Socceroos to play USA in Joberg

[griffo346]

Socceroos will play the US in friendly, week before first World Cup game

March 16, 2010 The Socceroos will play the United States in Johannesburg on June 5, eight days before their opening World Cup Group D match against Germany.
The friendly match at Ruimsig Stadium in the suburb of Roodeport was announced by the US Soccer Federation and American coach Bob Bradley welcomed the clash with a "quality opponent" before his 18th-ranked team meets England in their Group C opener on June 12.

"Australia demonstrated in 2006 that they're a team capable of competing at the World Cup," Bradley said.

It will be only the third time the two teams have ever met and the 25th-ranked Socceroos hold an historical edge, having drawn 0-0 in 1998 at San Diego and winning 1-0 at Orlando, Florida, in 1992.

Socceroos Coach Pim Verbeek said that this match was crucial for his team’s preparations for the tournament.

"The USA are a very strong team and of course will be participating at the FIFA World Cup.

"They narrowly lost to the Netherlands recently, which shows their qualities, so this match will be very good preparation us,"

"Their style of play will allow us to test our players against similar opposition to what we will face at the World Cup," concluded Verbeek.

The game could produce a matchup of Socceroos goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer against his Fulham teammate, US striker Clint Dempsey.

The clash with the Americans could also be repeated in the round of 16 at the World Cup since winners and runner-ups from groups C and D play each other in the round of 16.

The Americans went out in the group stage of the 2006 World Cup.

They edged Mexico to top the table in North American final-round qualifying for the 2010 World Cup.

The Qantas Socceroos have been drawn in Group D of the 2010 FIFA World Cup alongside Germany, Serbia and Ghana, whilst the USA have been drawn in Group C with England, Algeria and Slovenia.

The match will be played at the Ruimsig Stadium, Roodepoort and will be broadcast Live and Exclusive by FOX SPORTS in Australia.

FFA is also in the process of organising another international friendly match for the Qantas Socceroos in South Africa prior to the 2010 FIFA World Cup with details to be announced once finalised.
AAP


http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,26856310-5014539,00.html

 

[DB]

Well thats better than just New Zealand

 

[Misanthrope]

I fancy our chances against the US. They're a decent side, but I do believe (as do most, as far as I can tell) that they are consistently overrated in FIFA rankings.

 

[fish eel]

The big advantage the US have is cohesion.

They just play so many freaking games.

 

[Misanthrope]

They just play so many freaking games.

Easy to do when you're closer to Europe; half of your first teamers still play in the US; and you've got the likes of Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and Haiti just keen for attention.

 

[Parra WILL Win]

Easy to do when you're closer to Europe; half of your first teamers still play in the US; and you've got the likes of Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and Haiti just keen for attention.

That's funny considering the U.S has never played against Nicaragua or Puerto Rico, & last time they played Haiti was in last years Gold Cup. You might wanna do some research first bro ;-).

In fact U.S has played 3 games this, while Australia 2.

Not saying U.S is better, i believe both are quite even & should be a good game.

 

[Misanthrope]

That's funny considering the U.S has never played against Nicaragua or Puerto Rico, & last time they played Haiti was in last years Gold Cup. You might wanna do some research first bro ;-).

In fact U.S has played 3 games this, while Australia 2.

Not saying U.S is better, i believe both are quite even & should be a good game.

Or, you know, you could look at what I said as a commentary on the confederation that the US plays in and their consistently grossly inflated ranking, rather than a specific comment on who they've been playing.

I could just have easily have said Grenada, Panama, Canada, Guatemala, Guadeloupe, Cuba, or any other of the many footballing powerhouses in the confederation.

They benefit from having the Gold Cup every two years, in which their only competition comes from Mexico. It's no surprise that since entering Asia and getting to play more World Cup qualifiers + ANC qualifiers and the tournament itself has seen Australia elevated considerably up the ranks as well.

 

[weasel]

If we can find the time for one more friendly against a half-decent side, European or African, I'll be relatively less critical of the FFA's seemingly bumbling preparation leading up to the tournament.

A few teams, like Paraguay, Spain, Korea, France, Germany, Mexico, are playing 3 games in the few weeks before the tournament kicks off, Italy plays friendlys on both the 3rd and 8th of June. We've already wasted one chance for a decent friendly that most of the other nations took when we were using a-leaguers against Indonesia, and one of our friendlies is against the weakest team in the tournament, which practically reduces our pre-tournament preparation to one decent friendly as opposed to most team's three or four. So finding a third game in the lead up is absolutely crucial imo.

 

[fish eel]

we're also meant to be playing Denmark

 

[Misanthrope]

Surely we could track down an African team not involved in the World Cup to play a game against?

 

[weasel]

Denmark wouldn't be a bad game, they got out of a tough qualifying group, although Portugal didn't really turn up for the first round of games, and it worries me that they lost to Austria just recently. I think Croatia would be the ideal european opponent we could face.

Egypt would be awesome as far as Africans are concerned, but with two european countries in the group I s'pose it's more important that we play a European nation than an African one.

 

[fish eel]

I know there was talk we'd play Croatia as the farewell game, so something fell through there.

 

[weasel]

Yeh, that would have been an awesome farewell game, and definitely would have drawn a huge crowd. If we had managed to pull that off what would have been the absolute best preparation would be playing them as well as New Zealand as send off games (say on the Saturday/Sunday and the other on Tuesday/Wednesday) then jet off to Africa to play an African nation (either in South Africa or as a stopover on the way), and then this USA friendly.

 

[weasel]

Croatia - similar style/ability to our euro opponents
New Zealand - weaker than us, gives us an opportunity for our fringe players to make their claims
African side- similar style/ability to Ghana
USA- similar level as us, good tweak up against an even opponent

 

[Russell Crowe's Band]

we should try play egypt

 

[Parra WILL Win]

Or, you know, you could look at what I said as a commentary on the confederation that the US plays in and their consistently grossly inflated ranking, rather than a specific comment on who they've been playing.

I could just have easily have said Grenada, Panama, Canada, Guatemala, Guadeloupe, Cuba, or any other of the many footballing powerhouses in the confederation.

They benefit from having the Gold Cup every two years, in which their only competition comes from Mexico. It's no surprise that since entering Asia and getting to play more World Cup qualifiers + ANC qualifiers and the tournament itself has seen Australia elevated considerably up the ranks as well.

I never said these teams were powerhouses, just pointing out that U.S doesn't really play against the minnow countries, just like Australia don't play the likes of Tajikstan, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia.

Ok, i agree that U.S & Mexico are the big dogs, but if you pay attention to CONCACAF you'll find that the gap is closing, after those 2 you have Honduras & Costa Rica who can match it with them but are inconsistent, & then you have El Salvador who have have shown big time improvement but are very inexperienced.

But anyway like i said before, should be a good game between 2 evenly matched teams.

 

[Misanthrope]

Didn't we beat Thailand 4-0 in the 2007 ANC? But I see the point you're making.

 

[BrotherTJ]

Surely we could have come up with a better opponent than the yanks.

 

[dragondad]

we should try play egypt

While they are in Africa and have a good style of game,they aren't really your typically African style of opponent.Maybe a team like Angola,Togo or Senegal.