The United States men's national team has chosen where it will play its first official match since the 2026 World Cup.
The Stars and Stripes are headed to Cincinnati, taking their Nov. 17 Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal contest to TQL Stadium.
The U.S. will play four friendly matches during the combined September and October international window, with all four of those games also taking place in the U.S. In November, the Americans will travel to face a Concacaf rival for the first of a two-legged Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal with the winner of that series moving into the March 2027 semifinals.
“For our first official match of the new cycle, we couldn’t ask for a better host than Cincinnati. The Nations League is an important competition
and a great opportunity to begin challenging the group in these types of matches,” U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino said in a news release. “The fans in Cincinnati have always shown amazing support for the National Team when we needed them the most, and we look forward to the energy they will bring which is so important to our players.”
The game will also be the last contest for the U.S. in 2026, a year that saw the Americans make the round of 16 in a home World Cup but fall 4-1 to Belgium in that game.
Pochettino is expected to lean on a mix of players from that squad and some of the new generation of American stars who will be coming into their prime at the 2030 World Cup, with the Argentine returning to lead the U.S. into a new cycle and, he hopes, into another World Cup.
TQL has been good to the U.S. The November match will mark the team's fifth visit to the venue since it opened in 2021. The U.S. beat Mexico in World Cup qualification there in 2021, beat Morocco there in 2022, drew Canada and won a shootout in a 2023 Gold Cup quarterfinal and then drew with New Zealand in a 2024 friendly.
Ticket presale begins Wednesday, Sept. 16 with general sale starting Friday, Sept. 18.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Site revealed for USMNT's first official match after 2026 World Cup
