Wednesday is a Friendly Day
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This Wednesday will see a whole host of international friendlies being played. Of particular interest to me is the match being played in Goteborg, Sweden where the United States will face Sweden. Friendlies sometime don't carry the flare or interest of actual competitive matches but there are some things to condsider.
The USA are coming off a disappointing Copa America where the team went winless in three matches. So the USA is trying to avoid their first four game losing streak since 1997, when they lost four in a row to Peru, Mexico, Denmark and China. This will also be manager Bob Bradley's first trip in charge of the USA to Europe. The United States also played their first ever official game against Sweden in Stockholm in 1916. The USA won that match 3-2. Overall the series between the two countries is 3-2 in favor of Sweden and this will be the sixth overall meeting between the two.
The roster for the United States looks like this:
Goalkeepers: Marcus Hahnemann ( Reading), Tim Howard ( Everton)
Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra ( Fulham), Jonathan Bornstein ( Chivas USA), Steve Cherundolo ( Hannover), Jay DeMerit ( Watford), Oguchi Onyewu ( Standard Liege), Jonathan Spector ( West Ham United)
Midfielders: DaMarcus Beasley ( Rangers F.C.), Michael Bradley ( Heerenveen), Bobby Convey (Reading), Clint Dempsey (Fulham), Benny Feilhaber ( Derby County), Pablo Mastroeni ( Colorado Rapids)
Forwards: Landon Donovan ( Los Angeles Galaxy), Charlie Davies ( Hammarby), Kamani Hill ( Wolfsburg), Brian Ching ( Houston Dynamo), Sal Zizzo (Hannover)
The Sweden squad looks like this:
Goalkeepers: Rami Shabaan ( Fredrikstad), Johan Wiland ( Elfsborg).
Defenders: Mattias Concha ( Bochum), Erik Edman ( Rennes), Petter Hansson (Rennes), Daniel Majstorovic ( FC Basel), Olof Mellberg ( Aston Villa), Mikael Nilsson ( Panathinaikos).
Midfielders: Niclas Alexandersson ( IFK Goteborg), Daniel Andersson ( Malmo FF), Kennedy Bakircioglu ( Ajax), Dusan Djuric ( Halmstad), Samuel Holmen (Elfsborg), Kim Kallstrom ( Lyon), Tobias Linderoth ( Galatasaray), Fredrik Ljungberg ( West Ham United), Christian Wilhemsson ( Bolton Wanderers).
Strikers: Marcus Allback ( FC Copenhagen), Johan Elmander ( Toulouse), Zlatan Ibrahimovic ( Inter Milan), Rade Prica ( Aalborg), Markus Rosenberg ( Werder Bremen)
With the inclusion of Zlatan Ibrahimovic the US defense is certain to face a stiff challenge. So here's hoping the boys put on a good showing and even up that overall record against Sweden.
Other friendlies on Wednesday are:
