USA vs. Germany match thread: The women begin the post-Pia era

The United States is still the top ranked team in the world and while Japan has a good shout to be No. 2, FIFA tells us that Germany are the second-best team in the world. That makes today's match-up THE BIG GAME! Well, it's as big as a friendly can be years away from a major tournament in which one team doesn't have a manager.

That's right, today begins the post-Pia Sundhage era. She is on her way back to Sweden and the U.S. has yet to hire a successor so Jill Ellis will lead the team today as the interim manager. It will be odd to see the Americans without Pia jumping and clapping on the sideline, but it is something we'll have to get used to.

It would also be cool if we could get used to thousands of fans at these matches. That has been the case ever since the U.S. returned from London with Olympic gold and it will be the case again today as over 20,000 are expected at Toyota Park in the Chicago suburb of Bridgeview.

It's still a friendly and still not time to prepare for a major tournament, but anytime the top two teams in the world square off it is pretty cool so tune to Fox Soccer Channel, watch and join in the comments below. It's post-Pia time.

United States (4-4-2): Solo; Mitts, Buehler, Rampone, O'Hara; Rapinoe, Boxx, Cheney, Heath; Wambach, Morgan