The Eve of the Friendly

On the eve of the USA-Poland friendly…

The Americans have something to prove. Going in at 3-0-1 with two shutouts, Team USA looks great on paper until closer examination reveals the opponents to have been Japan, Norway, Japan and Guatemala. No one can honestly consider the USA (currently tied at number six on the FIFA table) a paper tiger, but they’ve been tested little going into this World Cup. And then there’s that ugly 3-1 loss against the Poles in 2002…

On the other hand, Poland has much to prove. After the team’s poor showing in World Cup 2002, the aged squad has been injected with a little youth, and the team is now a bunch that the immortal Boniek recently described as a “hard working team without any major stars.” Goalkeeper Artur Boric (Celtic) has recently stated the team goal is to make amends for the 2002 group-bottom performance. Little positive can be reported about the team’s recent friendly loss to England 2-1.

Also a question mark is the Polish hope that the closely-located German sites will give the squad a near-home field advantage. Consider this friendly a test run of the local fan base.

USA defender Todd Donovant (Los Angeles Galaxy) is out and has not been replaced (c’mon, Coach Arena, you couldn’t have given Central Europe a glance at Freddy Adu?); the Poles are doubtless hoping that striker Grzegorz Rasiak (Southampton, recently of Tottenham Hotspur) will run free to stay on his recent hot streak.

The teams are 1-1-1 since 2002.