UPDATE:

US LINEUP

———————-Johnson———————-

———————-Donovan——————–

Beasley———————————Dempsey

————–Bradley——Mastroeni————–

Pearce—–Califf———-Onyewu—-Cherundolo

———————Howard——————–

No Freddy Adu in the starting lineup and Landon Donovan is getting his 100th cap. Thoughts? Leave a comment here or join us for the game chat over at the Third Half.
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Perhaps it is home cooking or simply the stature of the opponent, but it seems significantly more excitement is being generated by tonight’s US National Team friendly versus Argentina than by the previous two matches against England and Spain. The United States has failed miserably in both those matches to create an impression on the world football scene. England, who despite non qualification for Euro 2008 remains one of the five or ten most talented national squads on the planet ran the U.S. off the Wembley Stadium pitch. Spain, also supremely talented simply toyed with the United States for the entire 2nd half of Wednesday’s match. But today’s test is not only tougher than those, but is potentially much more important.

Argentina is the type of squad who can break down an opponent methodically from midfield. Facing a sophisticated side like this is much more useful preparation for qualifying than facing a simple, one dimensional side like England. A passable performance tonight can render the failures of the past week largely meaningless.

What lineup would our readers like to see versus Argentina? Here is my proposed Starting XI and potential second half subs in parenthesis.

—————————————————–Guzan——————————————————————

——Cherdundolo (Moor)———–DeMerit (Califf)————–Onyewu——————————–Pearce———–

————————————Edu—————————–Mastroeni———————————————–

Donovan (Dempsey)—————————————————————————Lewis (Beasley)—————

———————————————–Adu (Kljestan)—————————————————————–

——————————————–Johnson (Cooper)—————————————————————-

Tim Howard doesn’t need to play tonight although chances are Bob Bradley will start him and sub him out at halftime since he is back home in New Jersey.

Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey both need to be given the remainder of June off.