The U.S. Men’s National Team will host the 16th-ranked Colombia at 7:30 p.m. ET on Oct. 11 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida.
Colombia is the fifth international team to take part in the USMNT’s six-match “Kickoff Series,” joining Mexico, Brazil, England, and Italy. The sixth opponent has yet to be announced.
The USMNT last defeated Colombia more than 10 years ago, a 3-0 shutout in March, 2005.
The tough six-match series is meant to provide the young, new look USMNT an opportunity to play against some of the world’s best teams. The hope is that the competition prepares the youthful side for next summer’s Gold Cup as well as World Cup 2022 qualification.
“As we continue to build into the next cycle, this will be another important experience for the development of this group,” U.S. Men’s National Team head coach Dave Sarachan said. “When you talk about exciting, technical and experienced opponents, Colombia ticks all the boxes. With players at some of the top clubs around the world, they are fast, physical and skillful.
The USMNT is a combined 25-77-23 (W-L-D) all-time against the Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, England, and Italy.
While many USMNT fans will be interested to see how the young team stacks up against some of the top competition in the world, new Men’s National Team General Manager Earnie Stewart cautions against looking too much into the results. Instead, he says it’s the experience that will be most valuable to the young players.
“We are at the beginning phase of building our identity,” he said. “These games are obviously huge challenges, and for young players it’s an opportunity to see the benchmark of some of the top teams in the world. We can use these experiences to learn about ourselves and take the next steps towards developing into the team we want to become.”
The USMNT’s next match is against five-time World Cup champions Brazil on Sept. 7 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
“The tough six-match series is meant to provide the young, new look USMNT an opportunity to play against some of the world’s best teams. The hope is that the competition prepares the youthful side for next summer’s Gold Cup as well as World Cup 2022 qualification.” some of us here think these games are a cash grab. i have a theory. the office people at ussoccer probably ANTICIPATED that the usmnt would qualify for russia this year, and SPENT THE MONEY IN ADVANCE. and then, when we (shock!) didn’t qualify last year, the office people at ussoccer were like, “oh snap, now what are we gonna do?” and then one of them said, “i have an idea. let’s arrange friendlies right after the wc with big name teams. that way, we can sell a lot of tickets and recoup some of the money that we lost.” and the others cheered, and the plan was put into action. and thus you see our fall lineup of games against top world class clubs. who SERIOUSLY believes that this fall schedule was designed with our young player’s development in mind? not i. and not several others of us who post here.
regardless, the best that we can hope for is A) sarachan continues, B) and under sarachan, the youth movement continues, and C) if these six opponents bring their own “kids” and make these friendlies like “play dates for our kids” (like when busy moms and dads arrange a time with their friends/neighbors to let their kids play together at the shopping mall play area for an hour), then actually it would be awesome and beneficial to ALL of the kids (theirs and ours).
if the youth movement in ussoccer is allowed to continue, we don’t need to artificially accelerate it. it will have it’s own natural timing. the kids will experience higher levels naturally as qualification for the next world cup in 2022 starts up, and also the olympics, and also fifa has youth world cups, and maybe next time the usa will qualify for the confederations cup, and who knows what other opportunities might pop up, like when the usa hosted the copa america centenario. and then of course, the 2022 world cup in qatar itself (are we really doing that??). i read this fall slate as a ussoccer cash grab, plain and simple. and we must do it, i assume ussocer needs the money. but we’re patient with our youth and we want what’s best for them, so we hope for sarachan to continue (he will treat them right) and after the fall slate, return back to the natural pace/flow of tournaments and qualifiers, that will be the right speed to let our kids develop, worry not.
If those 5 don’t bring their A squads then you might be able to expect a win or two or perhaps a few ties. What if the kids over achieve does Earnie consider Saracjan full time?I think that would be a mistake. Honestly I feel the Nats are better than most give them credit for. We were moving closer to being a top 16 squad given results in 2010 & 14 WC. Only issue I really see is a hunger lacking in the team along with better tactics. The right coach will find the guys who compliment each other. For me Hiddink would be a coach who would get the most out of our young core.
Hiddink retired from coaching when he left Chelsea and will be 75 at the next World Cup. Would far prefer some young blood. Agree with the rest of your comment though.
glove69, were you “here” when the usa had an identity under coach bruce arena? when crew stadium home games meant victory, when our team had a passion, an identifiable style of play, when mexico press billed landon donvan as “mexico’s most hated man” because of his ability to score against mexico, and “dos a cero” was a cornerstone of usa soccer fan pride?
were you “here” when jurgen klinnsman kept landon donovan off the world cup roster in brazil in 2014? and when jk attempted to impose his ideas on ussoccer, such as bascially saying that euro leagues are superior, mls is inferior, and us players should all play in europe, and basically he will favor us euro players over mls players for selection of his wc roster, this type of thing.
now, i respect – i truly do – that opinions vary. well, i was “here” when all of that happened. and this is how i feel about it all. I WANT AN AMERICAN COACH. I’M SICK AND TIRED OF FOREIGN COACHES COMING TO USSOCCER WHO DON’T UNDERSTAND USA PLAYERS, USA SOCCER CULTURE, OUR USA LEAGUE (MLS) AND OUR USA PASSION AND OUR USA STYLE OF PLAY.
ussoccer, at it’s best, is a dynamic, possessing, attacking kind of soccer, with speed that kills, mids that both create and destroy, set pieces that seemingly come from an nfl playbook and work nearly every time and baffle opponents, and goalkeepers that have athleticism and brains and courage and lead the build up out of the back in a very uniquely american confidence-building way. ussoccer, at it’s best, is an awesome thing to behold, do you know that? i’ll bet you know that, glove69. and i know that. the trouble is, NO FOREIGN COACH KNOWS THAT. foreign coaches just think, bleh, usa soccer is ten years behind, coach them but don’t set the bar too high. because THEY DON’T UNDERSTAND USSOCCER, THAT’S WHY, GLOVE69. that’s why we need an american coach in there. a greg berhalter or a jesse marsch. maybe a john hackworth, one day? or a brad friedel? one of these new, exciting usa coaches who are learned about the new tactics. and they feel like we feel. if the usa wins, they feel good. if the usa loses, they feel bad. they can’t just hop a jet back to the homeland and have some sauer kraut and a smiling happy day. (not trying to be mean.) they feel in their hearts the same way that you and i do. and they understand our passion, our soccer culture, our style of play, our american dreams. and that’s why we need an AMERICAN COACH. rome can hire mercenaries, but at the end of the day, only the romans fight worth a damn, because only the romans care about rome, the hired men were just there for the money.
Take your meds.
so what are you saying, panda? are you saying that there is no connection between a soccer nation and its fans and its soccer culture and its style of play and its coach? is that why i should take meds? because i think that these things are all connected to each other? and so therefore only an american coach can do this job? please explain, if you care to, your point of view.
Starting to wonder if USSF really is going to wait until the end of year to hire a coach. Could you imagine a new high profile coach starting off 0-6, because that is certainly possible given the teams we face. Not sure that is as helpful as some make it out to be either. I get these are friendlies and “don’t matter” but carrying a winless record into next year might have some lingering effects. On the other hand, we looked pretty good against the France team that went on to win the Cup, so who knows.
There is no way we are going to lose all 6 of those games especially with 4 at home. We should be favorites in a couple of them
I don’t care if we beat a single one of these teams as long as we play only our younger players. A loss now that fuels these players to get better only helps us in 2020 and 2022. Its not if you get knocked down it is that you get back up and fight.
Nice line-up of teams.