USMNT to Play Serbia, Colombia, in January

The United States Soccer Federation has announced two matches for the United States Men’s National Team for January, both in Los Angeles, California. The team will first face off against Serbia in Banc of California stadium, home of LAFC, before jumping over to Carson to play against Colombia in Dignity Health Sports Park, home to the LA Galaxy.

These two matches will be the first after the 2022 FIFA World Cup, giving the USMNT the opportunity to build on what hopefully will be a successful tournament. It will also be the first games back in the United States for the team since this past summer as the September friendlies were played in Europe.

Serbia will themselves be coming off of the World Cup. Serbia is in Group G and will play Brazil, Cameroon, and Switzerland.

However, while Colombia is a well-regarded team, they just missed out on this rendition of the World Cup, finishing in 6th in South American qualification.

Now, these two January matches fall outside of an official FIFA international window. During FIFA windows, club teams are required to release players so that they can appear for their respective national teams. However, outside these windows, clubs have discretion on whether they let players go or not. As a result, we can expect a roster made almost entirely of MLS-based players, players who are in their offseason. And we will likely miss out on the European-based stars like Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams, and Weston McKennie. Instead, these games will hopefully give an opportunity for younger players who haven’t yet made the jump to Europe to get a taste of the international game and begin being considered for and integrated into the national team program.

These matches mark not only the start of a new World Cup cycle, but also a big change in the broadcasting for both the men’s and women’s national teams.

We will have to wait for details on where the matches will be televised. Of course, we’ll have all that information here at SSFC as part of our match coverage.