The U.S. men’s national team now knows who will host its first pair of home World Cup Qualifiers in early 2022.
U.S. Soccer announced Wednesday that Columbus’ Lower.Com Field and Minnesota’s Allianz Field will host Concacaf qualifying matches against El Salvador and Honduras respectively on January 27 and February 2. The USMNT currently sits in second place in the octagonal round standings on 15 points through eight matches played.
“As we have seen throughout the qualifying process so far, great stadiums and great atmospheres provide a huge advantage to our team,” USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter said. “We’ve had fantastic experiences in Columbus and the Twin Cities and look forward to continuing our World Cup Qualifying campaign in front of our fans.”
Columbus has hosted 11 World Cup Qualifiers for the USMNT since 2000, in which the Americans have registered an 8-2-1 record. The USMNT recently played its first-ever match at Lower.com Field in October, fighting back to defeat Costa Rica 2-1 after an equalizing goal from Sergino Dest and an own goal from Ticos goalkeeper Leonel Moreira.
St. Paul’s Allianz Field will host its first-ever World Cup Qualifier for the Americans, after lasing hosting a 4-0 Gold Cup win over Guyana. The venue also hosted a pair of USWNT friendlies in 2019 before recently Vlatko Andonovski’s side played against the Korea Republic in October.
The USMNT will first take part in a December camp in Carson, California before hosting Bosnia-Herzegovina in a Dec. 18th friendly at Dignity Health Sports Park.