USA v SPAIN - International Friendly coming to the US!

Fabulous news today, the Spanish National team will be coming to the East Coast of the US to play a friendly agains the US Men's National team. They will be playing June 4th in Foxboro, Massachusetts near Boston, at Gilette Stadium, the home of the New England Revolution.

Who knows if all the stars will be attending? No word yet on when tickets go on sale. We at Forza Futbol will keep you up-to-date with the latest news via twitter, facebook, our website, and podcast!

This will be a bit of a revenge match for La Furia Roja, as the USMNT broke their winning streak at the Confederation's cup in the summer of 2009 during the semifinals. (15 games wining streak, 35 games without a loss, was put to bed by the US.) Surprisngly, this is the first time that La Roja has played a match in the US against the red, white and blue!

This is a fantastic opportunity to see the World Cup champions in the flesh. The USMNT will be using this game as preparation for the upcoming Gold Cup tournament.

Are you going to the game? How will you be making your trek? Where will you be staying? We want to hear from you!

Update: One member of Forza Futbol will be going to Boston! Elisa! I have booked my flights, hotel, and car for a quick weekend of La Furia Roja love and USA spunk! Contact me! Let's meet up! Twitter: @eu_forzafutbol, facebook: medelliae (elisa forza futbol uranga), email: forza.futbol@yahoo.com!

NEWS FLASH Update: 4.14.2011 Club Seleccion TV and US Soccer are reporting that the game time will be at 4:30pm or 16:30pm EST, to ensure that it airs in Spain at a reasonable hour aka 22:30pm or 10:30pm CET (!!). Tickets are going on sale to the general public on Wednesday April 20th at 7am via ticketmaster. Tickets start at $40.00. The match will be televised on Univision and ESPN. Let's get this party started!!

UPDATE Apr.29.2011: Spain will play Venezuela on June 1st per the latest news from the RFEF. More details to come. Rumor has it that it will be in Maracaibo. 4 days AFTER the Champions League Final on May 28th. Sigh. Lots of travel for La Roja. Once again the RFEF plans to parade the team around as much as possible, regardless of the distance and travel. Oh well, part and parcel of being World Champions.

UPDATE MAY.20.2011: Both Spain and USA will have training sessions open to the public on Friday June 3rd. Prices start at $20. Check out US Soccer website for more details.

UPDATE May 25.2011: Spain announced their roster for the USA and Venezuela friendlies. Jesus Navas and Cesc Fabregas were not called due to injury. Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernandez were given a break as well. All in all a calvalcade of stars! Welcome to new boy Manu de Moral recently transferred to Sevilla, ex Getafe. Welcome back to Alvaro Negredo (Sevilla), Andoni Iraola (Athletic Bilbao) and Bruno Soriano (Villarreal) as well as the usual suspects aka World Champions!

You Can Make How Much Money Playing Soccer?

The Kaka and Ronaldo deals are good for soccer in the United States. The minimum salary in the NHL is $450,000, in the NFL $310,000, in the NBA $442,114  and in the MLB $390,000. In the MLS the minimum salary is $34,000. There is a huge difference between the lowest paid player in the MLB and the lowest paid player in the MLS. Players in the NHL, MLB and NFL do not need to have a second job so they can survive a professional athlete. In the MLS so called "professional" soccer players need to have a second job just to get by.

What does this all have to do with Kaka and Ronaldo? Your average 12 year old playing AYSO does not know you can make money and a very good living playing soccer. But you can, there is more money in soccer than in baseball, basketball, hockey and American football. But in the USA this is not well know to kids playing. Your average 12 year old is usually told you cannot make the same about of money you can playing other sports. Lots of kids stop playing soccer when they get to middle school and high school. But what if they didn't? What if they didn't give up soccer and kept with it instead of moving on to other sports such as baseball, football, basketball and hockey? How much better would our American born players be? Would we have more of a drive to stick with the sport and improve? I think so. Money turns heads, sports that can make you a millionaire turn heads. Instead of having those heads turn towards base, basketball, hockey and football how about more kids look toward soccer. I think it has started, I think as of the first week in June when ESPN and ESPN News were covering Real Madrid splashing the cash to sign Ricardo Kaka more people especially kids in the US payed attention. $94 million is a lot of money. Money that is now going to be turning more heads toward European soccer. $111,000,000 million is even more money being shown about on ESPN and other sports stations for Ronaldo. Those news wires and newspapers that never mention the sport are now talking about it causing the casual sport fan to think about a huge amount of money for a soccer player. Now you know kids, now you know that you can be a millionaire playing soccer.

A lot has been said over the years about soccer is un-American. I don't believe that. I believe soccer is American. I believe it becomes un-American when mommy and daddy don't think Johnny or Timmy will make them enough money for their retirement or Johnny isn't going to buy them a big enough house. Soccer is a sport where being the number one draft pick is not important but there are plenty of endorsement deals to be had. So money really isn't a problem. I think it's time to come up with another excuse why your kid should stop playing soccer and calling it a girls game won't work either because those women probably make more money than you do.

Maybe Johnny or Timmy will think twice before giving up soccer to go play basketball or baseball.

Confederations Cup: USA

The USA squad for the Confederations Cup has been announced. The United States are in Group B where they will be facing Italy, Brazil and Egypt.

How they got here: 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup Champions

Goalkeepers: Brad Guzan (Aston Villa, England), Tim Howard (Everton, England), Luis Robles (Kaiserslautern, Germany)

Defenders: Carlos Bocanegra (Rennes, France), Jonathan Bornstein (Chivas USA), Danny Califf (Midtjylland, Denmark), Jay DeMerit (Watford, England), Oguchi Onyewu (Standard Liege, Belgium), Heath Pearce (Hansa Rostock, Germany), Jonathan Spector (West Ham United, England), Marvell Wynne (Toronto FC)

Midfielders: Freddy Adu (AS Monaco, France), DaMarcus Beasley (Rangers, Scotland), Michael Bradley (Borussia Monchengladbach, Germany), Ricardo Clark (Houston Dynamo), Benny Feilhaber (Aarhus, Denmark), Sacha Kljestan (Chivas USA), Jose Francisco Torres (Pachuca, Mexico)

Forwards: Jozy Altidore (Villarreal, Spain), Conor Casey (Colorado Rapids), Charlie Davies (Hammarby, Sweden), Clint Dempsey (Fulham, England), Landon Donovan (Los Angeles Galaxy)

The United States are in the tougher of the two groups. I can only see the US going further in the competition if coach Bob Bradley trys some new tactics we have not yet seen. Players such as Adu and Torres need to be given a starting position and Landon Donovan needs to show he is America's best player.

For more on the US squad make sure to check out The Kartik Report and MLS Talk Podcast #87.

Come back tomorrow for more information on the Spanish squad.