USMNT to play January home World cup qualifiers in Columbus and St. Paul

Get the cold gear ready. U.S. Soccer announced this morning that the United States Men’s National Team will play home World Cup qualifiers at Lower.com Field in Columbus as well as Allianz Field in St. Paul, Minnesota during the January international window.

Columbus will be the site of the home qualifier against El Salvador on January 27th. That match will be shown on the ESPN family of networks and the Univision family of networks. St. Paul will host the Honduras match on February 2nd, which will be shown on FS1 and the Univision family of networks. Kickoff times have not yet been set.

And, sources confirm that the away match to Canada, which will be the second match in the window for the USMNT, will be played at Tim Horton’s Field in Hamilton, Ontario.

The USMNT returning to Columbus will mark the first time a city has received two home matches during a World Cup qualifying final round since Foxborough, Massachusetts received two home qualifiers during the Hexagonals for 1998 and 2002 World Cup qualifying. It will also be the 3rd straight home qualifier in the state of Ohio, as Columbus last hosted the Costa Rica match on October 13th, followed by Cincinnati hosting the Mexico qualifier on November 12th.

“As we have seen throughout the qualifying process so far, great stadiums and great atmospheres provide a huge advantage to our team,” USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter said in a statement released by U.S. Soccer. “We’ve had fantastic experiences in Columbus and the Twin Cities and look forward to continuing our World Cup Qualifying campaign in front of our fans.”

Hit the comments to discuss the USMNT’s January venue selections, along with the confirmation of the Canada away being in Hamilton.