Spain Announces Euro 2008 Squad

Spain has named a squad of 23 players that will travel to the 2008 European Championships beginning in June. As preparation for the tournament, Spain will face off with the U.S. MNT on June 4 in Santander. Manager Luis Aragones has assembled a squad of significant star power, with Liverpool's Fernando Torres, Valencia's David Villa, Arsena's Cesc Fabregas, and Real Madrid's Iker Casillas leading the way for the Spanish side. Spain have been drawn into Group D of the Euros along with Russia, Greece and Sweden.

Check out the full squad here.

Teasers and England Squad

Well its going to be a busy month, and an exciting one for sure. Seems about as good a time as any to get the Blog rolling again so here is what we've got for you this week:

- In case you haven't seen them yet, here are a few teasers for an upcoming MNT commercial. The commercial was produced by frequent U.S. soccer collaborator Element 79, and was filmed during the MNT's most recent trip to Poland...





- This week Fabio Capello named a 31 man squad that will make up the roster for the May 28 game against the U.S. The names there are ones that you'd expect: Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney, Owen. There are also a few uncapped players too. Check out the whole roster here.

Until Next Time...

Well that just about wraps up our short blog outing from Krakow this week. It was a good win last night, behind a great team effort, and now the guys are heading their separate ways again.


Thanks for joining us throughout the week and be sure to check out ussoccer.com for the forthcoming highlights package. Oh, and next time you hear from us in May ...we'll be in London!

Live from Wisla Stadium!

8:30: Out come the teams to rapturous applause from the fans. They're lining up for the national anthems now (played by the marching band), and we're going to turn it over to matchtracker from here...we'll see you after the game!

8:25: You may notice from the sub sheet that Josh Wolff is now going by the name Jose Wolff. As you can see, he's really assimilated well into German culture while at 1860.

8:24: A marching band is out now. Looks like they're from the Polish army. The crowd is loving it. Did you know that this is the first friendly in Krakow in about a decade?

They're anouncing the names of the Polish players and here's how it goes: The anouncer says the first name of the player and the crowd responds by screaming the last name....Dariusz...DUDKA, Pawel...BROZEK, and so on. It ends with: Leo...BEENHAKKER...Leo...BEENHAKKER...Leo...BEENHAKKER

8:20: Wisla Stadium is one of the reserve venues (right now) for Euro 2012, which will be joint hosted by Poland and Ukraine. The stadium is set to under go an expansion project that will the capacity up to 35,000. Meanwhile, both teams have left the field at this point...kickoff in just a few minutes!

8:17: Tim Howard's heading back into the locker room now, suitably warm it seems. The rest of the guys are launching shots at Marcus - That ball can't feel too good on the hands right now. Unless of course they're already frozen ...

8:13: If you read the game notes, you'll know that this is one of the more experienced rosters that coach Bob Bradley has named during his time as MNT manager. Not one member of the squad is uncapped...

8:10: The stadium is packed to the gills now and there is lots of red and white. A bit of anthracite too. The house music is going again - this song just sampled Fox's NFL Sunday theme. Bizarre...

8:06:

8:03: There are a bunch of other international games tonight, but the one that means the most to the U.S. (other than this one of course) is the Barbados / Dominica game back in CONCACAF. The first leg finished 1-1, and now Barbados is looking to do the business on their home ground. The winner of that tie of course will face the U.S. in June in the first round of World Cup Qualifying... Big shout out to John Hackworth and Tim Mulqueen who are down there "scouting" that game...You guys suck. The MNT Blog's hands are beginning to freeze...

7:59: The U.S. is on the field now...





7:54: The Lineup for the U.S. is as follows:
----------------------Howard-----------------------
Cherundolo----Onyewu----Bocanegra (c)-------Pearce

Dempsey-----Clark---------Bradley---------Donovan

---------------Ching----------Johnson-------------

7:50: Update from field level: The visiting locker room at Wisla Stadium is insanely small! ..All the players are crammed into the locker room while the coaches are making due in the hallway. In the history of small visiting locker rooms (Panama, Costa Rica) this one is fighting for least amount of square feet...

7:45: Poland is out on the field now. They make their entrance to the theme from Pirates of the Carribbean...In the meantime, Marcus Hahnemann and Tim Howard have come on to the pitch. The MNT Blog wonders what music Marcus would like to enter the field to if he could choose...we'll have to ask him...



7:43: Need some reading material before kickoff? Check out today's game notes... The ballads keep coming btw. If the MNT Blog wasn't so emotionally hardened by weeks of travel, it would be shedding a tear for this slow-rocking goodness...

7:40: Out come the Polish goalkeepers, the crowd is thrilled...they're chanting the name of Artur Boruc - #1 for both Celtic and his country...

7:37: The MNT blog has sent a runner to investigate the lineup situation, so we'll be sure to report when we hear something. A newspaper article came out today in Krakow talking about the demand for tickets for this game - Simply put its huge. People waited in lines for 8 hours to get tickets for this match, which is Poland's last friendly before manager Leo Beenhhaker names the Poland squad to go to Euro 2008...

7:33: Already the stadium is rocking. Far from the traditional fare of R-O-C-K in the USA, Wisla Stadium is blaring some house music to get the fans going. People are already chanting and the stadium is loud - even though there's still about an hour until kickoff....Now the PA has switched pace a little bit, a classic rock ballad is on.

7:30: We're coming to you live from Wisla Stadium! The team just arrived about 15 minutes ago and the MNT blog is settled in in the press tribune. Its a bit chilly, but all things considered, its a great night for soccer - no snow yet...

NEW DUDS

Tonight's match against Poland will be the debut of the new Nike away jersey for the MNT, following the unveiling of the white strip against Mexico on Feb. 6 in Houston. The U.S. will be decked out in colors that are officially called 'anthracite' (although we're guessing the official match report is going to say 'grey'), which is definitely an inventive step.

To get a glimpse of the new kit, click here. Heck, you can even buy one!

Early Show

At breakfast this morning, those of us at the coaches' table huddled around a computer to watch part of Yeux Dans Les Bleus. The film follows the France national team during the 1998 World Cup and gives an up close look at Aime Jacquet's championship winning squad as they move through the tournament. All the stars are there: Barthez, Zidane, Henry, Deschamps, Desailly, etc., and the movie is generally really well done. If not for laptop battery life, the audience at the table could have probably watched all 140 minutes ... The whole movie is posted online too, so enjoy!

2nd Training: Wisla Krakow

Today the team trained at Wisla Stadium, home of Wisla Krakow. Wisla Krakow last won the league in 2005, though they're on pace to replicate that feat this season. The ground is the site of tomorrow night's game. Its a compact arena and should create a great atmosphere for the match - tickets for which sold out in three hours we're told.

As you can probably notice from the pictures: it was snowing! The weather was pretty crazy, and in fact for most of the day it was quite sunny. Right as we drove to training, however, the flurries started and it got to be a bit of a blizzard out there. The snow eventually stopped, (and the sun even came back out) though there is some rain in the forecast for tomorrow night...

Update: The MNT Blog just looked outside to discover that there's a nice layer of snow on the ground...