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Columbus, KC, Seattle and Utah make the cut as USMNT announces home HEX venues

U.S fans

By IVES GALARCEP

There were no surprises among the four venues chosen to host the remaining home CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers for the USMNT, but it still had to be exciting news for U.S. fans eager to make their travel plans for this year’s most important matches.

U.S. Soccer announced all four host venues for the remaining four home qualifiers, with Columbus, Kansas City, Seattle and Sandy, Utah chosen to host HEX matches.

Here are the matches:

June 11th- vs. Panama in SEATTLE

June 18th- vs. Honduras in SANDY, Utah

Sept. 10th- vs. Mexico in COLUMBUS, Ohio

Oct. 11th- vs. Jamaica in KANSAS CITY

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U.S. Soccer also formally announced the USMNT’s friendly against Germany, which will be held on June 2nd at RFK Stadium.

What do you think of the selected venues? Which matches will you be going to? Which venue/market are you disappointed to not see make the cut?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Wow, who would have thought that living in remote-ass Montana would put me in relatively close proximity to three WCQ’s? Denver, SLC, and Seattle all within a ten-hour drive. This rules!

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  2. Columbus is an hour away for me, so i will be there. I will be taking my dad who is a world cup US soccer fan, hopefully an atmosphere like this will make him a much bigger supporter as it did for me when i went to Chicago for the USA vs Brazil game a few years back.

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    • It’s on US Soccer’s website. You might want to try pre-sales through American Outlaws or the local MLS supporter’s club though — better atmosphere.

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      • Does anyone know what the allotment for supporters groups are? Are there any concacaf rules regarding it? Would love to see it get to the point where a majority of the crowd are members of a supporters group. Great way to keep out opposong fans… or at least take more of their money

      • I do know any crew season ticket holder can buy 1 ticket to the mexico game for every season ticket package for the crew they bought.

    • This shows how much the center of gravity in US Soccer has shifted out west: Denver, Seattle, Salt Lake City, Kansas City and Columbus. 3 cycles ago it was Columbus, Foxboro (twice!), RFK, KC for the first time.

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      • Wait ’til all those Central American immigrants discover those cities, too. Then, we can start getting qualifiers back East again.

      • Some of you guys need geography lessons. Ohio is basically on the East coast. Maybe when the east coast has a plausible home advantage more will come.

  3. Shoot, Rio Tinto’s on a Tuesday, otherwise I’d consider making the trip from Denver.

    Oh well, guess I’ll just have to be content with my midfield, 3rd row seats tomorrow night!

    Jealous much?

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  4. Huge fan of KC and Seattle hosting. How has Sandy’s attendance/environment been when hosting in Utah for previous matches?

    I don’t recall.

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    • The only game there for a qualifier was in 2005 at the University of Utah and they had 40k plus. They will easily sell out a game at Rio Tinto.

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    • Will definitely be sold out. We have a pretty big Latino population in Utah though, so there will definitely be Honduras fans in the house. Hopefully not too many though.

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      • It can’t be any worst than the 2009 Chicago Honduras game. My ear drums are still healing from that Honduran crowd.

      • Ah yes. I was also at that game.

        The crowd was very civil and friendly, though. Unlike my experience of seeing an El Tri/USA game here.

      • First time going to a Mexico vs USA game. it was an away match for us Yanks at the rose bowl ….it was actually safer for my group of 5 to be surrounded by mexicans. compared to the large American Outlaws group which became an easy target for mexicans to throw shit (possibly literally) at them

  5. not listed but the Germany game at RFK? no disrespect to DC fans but can we not have the 100 year celebration game at the decrepit old RFK?

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    • It’s a testment to how decrepit US Soccer is. 😀 And hey, RFK may be a rat-and-racoon infested death trap literally falling apart, but it is OUR rat-and-racoon death trap, so back off.

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    • Speaking as a DC fan: No.

      It’s kinda perfect. The stadium might not even be around in another 4 years — to be replaced soccer-wise by a stadium with half the capacity. It’s a good way to say goodbye to the old gal.

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    • Out of respect to non-DC fans, Fed-Ex is much worst.

      RFK has character and a history, not $500 parking passes and a 10 mile walk to the stadium from your parking spot. So what if RFK is old, so are other great soccer stadiums in the world.

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      • ay homey i just took the metro when i was down there for usa v brazil last summer. not that being packed like sardines is that great but it aint cost me no half rack

  6. What do you guys think of the friendly vs Germany? To me it seems like an opportunity to kill and dash any confidence or momentum we have right before 2 extremely important wc qualifiers?

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  7. Aparrantly the game in Seattle will be played with capped attendance at 42,000 out of respect for the Mariners playing across the street later that day.

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  8. June 11. My daughter graduates high school. My son graduates middle school. It’s my wedding anniversary. And my in laws will be visting.

    If I can make the game in Seattle, I should be voted Fan of the Year!

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  9. I couldn’t be more excited! Living in Montana we don’t have many options to drive to different venues, now we can see two games in a week!

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    • Amen. I was planning on going to the game tomorrow, but had a Torts midterm scheduled. A few of my buddies are heading down to Denver as we speak. Glad to see I’ll have two opportunities this June to catch a game

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  10. What do you guys think of the friendly vs Germany? To me it seems like an opportunity to kill and dash any confidence or momentum we have right before 2 extremely important wc qualifiers

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  11. All seem like pretty logical choices. Mexico in Columbus was a given, and Seattle, Salt Lake and KC all deserve a game. Can’t argue with any of them.

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  12. Will the Seattle game be on fieldturf or a laid grass field? Because I’m not sure playing an athletic team on astroturf is wise. You nullify the technical advantages and create a fast track for your speed weaknesses.

    I’m also not a big fan of altitude home games in the offseason, it’s like you’re testing your offseason players’ fitness on purpose. I’d make the Hondurans travel a long way to someplace like NY.

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    • I left out the part where pallet grass surfaces are a soccer abomination, the ball does not play naturally.

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    • We can’t complain about bad fields in other countries now that we are forcing Panama to play in Seattle. That surface is awful.

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      • the surface has received the highest rating field turf can from fifa, it isnt terrible. stop the irrational hate. is it as good as grass? no but to compare it to the surfaces in central america is laughable

      • Yup, USSF are still stuffy to the idea of turf, whereas CONCACAF is not, same with a few other federations (Costa Rica, Russia, etc)

    • the federation is always looking for a good home field advantage…melting pot cities like nyc are always home to virtually any away team from concacaf….

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    • The field turf was replaced before this season and it is better now. I think the new field turf is much better than the laid down sod palettes. I remember Conor Casey ripping his Achilles and Casey Keller slipping on every goal kick when they played on the palettes that were laid down for one of the intn’l friendlies.

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  13. Im surprised that Philly didn’t get a WCQ, Gold Cup or a Friendly? Are they just not on the radar of US Soccer, another friendly to come, or just suffer from being so close to DC, Baltimore, and RBA?

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    • As far as WCQ’s, I suspect there’s a fear that there’d be too many away team fans … as big as Philly is, it’s a pretty big melting pot. As for Gold Cups, I think that’s more up to CONCACAF than USSF, but you’re probably right in that Philly’s closeness to the DC / Baltimore metro area probably is a hindrance. For Friendlies … all depends on the date of the game, the opponent, etc. … though being right on the East Coast (shorter flight to/from Europe) probably helps Philly in that regard … hopefully, we’ll see a USMNT WC tuneup friendly in Philly next year.

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  14. Finally a hex game in the northwest. I was at the last one against Costa Rica in Portland 16 YEARS AGO. The way things are goin we might need Tab Ramos again.

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