A trip to familiar sites showed me that I'm not alone in wondering why the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) selected China for the opposition in an early June friendly. In his post on the subject, Brian of An American's View pointed to some of the practical concerns - notably, China prepares us for the Gold Cup and Copa America....how?
I'm not about to dispute that point here - not least because I agree with it - but do want to identify a potential silver lining, or even to paint it on if that proves necessary: the location, as in San Jose.
I'm just saying, when the people who organize club and/or country friendlies try places like Seattle, or more recently, Phoenix, Arizona, they're often trying to make a point - namely, see all these people showing up? Just think that you could have this 16 times a year* with an MLS club (* glossing over, for the moment, the reality that good U.S. national team games will always outdraw Major League Soccer's weekly attendance).
For the sake of the San Jose market, less-than-glamorous opposition aside, I hope this one's a blow-out, one big enough to separate useful people from their money and into league coffers.
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2 comments:
Yeah, I sorta figured it was a way to help the Earthquake faithful get interest going and we should expect to see a ton of Quake's jersey's, but I still am not sold on China.
No offense intended to China, but....how could you be? It'd be one thing if we played, say, Montserrat - playing a dire team would have a kind of charm to it. But some random, middling team from Asia?
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