USMNT to take on France in June

The United States Men’s National Team is starting to set its schedule for 2018. Today, the French Football Federation announced that France will host the USMNT on Saturday June 9th in Lyon. Kickoff is set for 9:00pm local time (3:00pm ET).

The match represents the last warmup match for Les Bleus before they head to Russia for the 2018 World Cup. This will be only the 4th time the USMNT has competed against France. The last time the two teams faced each other was in November 2011 in Paris, a 1-0 French victory. The other two matches were both French wins back in 1979.

We imagined that the USMNT would be a team pursued by many who are seeking big-time friendlies to prepare for the World Cup, and this will be a good test for a French side that many hold among the favorites to hoist the World Cup trophy next summer. For the United States, this will be a great chance for some of the younger players to go against some world-class talent and show what they can do. Still, with the stature of this friendly, you will probably see many of the regulars take the field in Lyon.

Normally, the USMNT would host their own sendoffs, but in 2018, they are likely the team many want to schedule for their own sendoff. With June 9th being the weekend before the start of the world’s greatest tournament, we expect the USMNT to have at least one more match scheduled against a World Cup team, and if France is an example, the USMNT calendar for the first half of 2018 could be set very quickly.