For most of us, the Qatar World Cup kicks off in six months. But for the U.S. men’s national team, that time is going to pass by a bit differently. In some ways, from the perspective of American coaches and players, the tournament might seem like it’s only about four weeks away. That’s approximately how much time they have remaining to work together and prepare.
The clock starts ticking at the end of this month, when the U.S. will gather in Cincinnati to train and get ready for the first of four games across 14 days. The Americans will face fellow World Cup qualifiers Morocco (June 1) and Uruguay (June 5 in Kansas City, Kan.) in friendlies, then take on Grenada (June 10 in Austin, Texas) and El Salvador (June 14 in San Salvador) in Concacaf Nations League play. And then that’ll be it before two more friendlies toward the end of September, likely to be contested in Europe against non-UEFA opponents, round out the schedule.
That brief runway means that there’s not much time for revision or revolution in the U.S. player pool, and that the team coach Gregg Berhalter will bring to Qatar has already begun to take shape (barring injury).
