrival on the US scene, the American squad never had a guy that could play at his level. 6'4" tall and is a force in the back. If he stays healthy he'll anchor the back through at least the 2010 WC if not longer. Still the fullback position is way underdeveloped. When you've got lots of young guys, even teenagers running around at the other positions, the fullback spot has their fair show of 30+ year old guys, something needs to be done in the near future. It'll be fine for now, and the early stages of WC qualifying, but if the US is still leaning on them for the 2010 WC, the US is in trouble.

Protection the goal is a nice crop of keepers. Tim Howard is the next guy in line. He's a tremendous keeper, and could really be the guy in the net for the US for nearly a decade. Chris Seitz is young and trying to make a name for himself, while Brad Guzan is a solid keeper, but in the end Howard seems to be the guy for now. Still this is an area where the US can breathe easy, as it seems they've got things under control at goal.

So tune in on May 28th to the US/England match. Should be a very entertaining game, and a very interesting few weeks for the US squad.