The U.S. men’s national team’s summer schedule is starting to take shape.
Turkey and Switzerland will both oppose the USMNT this June in a pair of friendlies, U.S. Soccer announced Monday. The Americans will face Turkey in East Hartford, Connecticut on June 7 before taking on Switzerland in Nashville, Tennessee.
Both matches will serve as key preparation fixtures prior to the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
It will mark the first USMNT-Turkey showdown since June 2014, which came before the FIFA World Cup that year. The Americans hold a 2-1-1 all-time record against the Crescent Stars.
Switzerland has given the USMNT a tougher time, winning four of the nine all-time meetings. The USMNT’s lone victory in the series came in October 2007, when Michael Bradley’s late goal secured a 1-0 win in Basel.
Mauricio Pochettino’s squad will begin their Gold Cup schedule in mid-June, with the group stage running from June 14-24. The tournament final will take place on July 6 at NRG Stadium in Houston.
Very interesting……Mexico is playing the same two countries, alternating on the same dates the 7th (SWIT) and 10th (TUR) of June. That’s going to be a good evaluation of what’s to come…..especially if Mauricio Pochettino’s squad fielded is the one that’s going to compete in the Tournament
I mean I think the potential NL final against each other tells us more than common opponents in GC tuneup friendlies.
“…..Potential NL final “…..key word there, “Potential”. The way Canada and Jamaica are pulling in players with dual Citizenship the Mexico matchup is not “guaranteed”
We should be playing our strongest team for these games? Or will it be a strong team for the Nations League and a B team for these games and the Gold Cup? Also, with the Club World Cup, we will be missing some of our best guys because of that?
Club World Cup effect is still an unknown. Seattle, Dortmund, Miami, and Juve would be the affected clubs. I don’t think there’s a big chance that the MLS guys would be first choices anyway. So that would leave Weah and Wes missing from Juve. Would Dortmund include Reyna who they want to sell? Campbell hasn’t been a favorite of the new manager. Will Dortmund use it as a chance to play youngsters like Cole, or go with vets hoping a trophy can salvage a disappointing season. Will Poch rest his stars after a long season with the WC the following summer?
Sorry, I was unclear. Weah and Wes would be missing from NT because Juve is not required to release them because of CWC. Canada would be missing Davies, Eustaquio, and perhaps Buchanan (his loan ends June 30 but if there is a recall provision it could be ended after Villarreal season but before CWC. Not sure if that would be allowed.)
Thanks. I didn’t realize the Nations League final is in March, I was thinking it was in the summer the way it was a couple of years ago.
It looks like these two friendlies should be our A team, minus Weah, McKennie and Reyna (and possibly Campbell and anyone from Miami or Seattle that Poch might want to call).
i generally agree with where you’re headed. we don’t need to play the A team 10 extra games (2 NL, 6 GC, 2 friendlies). that makes them more tired and risks injuries over time. GB even usually used A team NL then B team GC. this gets you a look at the B team, gets the A team some rest. it gets you some fresh faces in to keep honing the team, and we have so many first team injuries.
the bit of nuance here is the folks who might be at club world cup should be called in reverse — for NL when available since they might miss GC. go ahead and assume they might be out.
personally i think we’ve grown over-cautious. pulisic’s first cap was 10 minutes end of a world cup qualifier. a confident coach should trust his talent nose.
based on poch’s history i expect us to call primarily A team guys both tournaments. we are obsessed with winning every scheduled game and see that as disconnected from the constant flow of player injuries. we just work around our roster attrition. to me a brighter team would have more B games or at least roster rotation not dictated by health.
again, the WC is next year and Poch is a new manager with no wcq’s to rely on to test our best possible roster in pressure situations in games that matter. I think it would be a mistake for Poch not to use both of those tournaments to keep working with and fine tuning our best roster, as the players and coach are still new to one another, but that’s just me!
with the WC next year, I don’t think Poch can afford to not call up our best possible rosters for either of these tournaments. These are essentially the only “meaningful games” we’ll get in a tournament setting before the 2026 WC, and couple that with Poch will only have the group together for a limited amount of time during FIFA windows. Poch, as a guy who has been on the job for only several months, is still figuring out how he wants the team to play and with what combination of players/formations, so all of those factors lead me to believe he’ll call in the best possible rosters going forward(obviously unless there are injuries, club conflict).
Roster comes out tomorrow at 11 am for NL roster.