U.S. Men’s Olympic Soccer Team TV Schedule:

Aug. 7 vs. Japan Venue: Tianjin
MSNBC 4:55 a.m. ET
Universal HD 4:55 a.m. ET
NBC Olympic Soccer Channel 5 a.m. ET

Aug. 10 vs. Netherlands Venue: Tianjin
USA Network 7:30 a.m. ET
NBC Olympic Soccer Channel 7:30 a.m. ET

Aug. 13 vs. Nigeria Venue: Beijing (Workers’)
USA Network 5 a.m. ET
NBC Olympic Soccer Channel 5 a.m. ET

Predicted Lineup after the Jump…

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What do you do when you’ve finished training and want to make some money off a teammate?

Crossbar challenge naturally.

Via USSoccer

Lineups:
USA: 18-Brad Guzan; 2-Marvell Wynne, 15-Michael Parkhurst, 6-Maurice Edu, 3-Michael Orozco; 16-Sacha Kljestan (10-Benny Feilhaber, 46), 4-Michael Bradley (13-Patrick Ianni, 89), 11-Freddy Adu (5-Dax McCarty, 46), 7-Stuart Holden (8-Danny Szetela, 46); 17-Brian McBride (capt.) (14-Robbie Rogers, 46), 12-Jozy Altidore (9-Charlie Davies, 46)
Subs Not Used: 1-Chris Seitz
Head Coach: Peter Nowak

CIV: 1-Vincent de Paul Angban, 2-Serge Pascal Wawa, 3-Ousamane Viera Diarrassouba, 5-Brou Benjamin Angoua, 7-Kafoumba Coulibaly (6-Herve Kambou, 67), 8-Salomon Kalou, 9-Franck Dja-Djedje (17-Antoine N’Gossan, 46), 10-Koumatien Kone, 12-Mamadou Bagayoko, 14-Kouassi Gervai Yao (capt.), 18-Sekou Cisse (13-Abraham Guie Guie, 81)
Subs Not Used: 16-Fabrice Okous, 4-Nassa Guy Roland Niangbo, 11-Moura Komenan Anthony, 15-Tamla Ladij
Head Coach: Gerard Gili

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As my boy Ives already told you, US Olympic Team Head Coach Piotr Nowak has replaced Real Salt Lake’s Nathan Sturgis with FC Dallas’ Dax McCarty after Sturgis pulled his hamstring during training.

While we’ve seen Sturgis play primarily with Real Salt Lake in a holding midfielder role, Nowak used him (similar to Thomas Rongen in the Under-20 World Cup) as a Center-back and Left-back during the 2008 Concacaf Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

With McCarty (who I think would have been named initially if it weren’t for early MLS season injuries) occupying the deep, holding midfield role throughout that Qualifying Tournament, people will start to wonder why Nowak decided to replace a defender with a midfielder.

With everyone in the press already deciding that Nowak is going with an official 3-5-2 formation (one that he has yet to line up with), I personally tend to look a little closer at his roster.

Nowak knew that naming Sturgis to the initial Olympic Roster was going to be a risk because he’s been injured for a pretty significant amount of time, so I’m betting he was prepared for this to happen.

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Dan Frosch from the New York Times has a great read about New Mexico’s Edgar Castillo and his decision to play for Mexico instead of the United States.

What I liked seeing was the acknowledgment of US Soccer President Sunil Gulati and US Head Coach Bob Bradley that while they missed out on Castillo, they held on to San Luis’ Michael Orozco.

With former World Cup player /Colombian Wilmer Cabrera now filling the void of Hispanic Coaches in the younger US Soccer system as Head Coach of the US Under-17 National Team, along with former MLS Veterans Raul Diaz Arce and Marco Etcheverry involved with various US Youth Teams, hopefully we’ll see less and less players lost or passed over because of the lack of opportunities that Castillo had.

On a separate note, what does the success of Castillo and Orozco in Mexico say about the type of players that “America” is producing before they get to the college of MLS age groups.
image via NYTimes