by Paul Kennedy
After the USA fell to Argentina, 4-0, in the Copa Centenario semifinals, Jurgen Klinsmann reiterated his call that his players get a chance to face the top teams of the world to gauge their progress. The reality is, the USA will see nothing but a steady diet of Concacaf teams for the next 15 months thanks to the FIFA calendar.
After the loss to Argentina in Chicago, Klinsmann spotted U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati in back of the interview room at his postgame press conference.
“I see Sunil sitting there,” Klinsmann said. “If ever we can get a friendly with Argentina, please do it. With Brazil, please do it. Even if we get lessons here and there, that’s part of our process. You’ve got to take those teams on in order to learn.”
Those possibilities for friendly games have decreased as FIFA, under pressure from European clubs, has reduced the number of dates on the international calendar, the only dates for which clubs are required to release players.
That reduction will force Concacaf to stage the final round of World Cup qualifying -- the Hexagonal -- over two years for the first time. It will begin with two dates in November before resuming in March 2017. The single date in February -- remember the USA's disastrous opening game in San Pedro Sula against Honduras in 2013 -- and a third date in June have been eliminated.
The only open dates on the FIFA calendar before the end of the Hexagonal in October 2017 are a pair of dates in October 2016. But other confederations have reserved those dates for World Cup qualifiers, so unless the USA wants to play another pair of Concacaf teams or teams from Africa or Asia who have already been eliminated or perhaps New Zealand -- Oceania is off until March 2017 -- it will have to skip those dates.
The 2017 schedule is complicated by the Gold Cup, which will again be held in July. Klinsmann has repeatedly complained about how the July dates in 2015 worked against his European-based players, who had shortened vacations and were then still trying to find their rhythm when the Gold Cup was held -- a Gold Cup at which the USA finished fourth.
If the 2017 Gold Cup is a repeat of 2013 -- which also followed June World Cup qualifiers -- Klinsmann will be forced to use the tournament as a chance to work with his second-string players.
The first chance he could get to schedule Brazil or Argentina with their full squads would be in Nov. 6-14, 2017, during the FIFA dates that follow the end of confederation qualifying. That assumes, of course, they haven't been relegated to the intercontinental playoffs.
U.S. Schedule (2016-17)
Sept. 2, 2016 -- at St. Vincent & the Grenadines
Sept. 6, 2016 -- Trinidad & Tobago (in Jacksonville, Fla.)
Oct. 7, 2016 -- open
Oct. 11, 2016 -- open
Nov. 11, 2016 -- Hexagonal, Day 1
Nov. 15, 2016 -- Hexagonal, Day 2
March 24, 2017 -- Hexagonal, Day 3
March 28, 2017 -- Hexagonal, Day 4
June 9, 2017 -- Hexagonal, Day 5
June 13, 2017 -- Hexagonal, Day 6
July 9-30, 2017 -- Gold Cup
Sept. 1, 2017 -- Hexagonal, Day 7
Sept. 5, 2017 -- Hexagonal, Day 8
Oct. 6, 2017 -- Hexagonal, Day 9
Oct. 10, 2017 -- Hexagonal, Day 10
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