Photo by ISIphotos.com
The United States Under-23 men's national team is going to get a proper tune-up for CONCACAF Olympic qualifying, as it will square off against Mexico's Under-23 side in a friendly at FC Dallas Stadium in Frisco, Texas, on Feb. 29.
The match will be a culmination of a 10-day training camp in Frisco. Kickoff is slated for 10 p.m.
"This game is very important for our players and comes at a critical time for us before the start of Olympic qualifying," U.S. U-23 coach Caleb Porter said in a release. "In this camp we expect to have the majority of the players who are in contention for final roster spots for qualifying. A match against Mexico will serve as a great measuring stick both individually and collectively as we put the finishing touches on our roster selection."
The match is the same day as the senior national team's friendly against Italy, meaning that some players who are part of both player pools will wind up missing out on the trip to Genoa to focus on the training camp and pre-qualifying friendly.
What do you think of this development?
Share your thoughts below.
hope it’s televised
I hope so too, I love how we get every boring U-21 England game but have to hope and beg for US games to be televised.
Hmm, will the amigo’s have meat before the game?
So if he thinks this will be the guys available for qualifying then we should probably assume we will see Brek Shea, Juan Agudelo, Teal Bunbury, Bill Hamid and Sean Johnson from the full national team. I doubt we will see Altidore or Chandler but maybe this will be an opportunity for Danny Williams and Alfred Morales? It is a FIFA date.
I hope we destroy them
ESPN 3 at least
What the heck is 11 doing in that picture?
Have to admit Mexico has better prospects, Cubo Torres had 15 goals in his rookie season for Chivas, Marco Fabian had 20+ goals, Aquino is a monster at wing, Chaton Enriquez won the bronze ball at the U-20 world cup this past summer, alan pulido is a good striker, Ponce is a good left back, and lets not forget jonathan and Giovanni dos santos or potentially Carlos Vela.
nice! i live in plano right next door..anyone talking bout meetin up to go to the game and/or practices??
is 10pm the right starting time?
They still have no defense though. The never do. And by saying that, I’m not suggesting we do have world class defenders but if they had a solid, consistently performing defense – man I would say they could be a top 10 team
very interesting…because is a FIFA date, we should get a better idea who will be available for that crucial semi-final game. I was just wonder the other day when we were going to see a close to full lineup, maybe this will be the date plus against Mexico, an excellent measuring stick for us.
I didn’t know Giovanni was an U23 player.
People who should be there: Jozy, Shea, Boyd, Chandler, and anyone else who might not be available later.
These are the players who can tip the scales, and they need to see time with the group to gel. Ten days and a FIFA fixture sound about right.
The game will be televised on ESPN12, Al-Jazeera 2, and the Hungarian Cooking Network.
Check your local listings.
9:00 CST/10:00 EST
Ponce still has a chance to play for the US. He was left off last roster for the mexican friendly which had a lot u-23.
The US squad got ballers too!
Stretching his groin/hip flexor. Pretty obvious to me.
Well considering that the USMNT plays Italy the same day you will not see Jozy, Shea, Chandler, Or Williams with the U-23 team for this game. Other players that may get called up by Klinsmann further hampering the U-23′s in this game i.e. Boyd, Gyau, and Adu. It will probably not be televised. But it’s a good tune-up game nonetheless.
I would think it highly unlikely we see Jozy with this group as opposed to facing the Italians. Shea however I definitely expect to be here, with Fabian Johnson manning his position on the left with the senior team.
Except the USMNT plays Italy the same day, so in all seriousnes the U-23′s will not see Jozy, Chandler, Shea, D. Williams, Morales, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Klinsmann calls up Boyd and Adu to the full squad as well for the Italy game.
Gyau just entered the game for Hoffenheim (replacing Fabian Johnson)
Excellent!
Of course that could mean we don’t have him for Olympic qualifying, right?
Yes, and Jozy dropped a brace today as a second half sub for a dude that had a hat trick before being replaced. Relevance?
I doubt Ponce is going to play for the USA, he’s at Chivas so it doesn’t look likely..
I disagree, I think Shea, Morales, Boyd will be with the U23 plus other euro U23 players.
The senior team will have jozy and chandler.
I just saw Morales play and the kid has a smooth game, it wouldn’t surprise me if he gets to play CB.
haha. nice reply.
+1
That’s great even though Gyau only got playing time because it was just the the German Cup tournament he still got playing time. And Jozy Altidore scoring 2 goals when he just entered in the 76th minute that is awesome! The way Altiodre, Dempsey, and Donovan are playing the USMNT can involve into a great team hopefully it works out for the best.
Yeah, let’s all meet at your house for lunch before the game… all 10,000 of us!
All of those networks are on lower satelite packages than NBCSports!
It will be interesting to see how Klinsmann and Porter share.
Univision?
The conflict didn’t cross my mind, but I agree.
i live in plano to but unfortunately I’m away for the semester. Totally figures the would play here when I’m not home
they*
Was wondering the same thing…
Would clubs release players for a 10 day camp?
Two USA matches in one day? If I can watch both, I’ll be ecstatic
Shea will be there!
that may be a problem. if anything, we may see a couple of late arrivals to the camp, like Morales, Boyd, Gyau even gatt. When the roster goes public I want to see if potts finally made a decision to commit us for the Olys.
+1 i hope that Shea, Agudelo, Hamid, etc go to the Olympic side instead of Italy. we have a lot of senior level players that can play in that game where the Olympic team needs to have top players in the mix ASAP.. plus its vs. Mexico!
Sweet! I’m there – go USA!!
Anyone else see “Frisco” and immediately think it’s a bad idea?
I’m an FC Dallas fan and love Dallas, but FCD fans were outnumbered at home by FC Tauro fans last year. How are we going to show up on a Wednesday night to claim home field advantage over mexico?
All I know is that I’ll be there
Mexico is probably the top team in this area, so they are a good pick by Caleb.
Will find out what players are not going to be released by clubs for Olympics (Caleb won’t bring in players who won’t be released later) and what players Klinsmann won’t release.
For example Nurnberg will probably not release Chandler for Olympic qualifiers later so why call him in.
excellent point.
that pretty much tells you how weak the opponent was.
The defense is going to be a problem. He seems to favor his Akron boys so I’m waiting to see the roster. Just a few words for Porter “The is not college ball”
I agree and I think you meant to say “This Is Not College Ball” it looks like he favors Sarkodie on the right but Williams is a better right back by far and he doesn’t warm the bench for Philly. Can’t wait to see the defensive roster that he has for this game.
Yo, I’m coming over from Denton just as soon as Bible study is over. May take my youth group for a LATE NIGHT excursion.
We can grab some grub at the Mexican place
dude really? I live in Denton too..I will be going to the game as well….e-mail me.. Christian_rsls@yahoo.com