USA Round Up

Ok folks finally a lot to talk about and I am back.

-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.