2012 International Friendlies: Brazil, England, Argentina Among Those In Action

The opening goal came by way of Christian Benteke in the 20th minute. Even though the opportunity itself was a bit lucky, but there was nothing lucky about the finish. The ball fell to Benteke on a big deflection, but he took a brilliant first touch, than an even better second touch to beat his defender before powering a great finish into the net from 10 yards.

International friendlies right before the start of the European club season should probably not be a thing, but at least Holland and Belgium made this one fun.

Laird James McCullen Destro XXIV, I mean, Mattia Destro looked dangerous on a couple long ball over the top of the English defense. Fortunately for Hodgsen’s men, he wasn’t able to handle the first ball and the second one, despite a fantastic first touch to corral it, was wasted with a rushed shot.

Despite the goals, it wasn’t the most of enthralling halves of soccer you’ll ever see...at least not enough to keep this guy awake.

Netherlands lineup (4-3-3): Stekelenburg; Willems, Heitinga, Mathijsen, van Rhijn ; De Jong, van der Vaart Sneijder; Robben, Huntelaar, Narsingh

Belgium Lineup (4-2-3-1): Courtois; Verthongen, van Buyten, Vermaelen, Gillet; Defour, Witsel; Hazard, Chadli, Benteke; Mirallas

Sweden (4-2-3-1): Isaksson; S. Larsson, Granqvist, J. Olsson, Safari; Holmén, Wernbloom; Elm, Toivonen, Wilhemsson; Berg

The match kicks at 2:00pm ET from Stockholm. You can watch it on GolTV in the United States.

Game Date/Time: Wednesday, 4:30 p.m. ET

Venue: Estadio Juan Ramón Loubriel, Bayamon, Puerto Rico

Defense is the biggest area of concern for the Oranje, and van Gaal will be depending on a couple of the uncapped youngsters he’s called in to become part of his regular squad, along with Jetro Willems, an 18-year-old who was shaky at Euro 2012.

Game Date/Time: Wednesday, 2:45 p.m. ET, 8:45 p.m. local

Australia, meanwhile, have two draws through two games in the final stage of AFC World Cup qualifying. They need to get their stuff together quickly.

Game Date/Time: Wednesday 3 p.m. ET, 8 p.m. local

Game Date/Time: Wednesday, 3 p.m. ET, 9 p.m. local

Venue: Grand Stade du Havre, La Havre, France

In the 2000’s it was heresy to miss a match between the two countries. They did not like each other, the matches were chippy, the fans were always intense and rarely was there not a good match. There was also the battle for the top spot in CONCACAF, adding stakes to every match between the two.

Now there is no doubt who the top team in CONCACAF is. Mexico looked like the better team after the 2010 World Cup and they made an emphatic statement that they were tops in the region when they thumped the U.S., 4-2, in last year’s Gold Cup final.

The Germans were also nice enough to put this friendly in the city with the ginormous airport that you can get to from anywhere in the world. for maximum convenience!

Game Date/Time: Wednesday, 2:45 p.m. ET, 8:45 p.m. local

For his part, Cesar Prandelli is improvising as well, giving his youngsters a chance to get a runout in a relatively high profile game. Italy have nothing to prove here, so -- hopefully -- they won’t be too focused on playing a defensive game.

Date/Time: Wednesday, August 15th. 7:45 PM BST (2:45 PM EST).

Game Date/Time: Wednesday, 2:00 p.m. ET, 8:00 p.m. local

Venue: Rasunda Stadium, Stockholm, Sweden