Puerto Rico to face European/World Champions La Roja

Looks like La Roja is at it again.  The European and World champions have traveled the world, their latest journey bringing them to the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico, where they will be looking to continue their celebrations.

While Vicente del Bosque's men are the first ever in history to win three consecutive titles, to underestimate their rivals would be a grave mistake, even if said nation is ranked 138^th in the world.

This match is arguably one of the largest in the history of Puerto Rican football.  A lot is at stake, the pressure to win considerably high, as the Caribbean nation will play host to the best team in the entire world.

In Case You Missed It: International Roundup – Norway vs. England

Norway 0-1 England

Roy Hodgson started his reign as England's manager with a 1-0 win.  Not bad, not bad, especially since this has been the first time England beat the Scandinavian side in 32 years.  It would be Ashley Young who scored the lone goal in this game, earning his seventh international goal after finishing a solo run.

Hodgson's side almost took the lead five minutes into the match.  Downing whipped a cross to Carroll at the near post, but the striker's header went wide.  The Liverpool man made his presence known and at the 8' minute mark, he passed the ball to Young, who went on a tremendous run, weaving past Norway's defense and fired the ball with a left-footed shot to the corner.

In Case You Missed It: International Roundup – Denmark v. Brasil

Denmark 1-3 Brasil

A young Brasil team pulled a 3-1 victory over Denmark, putting a damper on Olsen's Euro 2012 plans.  Hulk – yes, you read that correctly – led his team to victory, in spite of the frazzled start of the match.  The striker attacked twice in the first half and Denmark's Niki Zimling's own goal put the Seleção up 3-0.

In all fairness, the Danes were lackluster at the start, punished after just eight minutes thanks to the Brasilian Hulk.  Slick play from the São Paulo and Internacional opened up the game for the striker as he released a wicked dipping effort that caught Denmark's Sorensen off-guard.  Oscar looked for Hulk in the middle minutes later but his cross instead found Niki Zimling, who put it past his own keeper.

Del Bosque Announces Round-Up for Spain's Upcoming Friendlies

La Roja coach Vicente del Bosque announced the players he's tabbed for international duty in friendlies against Serbia and South Korea.  The list is a preliminary list – a first draft if you will – for the Eurocopa as players from FC Barcelona, Athletic Bilbao, and Chelsea are not yet available.

Below is the list of 21 players called up for the friendlies on May 26 (Serbia) and May 30 (South Korea):

Roberto Soldado bags Hat Trick

In this week's International friendlies, Valencia players absolutely soared.  Five players in total participated with their respective national teams and all of them proved their quality.  To start, Mehmet Topal played the full 90 minutes in Turkey’s 2-1 loss against Slovakia.  Despite the result, Topal had a good game, and even though his efforts could not win the match, he was still stood-out as one of the better players in the Turkey squad.

Peru Draws with Tunisia

For the international break, Peru squared off against Tunisia away from home.  The Peruvians can return with a bit of good and bad from Africa after putting in some great work and some very silly mistakes.

The Peruvians’ passing game was on display for this match, and when they could secure possession, they did brilliant things with the ball.  Unfortunately, their passing and attacking flair really didn’t produce much.  As is very typical with these types of games, the buildup play is excellent, but the finishing touch just isn’t there.  Early in the game, Peru dominated the match but poor finishing from Paolo Guerrero saw the score sit at 0-0.  The final ball just could not find the Peruvian strikers, and the game started to cool down.  That’s when Tunisia turned on— their physicality in midfield was certainly felt by the Peruvians.  It was the classic conflict of flair versus brute force, and the game swayed back and forth as neither side could exert their philosophy to the fullest.

Spain Enjoys Goal Party in Málaga Against Venezuela

It was an electrifying night at the Rosaleda as Spain took on South American opponents, Venezuela.  The last time Spain played in Málaga was a little over four years ago on February 5, 2008.  In their last meeting, la Roja won 3-nil over their opponents all thanks to well-placed strikes from David Villa.  Unfortunately for the current world champions, Villa was still undergoing rehab for a broken leg and unfit for call-up.

Venezuela's Salomon Rondon gave Spain a near scare early on, forcing Iker Casillas to make an early say.  The home side was denied a goal at the 6' when Sergio Ramos's header hit the crossbar.  It would be Andrés Iniesta who opened up the score sheet at the 37' mark with a well-paced, right-footed shot to the bottom right corner, fellow Barcelona player Cesc Fabregas at the assist.  David Silva upped the score 2-nil at the 40' with a left-footed shot to the bottom left corner from 20 yards out.  It was Fabregas yet again at the assist, this time with a nonchalant backheel.

In Case You Missed It... It's International Week: Wednesday Recap

This Wednesday was riddled with international friendlies and the Asia World Cup Qualifiers.  Matches started as early as 1AM on the East Coast and continued throughout the day.  Understandably, not all matches aired in the United States.  But that is what we at Focus Football are here for.  If you missed a match due to scheduling conflicts or because there was another match on or you simply just forgot, we got you covered!

Poland and Portugal Draw in Warsaw

Portugal faced Poland in an international friendly Wednesday night in Warsaw, Poland with both sides playing their last scheduled friendlies before Euro 2012. Within the first 15 minutes of the match, Portugal’s forward, Nani, had 3 attempted goals applying pressure to Poland’s side. At the 20th minute, there was a delay in the game due to an injury of Portugal’s defender,  Fabio Coentrão, and could not continue on playing in the match. After Coentrão’s departure, the game took a feisty route with 3 fouls by midfielder, Raul Meireles . During the rest of the first half, both sides tried to score but could not pull through. A mistake by Portugal in the 43rd minute, almost resulted in a goal for Poland, but thankfully the shot went wide. At the 45th minute mark, Nani’s right footed shot side from the right side goes wide to the left, which was assisted by Real Madrid’s and crowd favorite, Cristiano Ronaldo. The attempted shot by  Manchester United’s Nani was the last effort for a goal for the first half and ended in 0-0.

A Historic Win: Clint Dempsey Seals America’s First Win Against Italy

The US National Team made history in Genoa, beating Italy for the first time, 1-0, in an international friendly on Wednesday.

The Americans arrived the underdogs, facing calcio giants Italy and failing to win any of the last 10 meet-ups between the teams. The underdogs had an advantage or two in ‘keeper Tim Howard, who has put in nothing but solid performances for both club and country, as well as in attacking midfielder Clint Dempsey, who has been undeniably on fire this season with Fulham, scoring 16 goals in all competitions thus far.