Tampa Press Beating the Grass

The USSF has yet to officially announce the match between the USMNT and the Ecuadorian national Team, but the Tampa press is sure getting the word out about the match. I am guessing that if we don't hear about this match during the USA vs. Demark match on Saturday, the latest they will wait to announce it and put the tickets up for sale will be the match against Mexico. Any later they risk cutting out a lot of out of town supporters who won't have time to get their travel and vacation time arranged.

As of right now, the USSF has the following schedule setup:

January 20th - vs. Denmark
February 7th - vs. Mexico
March 25th - vs. Ecuador
March 28th - vs. Guatemala

Taking these four matches as they are, this is really not that bad of a build up to the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the Copa America. Two of the four teams will be taking part in the Gold Cup (Mexico & Guatemala) and two of the teams are taking part in the Copa America (Mexico & Ecuador). So playing these three teams helps the build up for these two tournaments.

There are rumors that as Ireland are scheduling to face Ecuador in the NYC area in late May, the USSF might schedule a match against Ireland as well around that time. Adding Ireland to this list is good, but I would have hoped for a match against another CONMEBOL team, as playing Ireland differs greatly from playing Chile or Peru. FIFA has June 2nd set aside for official matches, so maybe the USSF can pony up some cash to invite Columbia or Chile or Brazil to make a stop over in the USA?