JACKSONVILLE Fla.
Jurgen Klinsmann will manage his 50th game in charge of the United States men's national team on Saturday. But whereas a big fuss will be made over goalkeeper Tim Howard's 100th cap for the USA and rightly so don't expect any sort of celebration over the head coach's milestone. It will be noted quietly if at all. Because the point of this game isn't to mark that or any other occasion. Rather it's to prepare his side for his 51st game.
When they take on Nigeria at EverBank Field (live Satuday 6 p.m. ET) the idea is essentially to replicate a game that hasn't happened yet their World Cup opener against Ghana on June 16. The Americans have just one more chance to set things right before they head down to Brazil on Sunday. As such this final friendly in the three game tune up series they have played stateside is a great deal more consequential than the exhibition status it is officially designated with.
Nigeria are expected to give Team USA much the same sort of game Ghana will which is of course why they were scheduled. There are similarities in terms of their style of play their individual talent Klinsmann said on Friday. They're very fit they're very physical which is good for us because it will give us a little bit of a wake up call. This is what at this point now we really need. It gives us a little bit of an indication of how to approach Ghana how to beat Ghana which is so crucial for us to start the World Cup with.
The Americans assembled at Stanford University on May 14 for two weeks of a preparatory training camp after the European and Mexican based players completed their club seasons and those on Major League Soccer teams were released from their club duties. It was bookended by a friendly with Azerbaijan in San Francisco in conditions so windy as to render the game practically unplayable. They won 2 0 regardless albeit in a fashion that was not convincing. Last Sunday the Americans beat Turkey 2 1 in Harrison New Jersey but that game was sort of a mixed bag as well.
Nigeria like Ghana is an imposing and aggressive team that will stampede towards the American goal at the earliest opportunity. That's what made them attractive opponents for this game. Because for the Americans to retain any hope of advancing out of their brutal Group G in the World Cup they'll pretty much have to beat Ghana the team that bounced them from the 2006 and 2010 editions of the world's tournament. Consider after all that the next opponents are Germany and Portugal ranked second and fourth in the world respectively.
The Americans will play a closed door scrimmage with Belgium behind closed door in Brazil on June 12 but how competitive that game will be how closely it will replicate real game conditions is hard to say.
And so this game is really the dress rehearsal the culmination of a slow buildup of increasingly tricky challenges. It also offers a first taste of the heat and cloaking humidity they will encounter in Brazil. It's great preparation said midfield metronome Michael Bradley. We need it. We know what it'll be like in Brazil and to now have some trainings and a game in this heat and humidity is going to be important.
In order to imbue their fans and perhaps themselves with some tangible causes for confidence the USA will have to improve on a few things. The defense has to cut down on its lapses plain and simple. This isn't so easy since any line Klinsmann fields has spent limited time playing together in real games. The midfield meanwhile will need to be tighter after the ball is turned over. Turkey had far too easy a time slicing through the lines and reaching the forwards. The strike partnership of Jozy Altidore and Clint Dempsey while encouraging in its last outing Dempsey scored and Altidore had a goal disallowed needs a little more work.
We want to continue to fine tune and to improve everywhere on the field said Klinsmann. Nigeria will give us a very very good game. It's a team that really will give us hopefully a lot of answers to many questions.
In addition to the technical aspect there's the physical part to consider. After the long physical slog of the season and camp the players are weary as they reload for the World Cup. Ideally you'd like to now see that we're sharpening up in all ways said Bradley. That physically we look a little sharper a little fresher a little more lively a little stronger. That now our soccer is getting better and sharper. When we get advantages in the final third that we're able to be more clinical and ruthless and that defensively we're organized committed compact and not giving much away.
The progression from the first game to the second suggested the campaign is on track to a good place. This incarnation of the American national team is a strong one even without the inexplicably excluded Landon Donovan the team's long time star forward. With Donovan gone DaMarcus Beasley is the team's longest tenured player and off to his fourth World Cup a record for an American. He reckons this is the deepest American team ever.
While his claim has merit a cruel draw also stuck the Americans with the toughest group they've ever faced at the World Cup. As such they'll have to be the best they've ever been to stand a chance. Better even than they were in 2002 when young jitterbugs Donovan and Beasley and their companions brazenly scampered to the precipice of the semifinals. How far along they are in positioning themselves for another run will reveal itself in finer detail on Saturday.
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