The friendly between the US Men’s National Team and Slovakia, being played in Bratislava, Slovakia will be broadcast live on Fox Soccer Channel and Galavision beginning at 9:00 am.

After earning a place in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the U.S. Men’s National Team sets its sights on raising the bar for the World Cup in South Africa, which is now a mere seven months away. Despite 22 games and three international competitions under its belt, the U.S. isn’t slowing down on challenging itself, and that process continues on Nov. 14 with the match against fellow World Cup finalists Slovakia. Kickoff for the USA’s first ever meeting against Slovakia is set for 4 p.m. local time (10 a.m. ET), with live coverage from Tehelne Pole in Bratislava on Fox Soccer Channel and Galavision. Fans can also follow along on ussoccer.com’s MatchTracker or at twitter.com/ussoccer.

AND THEN ON TO DENMARK: The United States Men’s National Team will travel from Bratislava to Denmark to face fellow 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers Denmark on Wednesday, Nov. 18, in Aarhus. Kickoff at NRGi Park is set for 8:30 p.m. local time (2:30 p.m. ET), and the match will be broadcast live on the ESPN networks. Fans can also follow the match live via ussoccer.com’s MatchTracker and at www.twitter.com/ussoccer. The U.S. and Denmark have met five times in their history – never on Danish soil – and the teams have split the spoils with an even 1-1-3 record. In the teams’ last meeting on Jan. 20, 2007, at The Home Depot Center, both Jonathan Bornstein and Kenny Cooper scored in their national team debuts in helping the U.S. to a 3-1 victory. The match was also the first under Bradley, beginning his record-setting run of becoming the first coach in U.S. history to win his first three games in charge.

On a related note, I rarely point to Soccer America because I dislike their registration process on their website to say nothing of the fact that they have now begun inundating me with four emails a day, each of which begins with “your subscription expires today, please renew”. I’m making an exception however for the article on Landon Donovan, How Captain Donovan Revived The Galaxy. You’ll only get one chance to read it, assuming they don’t highjack you to a registration page immediately. The value of the article?

When asked how he’d transformed the Galaxy from a cesspool into a bonafide professional soccer team, Galaxy coach Bruce Arena started with the obvious: the best player America has ever produced yet still capable, by his own admission, of greater things, and often ridiculed and criticized for not attaining them.

Arena was unable to guide the Galaxy into the playoffs last year, despite Donovan leading the league with 20 goals and earning the Honda Player of the Year Award, named to the outstanding U.S. international, for a fifth time. Yet both Arena and U.S. coach Bob Bradley quietly and firmly advised him that his performance as a player and a leader still lacked something.

Even professionals need to know what their role on a team is, and it’s the personal challenges that they internalize that will drive them to great heights more than any amount of training. That doesn’t mean you can get by without training, it’s the exact opposite. Develop the player by helping them establish personal goals and challenges. Regardless of the level.