After last week’s defeat against England, the U.S. is ready to get back on the field against fourth-ranked Spain this Wednesday, June 4. The team arrived in Santander last Thursday, and has been training just outside the city during the buildup to this week’s match. All 17 European-based players from the England squad traveled to Spain with the team, though defender Jonathan Spector has since withdrawn due to injury, while the MLS contingent arrived after this weekend’s games. The match will be shown live exclusively on espn360.com at 4 p.m. ET, and broadcast on tape delay on ESPN2 at 5:30 p.m. ET and Galavision at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
Quick Hits
- Jonathan Spector (hip) has pulled out of the squad and Landon Donovan (groin) has also been left out due to injury.
- The U.S. has played Spain just twice in its history, and holds an 0-2-0 record against the country from the Iberian Peninsula.
- The first meeting between the two countries came in the 1950 World Cup in Brazil, with the U.S. going down 3-1 to the eventual fourth place finishers. The U.S. rebounded from the loss, and four days later would go on to beat England 1-0 in Belo Horizonte.
- Following Landon Donovan’s withdrawal from the lineup against England, Ricardo Clark remains the only U.S. player to have appeared in all four U.S. games this year, though with Clark not on the squad against Spain, his streak of appearances will end after Wednesday.
Hopefully the U.S. will put up a better effort against Spain than they did last week against England at Wembley. While U.S. soccer fans are not anticipating that the U.S. will win this game, the expectations are that we will at least be competitive and be able to keep some sort of possession.
This game is a warm-up for the U.S. ahead of its world cup qualifier against Barbados on June 15th. US Soccer is anticipating a sold-out Home Depot Center for the Barbados game and we have great tickets available.
