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This is really the first time I’ve ever tried to be Voros McCracken Baseball Guy and Voros McCracken Soccer guy at the same time in public, so you’ll excuse me while I work out the kinks.

Tonight the US National Team plays arguably its first really meaningful game since the 2006 World Cup. Head Coach Piotr Nowak has named his twenty man roster for Olympic Qualifying and the team takes on Cuba in its first match tonight at 8pm ET (5pm VST) in Tampa. The game will be broadcast on Fox Soccer Channel and ESPN Deportes. There might be internet streams out there too.

The U.S. team looks pretty strong. The midfield looks very talented, and Freddy Adu and Jozy Altidore make for a formidable pair of attackers. The defense is (predictably) not nearly as solid, and it looks like Nowak is leaning toward playing Maurice Edu (a midfielder) in defense in an effort to get his best players out there. Chris Seitz had a great U-20 tournament last year until he got hurt, so the U.S. should be it’s usual strong self in goal.

The big problem the U.S. faces is again the asinine format. The U.S. failed to qualify last time around because the format was such that the U.S. won all three of its group games and as a reward got to play Mexico in Guadalajara in a winner take all match. It returns again this time, though I suppose it’s better (for us anyway) that the game will be played in the states. The U.S. is probably in the tougher of the two groups this time. I suspect Mexico will win theirs, so it’s important for the U.S. to also win its group to avoid them in the winner take all game.