MVN - Most Valuable Network

MVN Previews ARGENTINA @ USA — Sunday’s Giants Stadium Sell-Out

Well over 70,000 will be on hand when the world’s number one ranked ARGENTINA visits America tomorrow for an international friendly versus the USMNT…

Giants Stadium will be filled to capacity, and the match will be shown worldwide in English on the ESPN networks, and the Spanish-language national telecast in the U.S. will be via Galavision  (7:30 pm EDT)…

What can be said about the USA meeting FIFA’s top-ranked men’s side ?  The USMNT welcomes the challenge, knowing - of course - that they are the clear underdogs.

Team USA needs this valuable experience, similar to the recent freindlies facing ENGLAND and SPAIN, if they are to gain in the FIFA World Cup quests of the future.  Rarely does the U.S. get to meet such highly ranked teams outside of the actual World Cup finals tournament itself.  Spain, currently ranked number four and one of the favorites to win this month’s EURO 2008 Championships, won over the U.S. on Wednesday 1-0.  Meanwhile, though England lost out in their own bid to make the final 16 for EURO 2008, they are nonetheless ranked number 11 and did defeat the USA by a score of 2-0 late last month.

This match is also important as the final test before the USMNT begins its 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign in earnest on June 15,  just one week from tomorrow.

So, while it would be a most excellent surprise if the USMNT did defeat Argentina on our own home soil tomorrow, no one expects that.  What we do expect is for Bob Bradley to field the best team to represent our nation, for our team to play their best, and to gain knowledge from that valuable -and rare - honor of meeting the world’s Number One.

Final USMNT Roster, amended Saturday:

GK - Dominic Cervi (out of contract), Brad Guzan (Chivas USA), Tim Howard (Everton FC)

D - Dan Califf (FC Midtjylland), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Jay DeMerit (Watford FC), Frankie Hejduk (Columbus Crew), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock), Drew Moor (FC Dallas).

M- Freddy Adu (SL Benfica), DaMarcus Beasley (Glasgow Rangers), Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Maurice Edu (Toronto FC), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Eddie Lewis (Derby County), Pablo Mastroeni (Colorado Rapids)

F- Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC), Eddie Johnson (Fulham FC), Kenny Cooper (FC Dallas).

Read more on the roster selections from US Soccer here

AUDIO Previews -

from the GOAL blog of the NY Times,

Landon Donovan, who may earn his 100th cap

from US Soccer,

Bob Bradley, on his team preparations and the challenges

VIDEO - US Soccer’s ‘Studio 90′ news from this weekend, and other previous USMNT videos from these three most recent friendlies

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 7th, 2008 at 7:14 pm and is filed under Soccer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.