US Soccer: Friendlies with some bite!

The upcoming friendly with Italy in Genoa on the 29th of this month has naturally garnered much attention from my fellow Americans, since we as fans are always intrigued by these matches that give us the opportunity to see if our boys can play with the best in their own backyard, as seen with the France friendly last fall.

For American fans not able to take the time off  for a nice soccer themed, European vacation, a couple of tantalizing options have taken shape in the last few days.

Jürgen Klinsmann's men will be playing Scotland in Jacksonville, Florida on May 26th, which will be the U.S.'s first game in Jacksonville since 1999 (a 3-0 win over Germany, oddly enough). Scotland, who just missed out on the qualification playoffs for Euro 2012, could feasibly try out some new blood with an eye on giving the regulars a bit of a rest following the end of the European seasons. However, with their own World Cup qualifying campaign set to kick off in September, manager Craig Levein might try to make the most of a match against a quality opponent. Could Kris Boyd, Portland's new DP signing, feature for Scotland in this one?

Selfishly speaking, I'm looking forward to this match quite a bit, as the geography involved would make this one very accessible for me. If I go, I'm going to try to keep count with the number of kilts I see in the stands, though I might lose track of the number before long.

Four days on, the U.S. will travel to the D.C. area to take on Brazil at a FedEx field that will easily look quite yellow to the eye. Once again, it will interesting to see how many of Brazil's European based players are in the squad, but regardless of who is actually called up, this will be one hell of a test.

Another friendly against Canada at BMO Field in Toronto will follow on June 3rd, and then the real business of World Cup qualifying begins against Antigua in Tampa on June 8th. As it goes in soccer, there's always some tournament or qualifying coming up around the corner, isn't there?

So which of these games has you intrigued the most? Will you be making a road trip to watch the Yanks this summer?