Robbie Rogers handles the ball during a game last week in the ING Cup, a warm up for the Olympic Games.
Group play for the U.S. men's soccer team starts tomorrow morning at 5 a.m. local time when they take on Japan at the Tianjin Olympic Sport Stadium in Tianjin, China. (If you're crazy like me and want to watch live, it's on MSNBC.)
The United States is in Group B along with Japan, Nigeria and the Netherlands.
It's no secret that it's going to be a tough road ahead for team. If they hope to advance to the quarterfinals, they need to have a strong showing tomorrow against Japan because Nigeria and the Netherlands will provide solid competition.
Jeff Carlisle at ESPNSoccernet thinks our roster lacks depth at key positions, and I'm inclined to agree with him. We've got to hope none of our key players get injured or suspended.
You can check out pre-game quotes from the coach and select players here, courtesy of U.S. Soccer.
As for my predictions of how playing time will shake out for my Maryland guys, I'm thinking Mo will get the start. Robbie will come in off the bench, and Brad Guzan will play ahead of Seitz.
I plan to blog live during the game tomorrow morning (computer permitting, it's been crashing a lot lately). You can check back here at a decent hour of the morning for the breakdown of what you missed.
(Thanks to ussoccer.com for the photo!)
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