USMNT Completes June Schedule By Booking Uruguay Friendly

The U.S. men’s national team’s June window is fully booked, with a date against World Cup-bound Uruguay the final piece of the puzzle.

The window, which is the penultimate gathering for the U.S. prior to the start of the World Cup in November, will comprise two friendlies and two Concacaf Nations League group games. It opens June 1 in Cincinnati against another World Cup-bound squad, 24th-ranked Morocco, before heading south to Kansas City, Kan., where the U.S. and La Celeste will meet at Sporting Kansas City’s Children’s Mercy Park on June 5.

Uruguay is the 13th-ranked team in the world—two places higher than the U.S. in the most recent FIFA ranking, which was used to determine the pots for the World Cup draw—and won its last four World Cup qualifiers to surge into a place in Qatar after Diego Alonso replaced longtime manager Óscar Tabárez. Some of Tabárez’s stalwart figures still remain, though, with Luis Suárez and Edinson Cavani among five players with over 100 caps still in the picture. The matchup comes as little surprise, with Uruguay already in the U.S. to face Mexico in Arizona three days prior to meeting Gregg Berhalter’s side. The two teams have met just twice in the last 20 years, with the U.S. winning a 2002 friendly 2–1 (current U.S. Soccer sporting director Earnie Stewart and USMNT general manager Brian McBride started), while the two played to a 1–1 friendly draw in Sept. 2019.

“We’re looking forward to facing another high-level opponent that is also preparing for the World Cup. Uruguay has some world-class talent and is one of the top teams in South America,” Berhalter said in a statement. “These are the kinds of opportunities we need to continue to grow as a group and set ourselves up to be successful in Qatar.”

The degree of difficulty should dip for the subsequent two matches for the U.S. in the June window. The first comes against 170th-ranked Grenada in Austin, Texas, to open the U.S.’s Nations League title defense, and it’s followed by a trip to face 74th-ranked El Salvador. Given the scarcity of international windows before the World Cup, it’s expected that a first-choice group will be called in, but just who of that group is available remains to be seen. Gio Reyna, Sergiño Dest and Chris Richards are all recovering from injuries, while Weston McKennie has yet to return from injury for Juventus and goalkeeper Matt Turner has yet to play this MLS season after suffering a foot injury.

The U.S. has one more camp after the summer, in September, and it’s been reported that the preference is for it to take place in Europe. The U.S. knows it will face England and Iran at the World Cup, but its first group opponent has not yet been determined. It will be one of Wales, Scotland and Ukraine, with the UEFA playoffs that will decide it taking place on June 1 and 5 while the U.S. is gathered in camp.