At a press conference in L.A., national team coach Bob Bradley announced that the U.S. would play Sweden again in an international friendly at the beginning of next year. The match will take place on Jan. 19 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., home of the L.A. Galaxy and Chivas USA. Bradley said the training camp before the international would be made up of mostly MLS-based players because it falls in the middle of the European season.
However, the U.S. coach confirmed that he would be calling up Europe-based players for the match. “Our time with the European-based players will be very limited. We have a couple games scheduled in the early part of the year, and we will be focusing on getting the players fit and making sure they understand what is expected of them.” Bradley said the Sweden friendly would be good preparation for World Cup qualifying, which begins next summer, adding that Landon Donovan, Tim Howard, Carlos Bocanegra, Oguchi Onyewu, Steve Cherundolo, DaMarcus Beasley and Clint Dempsey would make up the core of his team for qualifying.
Separately, Bradley addressed the issue of Villarreal’s Giuseppe Rossi, who has dual citizenship with the U.S. and Italy. He said the 20-year-old New Jersey native wants to play for Italy, but Bradley said he would continue trying to persuade him to play for the U.S.