The U.S. men's national team will travel to Italy to face the 2006 World Cup winners in a tune-up for World Cup qualifying

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The United States men's national team will face Italy in a friendly match on Feb. 29, U.S. Soccer announced today.The match falls on the final FIFA international fixture date before World Cup qualifying commences in June, meaning head coach Jurgen Klinsmann can call on all his players.“Obviously we are very excited to be playing a team of such high quality,” said Klinsmann. “We are slowly trying to raise the bar for our team, and this is an awesome opportunity for the players to be challenged against one of the top teams in the world.”This will be the 11th encounter between the two teams and the fourth on Italian soil. They most recently faced off in the 2009 Confederations Cup in South Africa, with the Italians crusing to a 3-0 win. The teams also faced off in the 2006 World Cup group stage, with the showdown ending 1-1, providing the USA's lone point of the competition that the Italians went on to win. The U.S. has never beaten Italy with an 0-7-3 record against the azzurri.The game will be played at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris in Genoa, where Klinsmann played for Sampdoria during the 1997-98 Serie A campaign. He also had a very successful tenure in Italy with Inter from 1989 to 1992.The match is set to kick off at 2:30 p.m. ET and will be televised live on ESPN2.