USA to launch 2012 with January friendlies

The United States will play friendlies in January against Venezuela and Panama as they gear up for their 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign.

The United States will host Venezuela in Phoenix, Arizona, on January 21. Four days later they will play Panama in Panama City, the first ever friendly between the North and Central America and Caribbean region rivals.

The matches will be the culmination of the annual January training camp that is primarily composed of domestic-based players. The matches don't fall on international fixture dates.

The next official FIFA date for international competitions is February 29, 2012.

"It's very important that we start the year off in the right way with a good training camp and two challenging games," said US coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

"We are going to continue to increase the demands on the players and have them develop a better understanding of how we want to play.

"Venezuela has done well to start World Cup qualifying and they earned a big victory against Argentina. Panama is a team the players know well from the Gold Cup, and we think traveling to Central America before qualifying is important to give them a taste of what the environment will be like there."

The United States have been drawn into Group A of CONCACAF semi-final round qualifying for the World Cup along with Jamaica, Guatemala, and Antigua and Barbuda.

Panama dominated their group in the second round to reach the semi-finals and will play in Group C with Honduras, Cuba and Canada.