The United States will take on UEFA World Cup qualifying group winners Denmark in a November 18th friendly set for Aarhus. Denmark beat out strong competition, Hungary and Portugal among them, to punch their ticket to South Africa. They should be a good challenge for the US, particularly on the road.
The important business of scheduling friendlies after the qualification process has been completed is the next stage of preparation for next year's World Cup. As we saw in 2006, when Bruce Arena put his squad up against mediocre (or worse) competition, it's crucial to make the right choices; beating up on weaker nations did the Americans no good in the last cycle, and Bob Bradley appears to have learned the lesson.
Playing on the road, particularly in Europe where the United States has traditionally struggled, is always a sign that Bradley wants his team tested before next summer. I'll be interested to see who the follow up might be; rumors that the US is chasing a match with both Holland and England are floating around, and both of those sides would represent steps up from Denmark. That's the right way to go, playing increasingly better competition throughout the buildup to June, making sure that the players are giving it their all against traditionally solid countries. The impetus to play well and beat Denmark, England, and Holland is there without Bradley need to put extra motivation into the players. Part of Arena's problem in '06 is the the Americans likely saw their warm-up matches as glorified practices, important but not crucial.
Bradley's chosen well to start with Denmark. Friendlies aren't always the easiest to sell as important to professional players, especially those deeply embroiled in their club season; but the American clearly have built up some level of confidence this year, and Bradley should have less trouble convincing his charges that these matches are almost as important as the batch of qualifiers they had to go through to get themselves into the World Cup.
Also worth watching is whether American striker Jeremiah White, who plays alongside Benny Feilhaber at Aarhus, gets called up for the match at his club's home stadium.
