USMNT / World Cup

What’s new with the Full Men’s and U-17 US National Teams?

I was glad to see that Freddy Adu got a little playing time with Beleneses recently. Amazingly, even on this struggling team Freddy Adu can’t get solid playing time. He, DaMarcus Beasley, and any other Americans sitting on the bench might want to think about coming back to MLS for playing time.

Robbie Findley has surfaced as a possible speed man up top to replace Charlie Davies. Of course CD9 isn’t giving up and states that he will be ready to go for the World Cup. I like the determination, but I hope he doesn’t complicate his injuries while rushing to recovery. If he does make it back in time, then I for one will be very pleasantly surprised.

I am hoping that I will also be pleasantly surprised by the World Cup draw that occurs this Friday. The US is in Pot 4 with the other CONCACAF and AFC teams. Pot 1 has the seeded teams which includes the whose who of the top soccer playing countries with the notable exception of the host South Africa. Here’s hoping they are in our group. Pot 2 has the European teams. Pot 3 has the African and South American teams. Each World Cup group will be made up of one team from each pot.

Now on to the US U-17 youth team. The U-17 team just finished a World Cup in disappointing fashion. However, the way the team played was quite impressive, and I feel that Wilmer Cabrera has been excellent for developing young US talent. I hope that his influence will be felt up the ladder as these young men move through the US National Team system. Even though these U-17s didn’t end up getting past the round of 16, they were entertaining to watch and created tons of chances. They were unlucky not to have gotten further in the tournament.

It will be very interesting to see the new crop of U-17s, who will have a chance to compete in the 2011 U-17 World Cup. They will be playing in the Nike International Friendlies in Phoenix against an impressive group of teams including Portugal (Dec. 4), Brazil (Dec. 5), and Holland (Dec. 7). All the games will be shown on Fox Soccer Channel at 7pm MT, which is 9pm ET. I like that Wilmer Cabrera is baptizing these young kids in fire. It shows that US Soccer wants the best. I think it is the attitude you need to have if you want to be an elite program. Although this is youth soccer, it could be quite entertaining and you might catch a glimpse of some future stars. That’s all for now. We love to hear your comments, so please participate.

Posted via web from The Philly Soccer Page

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