World Cup 2010: USA Adjust and Train In Rural South Africa
As USA fans know, the team landed in South Africa on Monday, and ever since then, the United States has been focusing on correcting the mistakes that were noticed during friendlies, all while keeping an eye on England and their progress. It must have been a relief for the USA team to touch down in South Africa, arriving at the venue for their great battle with some relief by getting away from all the turmoil they must have faced back home. After arriving on Monday, the team checked into their new digs at the Irene Country Lodge, located in a rural area north of Johannesburg and south of Pretoria.
In contrast to 2006, when the team stayed in the urban centre of Hamburg this year, the closest establishments include a dairy farm, a lake, and a country store. The weather was cool as the team began training on Tuesday – high with 60 Fahrenheit and night-time lows into the 40’s. The setting this time round is perfect for the players to meditate and prepare for the biggest event they’ve been a part of over a long time.
One of the major adjustments the team will have to make is getting acclimatised to the altitude as some regions of South Africa can reach 2,000-3,000 feet in elevation. The players claim that they do feel the difference in the air obviously with the altitude, but at the same time they think they’ve acclimated well, with last year at the Confederations Cup and this go around, some of the boys know what to expect. This is a great plus point as the team is able to focus better on this journey.
The team has plenty to accomplish before their last friendly against Australia on Saturday, including video reviews of their two most recent friendlies. After losing 4-2 to the Czech Republic recently, the team had a successful send-off to Africa, defeating Turkey 2-1 with a full-strength roster. Despite the win, there are certainly some kinks to straighten out, particularly in the back, where the defence has looked rather shaky of late. They will be working in training as a unit, and watching videos of what went wrong, and all of this is definitely extremely helpful. But it’s obviously going to take them some time to get used to playing with each other once again.
One player taking nothing for granted is midfielder DaMarcus Beasley, who, despite being just 28 years in age, will be playing in his third World Cup. After fighting through injury and sporadic playing time with his club team Rangers, Beasley looked to be on the outside of the national team picture at various points during the past year. He believes that a player needs to be mentally strong and believes that this is one area where his game has improved tremendously. Beasley had a tough year last year, and none of the USA fans would ever have expected him to show up this world cup, but he’s worked hard and deserved the chance he’s been given, lets just hope he proves himself worthy.
Beasley could start on June 12 against England in one of the most anticipated soccer games in recent memory. England named their final 23-man roster on Tuesday, which included the surprise omission of winger Theo Walcott. For now though, the team is focusing on improvement, while always keeping the Brits in the back of their minds. Fans are not sure if there is much of a reaction to the side they selected. The 30-man roster includes a range of very talented players, but it’s hard to tell what final eleven are they going to select for the game, and that's what's really important for the game.
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