The U.S. Men’s National Team will take the field one final time in 2020, with its final friendly taking place on home soil.
U.S. Soccer announced Sunday that Gregg Berhalter’s side will host Concacaf rivals El Salvador at Inter Miami Stadium on December 9th. It will be the USMNT’s fourth match of the calendar year and its first since a 6-2 friendly win over Panama in late mid-November.
“Playing against El Salvador gives us an opportunity to face a Concacaf opponent that we haven’t seen yet and will be a valuable experience,” Berhalter said. “We want to build on this year’s work while continuing to evaluate the player pool as we head into a busy 2021.”
In addition, a limit of 2,500 fans will be allowed at the match with the broadcast being shown on the ESPN Networks, UniMas, and TUDN.
The USMNT has been effected by the COVID-19 pandemic, playing only three matches to date. A 1-0 friendly win over Costa Rica in February was followed up by a scoreless draw with Wales this month before concluding with a 6-2 beatdown of Panama in Austria.
Several players made their senior debuts this month for the USMNT including Gio Reyna, Chris Richards, Yunus Musah, and Konrad De La Fuente.
December’s meeting will be the first between the two teams since the 2017 Concacaf Gold Cup quarterfinals, in which the USMNT won 2-0 thanks to goals from Omar Gonzalez and Eric Lichaj. The USMNT hold a 17-1-5 all-time advantage in the series dating back to 1977.
it’s a different idea but i don’t think he considered that the difference between january and december for camp cupcake is whether the players involved get rest. perhaps that’s mitigated by the short camp. at this point in history if you’re not in january camp you’d be in MLS camp anyway. the theory back in the day was this got people training for march games before MLS training started. MLS steadily pushed up in the year where it’s more like a choice. in some other year the shift might get you european age group players, mx players, euro based scandi players on winter break. this year it’s a little goofy because the schedule is so crowded and rest til january might be more advisable. you could fix that a little by erring young and experimental on the selection but my guess would be it’s similar to wales/panama — “core players” starting with experiments filling out the XI and bench. i would be glad to see some dual nationals get “soft locked” or “switched” but based on how he handled november this will primarily be an exercise in — for good or ill — giving the usual suspects their chance to rehabilitate themselves against a soft opponent. when what we really need is ruthless cutting of the most disappointing regulars who got shown up by the november people, and trying young players without much cap history to see if any have some soto ledezma nico musah stuff in them. giving bad regulars time is trying to convince yourself on a dumb idea which is unwise.
Im tired of these roll call posts of players nobody’s ever heard of. I dont trust GB and think he will field as many retreads as possible. Including that horrible goalie Brad Guzan who is over the hill as much as Bradley …. whom I also expect
Well I guess that means Daniel Lovitz is available.
Will it be all Euro or Mls squad
It’s all MLS it’s not a FIFA window.
Saucedo was invited but Pumas advances in the playoffs so he will not be available.
it’s not an international date so no european first team players. if they have common sense to avoid the pandemic then no european age groupers either — even though they had started to be included in the january camps. i will be curious if anyone mx — playoff time there so some may be off, though travel is a risk. no one off columbus or NER the eastern finalists. the west is still playing and so primarily eliminated teams. i’ll be curious if they name the team before the quarters finish or if they add western quarter losers later or leave them off.
Vamos!! I want to see Efrain Alvarez play in a USMNT jersey!
I am with you. Welcome home Efrain 😉
We agree on Efra. I’m interested to see how he develops under a new manager at LAG.
i am glad we seem to belatedly be back in the business of fighting for dual nationals
i think he specifically would have to file a switch and get it quickly accepted to actually play
If Gregg uses this game wisely; calling up the young talent in MLS, than this could be a good way to prep for the U-23 Olympic Qualifications. However, if Gregg uses it how I think he will; calling up a bunch of has-beens, it’ll be disappointing.
Who I want to see called:
Keeper: Ochoa, Marcinkowski, Johnson,
Defense: McKenzie, M. Robinson, Glad, Vines, Reynolds, Araujo, Farfan
Midfield: Aaronson, Dotson, Clark, Williamson, Yueill,
Attackers: Dike, Mihailović, Ferreira, Pepi, Alvarez, Mueller, Ebobisse, Akinola, Lewis
I would have included Pomykal & Sands if hey were healthy enough, but I don’t think they are. Hopefully they’ll be fit for the January Camp. If Morris and/or Busio are available than I’d include them as well.
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I don’t want to see any of Gregg’s usual MLS call-ups. No to Bradley, Jozy, Long, Zardes, Roldan, etc… But I’m almost positive that Gregg will include them.
Yes, totally agreed. Evaluate the young talents. Hopefully, Berhalter has already known what the established MLS veterans can bring to the team.
I like the enthusiasm. Good lord man, you want to see almost 30 players for 1 match?! You did a good job of including players not in the playoffs, including jinxing Orlando. (Currently playing) SMH. GB def has some difficult choices. Efrain, Aaronson, Mihailovic, Caden Clark play the same position. Ferreira occupies the same central areas as everyone I named. Mueller likes to start out wide and come to the middle, similar to a 10. Vermes had Busio playing as a 6, at the end of the season, which puts him in direct comp with Dotson, Yueill. You should already know, Servania is so much better than Gianluca. Are you actually watching where players best position are, or just naming players like Brick of a Anchorman?!
Adorable that you criticized Lost for not knowing where guys play then claimed Busio is playing as a 6, he’s played there once in last 8 matches only played as a 6 because Ilie Sanchez was injured. Clearly you’ve missed that Busio has been very good down the stretch and was their best field player in their playoff win. You’ve also clearly missed that Servania has done nothing special this season and hardly plays no goals or assists this season. If you wanted to add a FCD player Tessman is a much more likely pick than Servania.
That’s probably a little too youth oriented you need some guys that know how things work. Although most of those guys have YT experience only Yueill, Johnson, and Mihailovic would have more than 5 caps. I’d go Bello or Gasper over Farfan and add Kyle Duncan at RB even though you’ve included two good ones. I’ve heard Kevin Paredes is on the preliminary list. If FCD pull off the upset your getting Roldan and Morris if Crew lose Zardes is in. I really don’t care if Jozy and Bradley are invited but there is no reason for them to play.
Adorable is for puppies & teddy bears! …but I guess you forgot Busio has been playing winger up until this year. You also forgot to acknowledge that you had to look on the transfer market to find Servania plays the 6, last year, ‘Mr. Nick Lima at LB.’ ‘Tyler Boyd is a better positional defender than Morris.’ ‘Soto’s goals are irrelevant because Panama stop playing, when he came on.’ Tesserman was a 5 star athlete in high school football & Dabo Sweeney was recruiting him to play for Clemson, @ WIDE RECEIVER. Repeat- WIDE RECEIVER!!! He chose pro futbol over college. He’s a better athlete than Servania, not a better 6. Tesserman rarely played in front CBs, or behind Servania. JR, you can’t even remember your posts, and statements from article to article. So now, I’m supposed to believe that you know about Tesserman?!. Tesserman will be an attacking midfielder! …but don’t mind me, I only watch the players play.
Busio is not playing as a 6, how do I know I’ve watched SKCs last three matches. That is also how I know on current form Busio should get a call over Servania who also doesn’t play as a 6. Yes that time you saw him play against France. Santos is the 6 for FCD. Tessmann and Servania play as the other CM underneath the 10. I also watch a lot of FCD Tanner is not a 10, and right now is playing far better than Servania that’s why he’s played 500 more minutes than Brandon. You are right Ferreira plays as a 10 for Dallas but Berhalter used him as a 9 in January that’s basically what Lletget was trying to do against Wales so I don’t think Lost is wrong to list him as a Forward. I really don’t remember ever being high on Lima as a LB or RB in fact I think I argued with Bizzy that was a terrible idea. Boyd is better at defense, Morris is better at goals.
Zimmerman is a lock to be called in on defense and Long is a real possibility. Zardes will be called in as well. Those guys are performing at a high level recently; they will not be left our just because you want to see a U-23 team.
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Also, it probably won’t happen for John Nelson, but now that FC Dallas has seen fit to push Hollingshead further up the pitch, it has allowed John Nelson to make the LB spot his own. Nelson is the young player with the best defensive instincts near. Some players may be more physical, but he does not get caught ball-watching or failing to cover defensively.
All MLS squad? Exciting…
Ledezma starting today