American coach Greg Berhalter will go with a larger slate to tackle three matches confined to a seven-day period when the 2022 World Cup qualifiers begin in September.
US national team general manager Brian McBride said Wednesday that the men’s national team will have at least 26 players, three more than they can wear in any game. This will provide some flexibility for the US with a tight travel and gaming schedule.
“We can bring players to the roster to play a second game that wasn’t part of the first game,” McBride said.
“Then add the addition in the COVID aspect, and hopefully it impacts wood that has no impact or doesn’t take into account our decision making. But all of those things are definitely meant to have a team as big as possible.”
The United States plays Canada in Nashville at Nissan Stadium, home of the Tennessee Titans of the NFL, on September 5 before heading to San Pedro Sula for a game against Honduras on September 8.
It’s three qualifying matches over seven days in three different countries.
Nashville was selected to play alone at home in the September playoffs to help make travel from Europe a little easier and in both the away games. Midfielder Tyler Adams, who plays for RB Leipzig in Germany.
After the third game, the American players will arrive in Miami on September 9, and then return to their clubs.
Christian Pulisic has taken a break with his first Premier League return game for Chelsea, at home to Aston Villa, which has been postponed until 17:30. It will start on September 11th. But midfielder Brenden Aaronson still doesn’t know when his game for Salzburg will be at Swarovski Tirol this weekend.
All this made Nashville, which aims to be among the US cities to host the 2026 World Cup, a good location for the September games.
“It’s part of the design,” McBride said. “So I think what we do is look at all the different variables.”
McBride and the NFL brought the CONCACAF Gold Cup and CONCACAF Nations League Cups to Nashville to help promote the September 5 playoffs at Nissan Stadium in connection with the Nashville MLS team game.
Players will run frequent flying miles again for three more qualifiers in October, when the US hosts Jamaica in Austin, Texas on October 7 and Costa Rica in Columbus, Ohio on October 13 around the qualifiers on October 10 in Panama.
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