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Chicago • U.S. coach Jurgen Klinsmann intends to call a full complement of 30 players for his team's pre-World Cup training camp at Stanford University.
Klinsmann plans to announce his preliminary roster May 12, a day before it must be given to FIFA and two days before the training camp opens. He must submit a final 23-man roster to FIFA by June 2.
He said some players who are coming back from injuries need to be evaluated.
"For us coaches, it's really, really important to see every one of them in every training session, in scrimmages and over the stretch of 2½ weeks to be sure that we really have the right 23 … going into Brazil," he said in a video released Thursday by the U.S. Soccer Federation. "In soccer, it's a lot about the momentum. It's a lot about timing, and the players know that. So we are obviously very, very curious to see their performances in camp. But that way, we just want to make sure we cover all of our bases, as they say, and then have a good feeling about the 23."
Preparing for their seventh straight World Cup appearance, the Americans play exhibitions against Azerbaijan on May 27 at San Francisco; Turkey on June 1 at Harrison, New Jersey; and Nigeria on June 7 at Jacksonville, Florida.
They travel the following day to their base camp in Sao Paulo. At the World Cup they open against Ghana on June 16 at Natal, face Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal six days later in the Amazon rain forest city of Manaus and close the group stage against Germany on June 26 at Recife.
Sevilla, Benfica to meet in Europa final
The final of European soccer's No. 2 club tournament will be an all-Iberian matchup, just like in the Champions League.
Benfica and Sevilla will meet in the Europa League final at Turin on May 14, 10 days before Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid play in the Champions League final at Lisbon.
Sevilla advanced despite a 3-1 loss at Valencia on Thursday night. Bentica tied 0-0 at Juventus to advance on 2-1 aggregate.