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Sandy • Three numbers to know for U.S. soccer fans for the men's national team's preparation for the next two World Cup qualifiers are this: 4,449, 5,164 and 7,382.

Those are the respective elevations of Sandy, Commerce City, Col., and Mexico City. Training the past week in the Denver suburb, then playing Saturday's 1-1 tie against Venezuela in a friendly at Rio Tinto Stadium, is all about preparing for Thursday's game back in Commerce City against Trinidad & Tobago before Sunday's game at rival Mexico.

"I think we were mentally and physically tired, it was pretty hot and it's pretty intense at this altitude as well," U.S. goalscorer Christian Pulisic said. "We're just getting used to it."

But Pulisic was still disappointed with the team's performance in the first half, saying "there's really no excuse for it."

U.S. captain Michael Bradley said when most teams in MLS visit Real Salt Lake, they come in the night before the game because when preparing to play at altitude, "you want to come in as late as possible, or you want to give yourself a solid week to 10 days to acclimatize. And obviously when we look ahead to Trinidad and to Mexico City, we would have given ourselves that good amount of the time."

Most of the U.S. players who had their European club seasons end about a month ago were training on their own before the camp started last week in Denver, which made it doubly tough to deal with elevation and increased training intensity.

"I was in Newcastle, then I was in LA, then I was in Seattle," said defender DeAndre Yedlin, whose final club game in England was May 7. "So I haven't been at altitude. But the staff have done a great job preparing us for it."

Club, country debate

The U.S. released its 40-man preliminary roster for the CONCACAF Gold Cup later this summer. Only four players who play in Europe are on the roster, and one of them — Pulisic — seems unlikely to be involved. For most of the players on the U.S. squad for the two World Cup qualifying games, the Gold Cup will be instead a chance to rest before preparations for their European club seasons.

Yedlin is a prime example with his club in England, Newcastle United, being promoted to the Premier League. He admitted after the game talking with both his national and club managers to make sure that he would be able to go to England in time for preseason rather than have a shortened summer of rest.

Around the world …

Saturday's friendly at Rio Tinto was not the only time the U.S. played Venezuela over the weekend. The countries faced off in the FIFA U-20 World Cup in South Korea on early Sunday morning, with Venezuela winning 2-1 in extra time.

Real Salt Lake's Brooks Lennon, Justen Glad and Danny Acosta played for the U.S., and will return to the club with the U.S. being eliminated.