U.S. Men’s National Team: March 2015 Friendlies Preview

The national team plays two away friendlies this month, in Denmark and Switzerland. The current team will be without Clint Dempsey, who pulled a hamstring in training on Monday and was sent back to Seattle. Dempsey, who will not be replaced on the current U.S. squad, was one of eight players who were also called in for Klinsmann’s experimental January-camp roster. Some of those players—like Dempsey himself, Michael Bradley, and Jozy Altidore—are mainstays, while others—like Miguel Ibarra and Gyasi Zardes—have just a handful of games played with the senior national team.

The rest of the current roster also has something of an experimental, or anyway unfamiliar, quality.  Midfielder Danny Williams and defender Tim Ream are back in the picture after long national-team layoffs, and five out of the twenty-two players are looking for their first caps, including two dual Mexican-American citizens—goalkeeper William Yarbrough and defender Ventura Alvarado. And speaking of experimental: In a fit of prescience, in my last post I predicted that Brek Shea might be moved to left back on the USMNT, and he did play that position against Panama in the second January friendly, and is listed as a defender on this month's roster. The guess wasn’t a stretch, given the dearth of fullbacks on that January roster, but I did find it odd how few commentators discussed the possibility, at least those that I read and listened to in the days before the games.

Anyway, Shea is now playing left back for his club team down in Orlando as well as for the national team. Given his size and speed, I like the move and hope he settles into that important position. Whether or not he does, it will be difficult for any U.S. player to succeed DaMarcus Beasley in the role. Klinsmann has in my opinion made some poor decisions in his time as USMNT coach, but moving Beasley to left back for the 2014 World Cup cycle was a stroke of genius. And if Beasley continues to perform like he did for Houston last week against the LA Galaxy, we might be begging him to come out of national-team retirement come 2018.

Here’s what you need to know about today’s game, and the game next week.

U.S. vs. Denmark

Time: Wednesday, March 25, 3 p.m. ET

Place: NRGi Park, Aarhus, Denmark

TV Broadcasts: ESPN2, WatchESPN, UniMás and univisiondeportes.com

Current Denmark FIFA ranking: 28 (The U.S.’s current ranking is 32)

Player to watch: Christian Eriksen. Eriksen has twice been named the Danish football player of the year. In his first season with Tottenham Hotspur (2013-2014), he won that club’s player of the year award.

U.S. vs. Switzerland

Time: Tuesday, March 31, 12 p.m. ET

Place: Stadion Letzigrund; Zurich, Switzerland

TV Broadcasts: FOX Sports 1, UniMás, and UDN.

Current Switzerland FIFA ranking: 12

Player to watch: Xherdan Shaqiri. The 23-year-old plays his club soccer for Inter Milan, after having declined offers from multiple clubs in the English premier league. He scored a hat trick against Honduras in the 2014 World Cup.