With the US-France friendly less than 24 hours away, here are some last few links regarding the game.
US Soccer provides us with their usual stats and facts preview right here. Random stat of the day from that: three members of the current roster were inaugural members of the U-17 Residency Program in Bradenton (DaMarcus Beasley, Kyle Beckerman and Oguchi Onyewu).
Carlos Bocanegra and Tim Howard talk about playing in the 2003 Confederations Cup in France right here.
The USMNT blog also has a quick history update on Stade de France.
As for some other previews regarding the game, here is one from Soccer America that looks at France and here is one from the AP.
As for some things on this site in the last week. Here is the 100-cap club, which Bocanegra could join if he plays in both games this weekend. And here are some highlights from the last time the US played France in 1979.
Now for some non-USMNT links.
US Soccer announced the venues for March’s CONCACAF Men’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament. The group stages will be played between LP Field (Nashville, Tennessee) and the Home Depot Center (Carson, California). And the semifinals/final will be held at Livestrong Park in Kansas City. Depending on the schedule, I might have to check out at a game at the Home Depot Center (hopefully the US is in the group out here in LA).
Babajide Ogunbiyi has his second volume up of his journal with Goal.com.
And finally, Arsene Wenger talks about US Soccer/MLS/the future of soccer right here.
***UPDATE***
Check out this three-part interview with Jurgen Klinsmann over at MLSsoccer.com. Only Part 1 and Part 2 are up right now, but he is pretty honest with some answers like Omar Gonzalez is currently behind Michael Orozco Fiscal, Clarence Goodson, Oguchi Onyewu at center back.
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3 things about Jurgen’s interview
1. Whenever I hear an interview with him I instantly feel better about the National team.
2. The Gonzalez thing still doesn’t really make sense because he called Ream in a bunch and Ream played more than Fiscal for a while there, so I’m not sure what the actual depth chart looks like…plus he’s better than Fiscal anyways
3. If playing time is the number 1 priority why is Alfredo Morales in the team with no Sasha Kljestan in sight?