U.S. Soccer officially announces USMNT pre-World Cup friendlies

The United States Men’s National Team officially has a pre-World Cup schedule. Today, U.S. Soccer announced the four friendlies the team will have prior to the start of the 2026 World Cup.

The first two matches will come during the March international window. As had long been reported, the USMNT will have friendlies against Belgium on March 28th and Portugal on March 31st. Both of those matches will take place at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. After the World Cup roster has been named, the team will compete in one final international window before the World Cup starts. They will face a to be determined opponent on May 31st at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte and then their “sendoff” will see them face Germany on June 6th at Soldier Field in Chicago. Those two matches had also been previously reported, but US Soccer has now confirmed the matches, with the only detail outstanding being the opponent for the Charlotte match.

“For us, this is a massive opportunity to challenge ourselves against some of the top teams in the world. These are incredible matches for the players and for the fans,” USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino said in a statement. “We are so happy to be playing in our new home of Atlanta, and of course to be competing in the great cities of Charlotte and Chicago ahead of the World Cup.”

The Charlotte match on May 31st is the latest installment of the Continental Clásico, and the opponent will be finalized after the World Cup Draw takes place on Friday and the USMNT learns who will join them in Group D of the World Cup. The USMNT faced Mexico in the first Continental Clásico – their name for top friendlies against teams from the Americas – in 2023 and hosted Brazil in 2024 prior to the Copa América. This year, the USWNT had their first Continental Clásico, facing Canada in Washington, DC.

The matches in Atlanta are to signal the start of the new home of U.S. Soccer. The new National Training Center is scheduled to open about 30 minutes south of downtown Atlanta sometime in 2026, but it is not expected to be ready for a full opening during the March window. The team is expected to begin their World Cup preparations there in May.

Having a World Cup-bound team as the home sendoff is a rarity for the USMNT. Traditionally, they have prepared for the World Cup by playing decent teams that haven’t qualified, which was the case in 2014 (Nigeria), 2010 (Türkiye), 2006 (Latvia), 2002 (Netherlands), and 1990 (Liechtenstein). The last time the USMNT played a team that had qualified for the World Cup in their sendoff match was Scotland back in 1998. They also played Mexico in a home friendly in 1994 before hosting the 1994 World Cup. In 2022, due to the truncated windows before the fall start to the 2022 World Cup, the USMNT played neutral site friendlies in Europe against Japan and Saudi Arabia, who also played in the World Cup.

Having a lineup of teams in Belgium (8th), Portugal (5th), and Germany (9th) that will be competing in the 2026 World Cup and are all – pending the announcement of the Charlotte match – in the top 10 of the FIFA world ranking shows the team is hoping to prepare for the World Cup by playing the teams they know they will need to face if they want to make a deep World Cup run. With each World Cup group having at least one UEFA team, lining up European opponents will prepare them for whoever they will face in the group stage. The USMNT are 3W-14L-7D against UEFA teams in the World Cup all-time, so these matches will directly address one of the biggest hurdles the team will have to jump over to be successful.

The four matches are set, and each will be the final tests for the team as they get ready to co-host the biggest sporting event ever. It only adds to the excitement as the team and its fans prepare for 2026.