US Soccer announced that Gregg Berhalter’s squad will face South American heavyweights Uruguay on June 5 in Kansas City.
The game taking place in Kansas City’s Children’s Mercy Park will be the fourth meeting between the two teams. The first three games were split down the middle, with a win for each team and a 1-1 draw in their most recent 2019 meeting.
Currently, Uruguay is ranked 13th in the world by FIFA, two spots ahead of the Americans, and reached the final tournament in Qatar by way of finishing third in the CONMEBOL qualifying group.
In the press release by US Soccer, Gregg Berhalter stated “We’re looking forward to facing another high-level opponent that is also preparing for the World Cup. Uruguay has some world-class talent and is one of the top teams in South America.”
Their squad is led by ageing legends such as Edinson Cavani, Luis Suárez and Diego Godín, who have a remarkable 419 combined caps. However, a greater test for the young American squad will come from their new generation of top talent, in particular Valencia forward Maxi Gómez, Real Madrid midfielder Federico Valverde, and Barcelona defender Ronald Araújo.
Uruguay have surprisingly strong connections to the domestic game in the USA. Their head coach Diego Alonso was coach of Inter Miami for one relatively mediocre season before he took over as national team coach in 2021. Additionally, forward Facundo Torres, who has ten caps so far for the team, currently plies his trade in Florida with Orlando City SC.
In Qatar, Uruguay will play three opponents in the group stage that are well-known to American fans, specifically Portugal, Ghana and South Korea, against whom the USMNT has played a combined six times in the various editions of the World Cup during this century.
The last meeting between these two teams happened in September 2019 in a friendly in Busch Stadium in St. Louis, where a 50th-minute goal by Brian Rodriguez was canceled out by a 79th minute strike by Jordan Morris.
Rodriguez also currently plays in MLS at Los Angeles FC, however has not been called up by Alonso since late-2021.
The game will come four days after the USMNT squad faces Morocco in Ohio on June 1, and precedes their pair of CONCACAF Nations League games against Grenada and El Salvador.
