USA/Belgium Friendly Scheduled

Neal, die-hard United States Men's National Team fan and recent admirer of the Belgian Red Devils is a happy man today. The Belgian Royal Football Association has on its website a friendly between the two countries scheduled for September 6, 2011.

Woohoo!! *Looking @ calendar* RT @jspitzberg: @nealjthurman wet dream! Official Belgian website US v Belgium on Sept. 6 http://bit.ly/jbsCxYless than a minute ago via yoono Favorite Retweet ReplyNeal Thurman
nealjthurman

It doesn't appear that the match is finalized yet as the US hasn't announced it, but this is certainly something to look forward to over that first, HIGHLY ANNOYING international break right after the Premier League season gets underway.

Belgium's Golden Generation?

Courtesy the Royal Belgian Football Association

At the same time I was contemplating the lack of a Brazilian super-duper-star at the peak of his powers, another thought related to a national team occurred to me.  It felt like I'd been hearing about a lot of Belgians either being very good players or being seriously high-end prospects.  For a country of just over 10 million people that is currently ranked 57th in the FIFA rankings you are left to wonder if they'll be the surprise package of Euro 2012 or WC2014.  What has me jumping on the bandwagon before Euro qualification has kicked into gear? Here's a quick look.

Great Spine
You often hear that you can't have a great team unless you are solid through the middle.  So how do the Belgians stack up down the middle? Let's take a look: