In their slow cross-continental march to the World Cup in Brazil, the United States men's national team takes another important step when they take on Turkey in the second of a three-game send-off and tune-up series on Sunday.
The task promises to be a good deal tougher than the Americans' first game of the summer against Azerbaijan in San Francisco last Tuesday. They pulled out an unsightly 2-0 win then, in conditions made practically unplayable by the famous swirling winds of Candlestick Park. Red Bull Arena in New Jersey should present no such problems. But then the opposition aren't no-name pushovers devoid of attacking ambitions either.
"With Turkey we have a team now on a very high level, a team that almost qualified [for the World Cup] as well with very good individual players," said head coach Jurgen Klinsmann on Friday. "Turkey is an unpredictable team; it's a team with a lot of individual skills in there. Good players that can make a difference in half a second. And they will challenge us. We wanted to start off [our pre-World Cup friendlies] kind of on an easy foot and now with Turkey we really have a benchmark that will really give us some insight of things."
In 2011, USA striker Jozy Altidore spent a six month spell with Bursaspor of the Turkish league, where he faced many of the players on this young Turkish side. "It's going to be a good team," he said. "It's a bit of an unknown, Turkey, but I've played there and they have very good technical players. They combine well, they like to go through the middle and they're also good on the counter. They have some quickness. I don't think it's going to be easy game at all."
That's just as well. Because at this stage, easy games won't serve the Americans, who are back at full strength now that captain Clint Dempsey has recovered from groin soreness. Following the clash with Turkey, just two weeks will remain until they kick-off their World Cup.
Part of the trick in arranging your pre-World Cup friendlies is to slowly ratchet up the intensity as you build towards the games that matter. But it's also to match your opponents to the styles of your group-stage foes without playing them directly. At the World Cup, the USA will play, in order, Ghana, Portugal and Germany in Group G. Of their tune-up games, the first opponents, the Azeris, had some use to the Americans because they have often played Germany in World Cup and Euro qualifying and the third, Nigeria, whom they will play in Jacksonville, Fla. on June 7, bear a close resemblance to Ghana.
But Klinsmann downplayed Turkey's likeness to Portugal, even if you could argue that their aggressive counter-attacking wing play up to a target man, backed up by a strong block of central midfield distributors, makes for a close facsimile. "We looked for a European team that is strong and challenges us," said Klinsmann. "Turkey is not similar to Portugal because I think you can't imitate Portugal because you can't find a second Cristiano Ronaldo [the reigning world player of the year] out there. But it's a team that definitely gives us a very, very good game."
Certainly, playmaker Nuri Sahin, striker Mevlut Erdinc and winger Arda Turan -- who diced up the American defense in a tune-up game before the last World Cup -- are of an elite caliber. But the question has nevertheless been asked if the Americans have booked a soft slate of opponents to get them ready for Brazil, considering that the likes of England, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Ivory Coast are also preparing stateside.
"Like every team has qualified for the World Cup you try to find the best teams that suit you," said Klinsmann. "But it's not that easy anymore. Some of the teams that we contacted right away that we wanted to play, I felt they backed off and said, 'No, not really the US team.' It has to do a little bit with our results over the last two years. It's getting more and more difficult for us to play certain teams." Since February 2012, the USA has beaten Italy, Mexico and the Bosnians on their home soil.
Still, Turkey demonstrated in a friendly with Honduras on Thursday that they will challenge the USA where it's most needed: in defense. The American back line is a work in progress, cobbled together from disparate pieces who have spent limited time playing together. Unlike Azerbaijan, Turkey will try to punch holes into it. And how the defense holds up will go some way in determining the outcome.
The final score doesn't worry Klinsmann much though. "We're not worried about the result even if we would have a negative result -- not in these preparation games," he said. "We would take it the right way, that's part of it, even if we obviously want to win this game."
The real purpose is to breed sharpness. "We need games that really keep us on our toes," Klinsmann said. "Especially for our backline that challenges them not to lose focus even for one moment. Otherwise you get punished and that costs you badly. Especially when you go into Brazil you have to minimize all the mistakes."
Turkey will tempt the Americans into making those mistakes. And the avoidance thereof is the main objective on Sunday. Claiming another win would be a welcome side-effect.
