The United States is less than a week away from opening the Copa America Centenario, making today's match against Bolivia an important final tune-up. Earlier this week, the USMNT managed to beat a pretty solid Ecuador 1-0 thanks to some lineup changes in the second half that have been long overdue. It certainly wasn't a perfect outing - the first half was more or less unwatchable - but the final 30 minutes or so in particular were encouraging.
That's a rare feeling around the USMNT these days, and one hopes Jurgen Klinsmann's group can build on it today against Bolivia. It's been a rough few years for Bolivia, who have finished 9th out of 10 teams in each of the last two CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying cycles. They're in that same spot in this cycle too, with just one win from seven games. In the past, Bolivia had a solid handful of players scattered across CONMEBOL's domestic leagues, but 18 of their 23-man Copa squad comes from the Bolivian league.
For the US, anything less than a win is probably going to be seen as a failure. However, the more important thing long-term is that we see some evidence that Klinsmann is starting - finally, after 6+ years - to figure out what his best team looks like. There was some progress towards that end against Ecuador, with the Jermaine Jones - Michael Bradley - Darlington Nagbe midfield trio in particular looking like a smart choice going forward. However, we've seen Klinsmann put together an intriguing group where the best players are on the field in roles that make sense only to scrap the concept after one friendly, or even after a mere few minutes.
Location: Children's Mercy Park (Kansas City, KS)
Kick-off time: 8:00pm Eastern
Available TV: Fox Sports 1 (English), UniMas (Spanish), Univision Deportes (Spanish)
Available streaming: Fox Sports Go (English), Fox Soccer 2Go (English), Univision Deportes app (Spanish)
For listings in other countries, check out LiveSoccerTV.com.
Treat this as tonight's gamethread.