Netherlands vs. USA
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watch live here:
Netherlands vs. USA
The United States men’s national team will begin its preparations in earnest for next month’s Gold Cup
when facing the first of two friendlies against high-caliber European
opposition on Friday. First up for Jurgen Klinsmann’s squad is a match
with last year’s World Cup brine medalists, the Netherlands, in
Amsterdam before heading to Cologne to take on the world champions
Germany next Wednesday.
It has been a hard road for the U.S. since last summer in Brazil,
with Klinsmann utilizing plenty of new faces as he builds toward the
next World Cup in 2018. But after salvaging a 1-1 draw in Switzerland
and then beating local rivals Mexico in April, the team should carry
some belief with it into two challenging fixtures that Klinsmann
believes are crucial to his players’ development.
“We want to play against those nations and show them that we not only
came here to defend, but that we came here to attack and that we want
to go forward and we want to score goals against them and we want to
make life very miserable for them,” he told the U.S. Soccer website. “So the learning curve is big, and for us coaches too because we get a lot to see and afterwards we know a lot more.”
The Gold Cup is the focus of the U.S. team’s year, with the chance to
maintain Concacaf superiority and secure a place at the 2017
Confederations Cup. With that in mind, Klinsmann has largely curtailed
the experimentation that has characterized his selections since the
World Cup. This time around there are no new inclusions, although there
are some familiar faces missing with many of those given a chance by
Klinsmann in recent months keeping their place. World Cup starting
center-backs Omar Gonzalez, Matt Besler and Geoff Cameron are absent,
although the latter is thought to have a minor fitness issue. Meanwhile,
more inexperienced defenders like Ventura Alvaado, John Brooks and
Jonathan Orozco will get further chances to stake their claim.
“Putting together the pieces now for these two very, very prestigious
friendlies, obviously in the back of your mind there’s the Gold Cup,”
Klinsmann said. “It’s a huge opportunity to play nations like these two
in order to see a lot of things that you want to see from your players.
In a certain way, we want to see a couple of guys get thrown in the
freezing cold water and see how they can swim and where they stand right
now in the ranking of the men’s national team. That’s why I want to see
Ventura Alvarado or John Brooks play in games like this.”
Further forward, regular attacking duo Clint Dempsey and Jozy
Altidore also miss out, with the former awaiting the birth of his fourth
child and the latter out injured. Jermaine Jones also had to pull out
of the squad after suffering a groin injury with the New England
Revolution on Sunday
Still, the U.S. may well fancy their chances of scoring an impressive
result on the road in Amsterdam. It has been a tough time for the
Netherlands since last year’s World Cup, with the man who took over from
Louis van Gaal, Guus Hiddink, encountering plenty of criticism. The
team sit third in its qualifying group for Euro 2016, although it did
get a morale-boosting win over Spain in a friendly last time out in
March. For the Netherlands the match against the U.S. will act as
preparation for a crucial qualifier against Latvia next Friday. The
latest squad includes Manchester United duo Robin van Persie and Daley
Blind, as well as new United signing Memphis Depay. But Arjen Robben is
out through injury, while Wesley Sneijder will miss the match with the
U.S. after playing in the Turkish Cup final with Galatasaray on
Wednesday.
Prediction: The U.S. shouldn’t be overwhelmed
against a Netherlands team that has been struggling and that will very
much be focusing on next week’s qualifier. However, the U.S. attack in
particular is lacking in experience of facing top-level international
opposition and the Netherlands should have the required quality to pick
up a narrow victory.
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