USMNT to play Gold Cup tune-up vs. Guatemala in Nashville

The United States will play Guatemala on July 3 at LP Filed in Nashville, TN as their final pre-Gold Cup tune up. The FIFA official website first posted the news and Steve Goff says that an announcement is expected next week.

The Americans play their first Gold Cup match on July 7 in Frisco, TX, so a mach four days earlier in Nashville would make sense. It wouldn't be too close to the tournament and the travel wouldn't be excessive.

It's tough to get teams to fly to the U.S. for a friendly in July too, with European teams not playing friendlies then and South American teams just having finished up Copa America, so finding a decent team to play against is tough and a CONCACAF side like Guatemala may have been the Americans' only choice. The Guatemalans are also a good fit because they are in Group C of the Gold Cup, while the U.S. is in Group A so they won't have to play each other right after. But if the U.S. wins their group and Guatemala finishes third in theirs, they will meet in the quarterfinals.

The U.S.' summer schedule is now as follows:

- June 5 vs. Netherlands, Amsterdam, 2:30 p.m. ET

- June 10 vs. Germany, Cologne, 2:45 p.m. ET

- July 3 vs. Guatemala, Nashville, TBA

- July 7 - July 26, Gold Cup