USA to open 2012 against Venezuela, Panama

USA will play friendlies in January against Venezuela and Panama as they gear up for their 2014 FIFA World Cup™ qualifying campaign. They will host Venezuela in Phoenix, Arizona on 21 January before playing Panama in Panama City four days later. It will be the first ever friendly between the North, Central America and Caribbean region rivals. "It's very important that we start the year off in the right way with a good training camp and two challenging games," said USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann. "We are going to continue to increase the demands on the players and have them develop a better understanding of how we want to play. "Venezuela has done well to start World Cup qualifying and they earned a big victory against Argentina. Panama is a team the players know well from the Gold Cup, and we think traveling to Central America before qualifying is important to give them a taste of what the environment will be like there." USA have been drawn into Group A of qualifying round three for the FIFA World Cup along with Jamaica, Guatemala, and Antigua and Barbuda. Panama dominated their group in the second round to progress, and will play in Group C with Honduras, Cuba and Canada.