But before all of that awesomeness starts, US Soccer has a fall tour lined up where the team plays three friendlies against Ireland in Philly, New York, and Chicago. It does not look like these games will be televised so lucky you if you live on the East Coast. Us West Coasters will have to make do with wasting our time searching San Francisco for the last remaining bar not taken over by hipsters which was what I somehow found myself doing last night (and I failed).

Anyways, the USWNT blog is asking readers to come up with a name for the tour. And it appears the general consensus is to fit the word “gold” in there somewhere so we’ve got stuff like the “Golden Booties Tour,” “Gold Standard Tour,” “Gold Champions’ Tour.” You get the picture. I really don’t have an opinion on the name, but I just gotta say that if it’s a TOUR then US Soccer getter get to it and schedule a really great opening act! And since it’s an East Coast tour of our hard working, tough, and winning National Team then I suggest none other than the seriously fierce as all hell Amanda Blank should perform (Spank Rock can come too). Check out the awesome rework of The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight and for those reading who are not easily offended, get Loose. That’s some good shit right there. I simply cannot think of a better way to celebrate our win and get the rest of us excited about the new league.

Remember when everyone was concerned about the US being unable to win in Europe? Well that didn’t seem to be a problem yesterday. All three goals in the video above: snap header from Bocanegra, thumping header from Onyewu and Eddie Lewis pulling out a left footed Beckham.

GOALKEEPERS (2): Marcus Hahnemann (Reading FC), Tim Howard (Everton FC)
DEFENDERS (7): Carlos Bocanegra (Fulham FC), Steve Cherundolo (Hannover 96), Jay DeMerit (Watford FC), Cory Gibbs (Charlton Athletic), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard de Liege), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United)
MIDFIELDERS (5): Michael Bradley (SC Heerenveen), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy), Benny Feilhaber (Derby County), Eddie Lewis (Derby County)
FORWARDS (4): Brian Ching (Houston Dynamo), Clint Dempsey (Fulham FC), Eddie Johnson (Fulham FC), Josh Wolff (1860 Munich)

*missed him the first time, thanks to Dave for the correction

-Lets kick things off with our younger representatives of the U-17 division who put in a great showing at the Nike Friendly matches in Florida. They lost their last match to Turkey 2-0, but finished with a 2-1-0 record, beating the likes of Russia and Brazil. The win over Brazil continued a mini-ownage over Brazil on the youth national team level carrying over from this past summers U-20 World Cup victory over the Samba Boys in group play thanks to our friends Freddy Adu and Jozy Altidore. Ok, so maybe “mini-ownage” is a little strong, but hey, you take whatever you can off of Brazil and then brag about it.

Stefan Jerome was the standout for the USA, leading the team with three goals scored. The somewhat message board famed Charles Renken also impressed with his play, especially for his age (15). Not only did they beat two good teams, but the U-17’s showed a lot of good looking soccer on the pitch, the future looks bright from this angle.

- If you didn’t catch it yet, Michael Bradley is still tearing it up for Heerenven. Kid scored a hat trick on Sunday to lead Heerenveen to a 4-2 win against Groningen. Check the goals over at Ives place, as well as a little banter about Michael Bradley starting to draw interest from bigger clubs, and after this probably continuing to do so. This kid just never stops impressing.

- Courtesy of Steven Goff, today we have news on the 2018 World Cup Bid front, as well as other U.S. Notes, thanks to a little convo with the professor Sunil Gulati. It looks like Sunil Gulati plans to meet with FIFA leadership in Tokyo this weekend to discuss some specifics for bidding to host the 2018 World Cup. He wants to make sure everything is in a good place before he goes ahead and decides to make an official bid by the end of March. Here’s a taste of what Goff has learned…

*…..he is optimistic the USSF will be able to schedule U.S. national team friendlies in late May and early June in Europe against countries preparing for Euro ‘08.

*…..he “does not anticipate any issues” with the U.S. government in gaining clearance for the U.S. team to play at Cuba in the semifinal round. As for U.S. supporters making the trip, “that would probably be very hard.”

Read the whole post here.

It is good to know we are going about the process in the right way and our very interested in bringing that tournament for the little golden trophy back to the United States.

What did you think about the Nike Friendlies? Think Michael Bradley is the best American player? Pumped for the possibility of the 2018 World Cup bid?

Share your thoughts.

November 17, we are almost there.

It is kind of sad that we look upon these single friendly matches with so much anticipation, but it is the international soccer down season for the United States, so we can’t help it.

A few roster changes to make note of after the latest round of MLS Playoffs…

Bye-bye for now Eddie Lewis, please say hello to my good friends Jonathan Spector and Heath Pearce. Thanks to the official US Soccer Blog.

This means there is going to be a lot of good competition for those left and right back positions in camp. I have considered our backs one of the weaknesses, partly due to inconsistency, of the current US squad so it will be interesting to see who earns the playing time on the 17th.

By the way, Bob is handling the player call ups and rosters as close to perfect as possible. It dawned on me today that he is structuring this world cup cycle phenomenally. He is not always focused on putting proven guys he knows will get results against weaker opponents, he has explored a plethora of youth options, and don’t forget he led the United States to victory in the Gold Cup. What more could you truthfully ask of him?

His son ain’t bad either. In what has become a pretty regular occurrence, Michael Bradley scored again for Heerenven this past weekend against Vitesse Arnhem to give his side the 1-0 victory after team superstar Alfonso Alves got red carded. A couple posts ago I posed the question, “Can you argue against Clint Dempsey being the best American abroad?”, and to answer myself about a week later, I think you can. Although in a less prominent league, Michael Bradley’s goal scoring tear and overall play have been tremendous, and don’t expect him to be at Heerenven too much longer if this continues. I can think of a few Champions League squads who could use his composure on the ball and selective attacking prowess right now.

I am thinking of doing a sort of running US Soccer Player Power Rankings to see who’s hot and who’s not at their respective club sides and also to see when it comes time who should be making the cut on these rosters.

I will have more stuff up on the road to the South Africa friendly later.

They slipped, they stumbled, and they fell. They were relentless. Not once during this match did any USA player quit, no matter how ugly and disheartening the soccer was.

As USA supporters, we had seen this all too many times before. Most recently, the last time Bob’s boys took the pitch in Europe, against Sweden. This fixture, much like the Sweden friendly, presented an encounter with much intuitiveness but little ingenuity. In the case of the Sweden friendly, that spell was broken by a Swedish strike from outside the eighteen that burnt the back of the net. At one point today it would not have surprised me to have seen something similar from the Swiss, and another loss tallied on to Bob Bradley’s once impeccable record.

But as the players left the pitch it all seemed right, like this was the way it was supposed to happen. It didn’t always ring so clear in mine and many USA supporters’ heads. The clock hit seventy, then seventy-one (where are the subs!?!), seventy-two (where is Freddy!?!), seventy-three (anybody?!), seventy-four (What is Bob doing!?!), seventy-five (where is Freddy!?!), seventy-six (Freddy!), seventy-seven…exhale.

He had been released from the clutches of the touch-line warm-ups he seemed to be conducting for hours when Bob called to him from his astute position stalking the midfield line. Bob seemed to be reciting a speech that would have been saved for a father sending his son off to college. Freddy looked Bob in the eye, never once blinking. They shared a final laugh, sealed it with a handshake, and the time had finally come.

On one hand, it is pretty sad that this height of anticipation was what was probably running through the head of every USMNT fan watching this game. But when he made that first touch, all of the anxiousness and hope seemed warranted. One inventive back heel as his first international touch in years and the race was on. From there he seemed to raise his teammate’s energy level, pushing the game to a fever pitch it seemed it would never sniff. The combination of speed, effort, and skill he possessed was exactly why he was entered into the game, all be it too late for my liking. But it doesn’t matter now.

He wasn’t the only one. In comes another one of the United State’s storied youth product who was a bust before he got out of his highchair. It’s funny how these flops seem to land the best European deals. Szetela makes a few clean touches, then sends in a laser of a cross that a mish-mosh of Clint Dempsey and fellow U-20 standout Michael Bradley latch onto to give the United States their first win on European soil in practically forever.

Thinking back, the 180 degree reversal the game took when the first youngster, Adu, was entered into the game was remarkable. An absolute snooze fest in which as a viewer and supporter I am certain to bash Bob Bradley for waiting to long to bring on some speed and energy from the bench. It looked to be another loss and not only that, an overall disappointment from a viewing prospective because of the lack of time some of these protégés received.

Then all of a sudden, Michael Bradley, Freddy Adu, and Danny Szetela are entangled in an embrace representing possibly one of the most important victories the United States has had in the past couple years.

In thirteen minutes, the camp as a whole went from a failure to one of many turning points to come on the road to South Africa 2010.

Thirteen minutes is all it took to prove that results are everything. The youth movement has begun.

I often find myself looking deep into the future to the year of 2010. It is so far yet so close. With qualifying already starting in various regions of the world, the focus of the football world and soccer country will be on the year 2010 in South Africa.

One of the most intriguing questions come 2010, besides if we will have a striker who can finish consistently, is who will be manning the center of the park?

Today at training in Switzerland, Bob Bradley stared out at his vast group of young players with a few sprinkled vets, and four hungry men stared back. Out of these four, plus possibly a few at home, the center of the midfield will be shaped from.

One of the guys Bob Bradley sees is very familiar to him, his son Michael Bradley. Michael has slowly but steadily been increasing his stranglehold on one of the center midfield slots that could come into play in Bob Bradley’s 2010 lineup card. His club and country form have been nothing short of outstanding as he continues to prove that he has the versatility to be a destroyer all by his lonesome while a shorter darker u-20 pal of his could possibly play a pure number 10 in front of him.

If Bob decides to go with a more conservative route, which he has been taking for most of his tenure as head coach, he will pair two defensive or two-way midfielders in the center of the park.

Another guy who seems to be in commanding position to partner with the coach’s son is Benny Feilhaber. Yes, you remember, the hero of the Gold Cup. The kid sorta came from nowhere this summer to being one of the most talented players on the field every time the USA suited up. These days he is struggling for time in England, but is still riding on his performance of the summer. He has a few under him who were just like he was a short year ago, nipping at his heels.

Danny Szetela and Maurice Edu are new to this whole national team thing. Szetela was always on the radar, but only truly showed up for the first time this summer at the U-20 World Cup. Maurice Edu has been doing his thing all year in MLS, making a strong case for Rookie of the Year. You could call these two the hungry young guns, but then again, Bradley and Feilhaber are just as young.

Pablo Mastroeni and Ricardo Clark send you their well wishes as well.

The talent and depth Bob Bradley has at his disposal in the center of the pitch is quite impressive, those who emerge from the battle for those coveted positions will prove to be as well.

The thing I notice most from this video is how competitive training must be with all of these guys who have never been there before. It’s like the underclassmen at an open practice trying to show off for the coach. It puts a good stress on the work place and lets the vets know that no ones spot is guarenteed.

And who knew Jay DeMerit had such a silky touch in horseshoes?

I will get some more indepth stuff on training camp up as we get closer to game day, until then keep up with the vids on the official site.

Check out this Europe Camp Day 1 video to hear some of the guys talk about their first day and meeting some new faces.

Looks like a good competitive training environment with allot of young talent.

At least that’s the plan.

Bob Bradley’s current losing streak has put a somewhat unwarranted damper on what I think up to this point has been an impressive tenure. The roster for the Switzerland friendly throws up allot of potential lineup questions with the large amount of youth being brought into the fray. But even with all of the excitement around this youth movement and U-20 starlets like Freddy Adu and Danny Szetela, the team needs a result. And they most definitely need to put up a few numbers on the scoreboard.

You can count on seeing a plethora of youth actually play in the game and not just sit on the bench and look pretty.

Let’s take a look at how the lineup could look…

In goal I think Hahnemann is a lock.

The back four seems pretty certain too. Heath Pearce, Boca, Gooch, and Cherundolo. You can make an argument against Gooch, but his club form has been pretty spot on. You could say the same though for his biggest competition, Jay Demerit, who has his club flying back towards the prem. That is the only tough decision I see for Bob to make at the back.

This is where it gets tricky. With no real forwards, it will be a mass of differently specialized midfielders.

I think you can count on Beasley, Bradley, and Feilhaber in some capacity. Also Clint “Deuce” Dempsey up top is a given, as that seems to be his position on the national team scene and club for now. I say Adu plays the second forward role. Why not? If you look at the roster he is the best player to play there, there is no reason not to play him.

Perhaps Bradley puts Beasley in that role and slides Lewis into the midfield? Bob usually plays so conservative, but I think Adu has to be in there. He will at least get some solid time for sure even if he doesn’t start.

I think that another defensive/two-way center mid will slide in next to the coach’s kid and Benny. That leaves it to Szetela or Maurice Edu. I don’t know why but with Szetela not being match fit recently, I find it hard to see him starting this one. So if Bob does decide to go with the three center midfielders in a 4-3-3 type formation, I guess he’d have to go with Edu. But it’s too hard to tell, and that’s what makes this roster great.

There is no old reliable (Landon or Pablo) that you can rely on to just be thrown in there somewhere because we are afraid of baptism by fire. Youth will be thrown into play for sure, and I feel confident that they will pull a result out. They are too talented not to blend with those who know their way around the international pitch.

Other youths you could see in some capacity later in the game…

Preston Zimmerman – Absolutely lighting it up on the club level. Five goals already for the Hamburg SV II stud. He could see a move up to the first team if he keeps this up. Bob would do good to get a natural forward a look at some point in this game. That’s the great part of a camp though; you can see everybody even if they aren’t capped.

Sal Zizzo – Stepped in valiantly for Johann Smith when he went down for the U-20’s and earned himself a euro contract. Will it translate with the big boys?

Robbie Findley – Speed demon, underrated MLS rookie of the year candidate. He doesn’t have it all together, but it will be good to get his feet wet at the camp.

What are your thoughts on potential lineups and playing time for the upcoming friendly?