The U.S. men’s national soccer team plays a friendly against Ukraine at 2:00pm ET today, and U.S. Soccer Federation President Sunil Gulati said that the organization faced no overwhelming logistical hurdles in moving the match to Cyprus. The match, originally scheduled to be played in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, was moved to Larnaca, Cyprus, last week on the heels of strife in Ukraine. Gulati noted the U.S. team was always going to train in Frankfurt, Germany, before the game, which it was still able to do. He added Cyprus’ football association “has been fantastic” with respect to making last-minute accommodations.
While Gulati admitted the match, which will be broadcast on ESPN2, comes after “a very difficult two weeks,” he noted things have been much more difficult for the Ukrainian people as opposed to those merely preparing for a soccer match. Gulati: “For us, it’s an important preparation match … but it pales in comparison in importance to the things that are going on in Ukraine.” He added, “We’ve just had to deal with the potential of whether a soccer game is going to be played and where.”
