The United States national soccer team is in Pretoria, South Africa, getting ready for the Confederations Cup, an eight-nation event that is something of a preview of the 2010 World Cup, which also will be played in South Africa, and promises to provide the stiffest competition of the year for the Americans.

They are in Group B of the tournament with (drum roll) Italy (cymbal crash!) … Brazil (cymbal crash!) … and Egypt (rim shot!). They play Monday, Thursday and Sunday, with all three matches on ESPN or ESPN2.

I did a general preview for a soccer Web site (and you can read that here), but in the meantime I sent an e-mail to U.S. standout forward/midfielder Landon Donovan, asking for some opinions on the eve of the tournament.

He responded, but not quite in time for the Web site article. So here are my questions and Landon’s always-thoughtful responses:

How big an event is this tournament in South Africa?

This tournament is a very big deal in SA.  The people seem very excited about it.  Should be a good event.

You guys have an extremely challenging schedule. What is your take on it?

It’s challenging to play any 3 teams in a week, much less Italy, Brazil, and Egypt.  They all present different challenges in their styles of play.  The goal for us is to get something out of the first game.  We can worry about the other 2 afterwards.  If you lose the first game, you put yourself behind the 8 ball.

In the Greater Soccer World it is assumed Italy and Brazil will qualify out of your group for the semifinals.  Does that tick off the team? 

It doesn’t tick us off.  The reality is that Italy are the defending world champions and Brazil are known as one of the best teams in the world, if not the best.  And oh, by the way, Egypt are the African champions, which is no small feat.  We have nothing to lose and we are very excited about this opportunity.

How important are these games to the U.S. team? Like a World Cup qualifier? Something else?

These games don’t necessarily carry the weight of qualifying matches but they are very important to us.  We have proven ourselves over the years in CONCACAF but we have still struggled a little bit on the bigger stage.  This is an opportunity to prove ourselves.

What is a realistic goal for the U.S. team? 

The way I look at these games is as follows:  On any day, we feel like we are good enough to get results against any of the 3 teams we are playing.  Taken one game at a time, qualifying for the next round is realistic and that will be our goal.  When you look at the group as a whole, the task seems daunting.  However, individually, game by game, it is doable.