The United States men's soccer team and the Czech Republic are playing a live friendly on Wednesday from Generali Arena in Prague and this comes after the World Cup 2014 tournament and Team USA is looking to stay sharp as they start a slate of games leading to Russia 2018 and Jozy Altidore will be leading the young team with Jurgen Klinsmann as the captain and the game starts at 2:15 pm ET live from NBC Sports Network and the NBCSN Live Extra website.
Altidore missed out on most of the World Cup with an injury and everyone wondered how good the team could have been with him in the lineup. Altidore was the one player that the US team could not afford to lose and obviously they lost him and now he comes back as the leader of the team and while the Russia World Cup is years away, the team has potential to keep building and they are going to look to get past where they were in Brazil and Altidore should be a big part of that.
The US won their game against Ghana is amazing fashion after the goal from John Brooks and all the subs and players brought by Jurgen ended up paying off, including Julian Green. The team had a heartbreaking draw with Portugal and that was one of the best games in the entire tournament and that came ahead of the game against Germany. The US was able to get the result they needed against Germany to advance and that allowed the team to get through. The United States eventually lost to Belgium in another exciting game and now they have plenty to build on heading into the next set.
This is the first game for the team after the World Cup and now the team has a stretch of games, starting up with the Czech Republic. Landon Donovan will be back with the team after announcing his retirement and he will have one last go in one of the friendlies and it comes after he was left off the squad in Brazil. The team has Ecuador later in October along with Honduras and then the team plays against Ireland in November.
Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando will be with the team and while the roster will have plenty of youth for this game, Altidore will be the elder statesman and there are just 10 players coming from the World Cup in Brazil for this matchup. The US has lost all three matchups with Czech Republic and now they are looking to get a solid performance here and some of the players with less experience will get the chance to get their feet wet. The Czech Republic has qualifying coming up for Euro 2016 and they will be looking to get in shape ahead of their match with the Netherlands next week.
The US has tons of potential and they are building for the future and while this is early in the process, Russia 2018 could be a huge tournament for the United states ahead of Qatar 2022.
Check here for the United States soccer team and the Czech Republic friendly on the schedule.
