USMNT to close out 2020 with friendly against El Salvador

It’s been reported for a few weeks, but this morning U.S. Soccer made it official: The United States Men’s National Team will have one more match in 2020. The USMNT will face El Salvador on December 9th at Inter Miami CF Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Kickoff is set for 7:30pm ET and will be on one of the ESPN family of networks, UniMas, and TUDN.

The match will come just a couple weeks after the USMNT faced Wales and Panama during the November FIFA international window. Those matches featured almost entirely European-based American players. This match against El Salvador will occur outside of a FIFA window, so it is expected that this roster will consist of all MLS-based players with the possibility of some players from Liga MX. USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter is expected to announce his full roster on Tuesday.

“Playing against El Salvador gives us an opportunity to face a Concacaf opponent that we haven’t seen yet and will be a valuable experience,” Berhalter said in a statement released by U.S. Soccer. “We want to build on this year’s work while continuing to evaluate the player pool as we head into a busy 2021.”

The match will be the first for any U.S. Soccer team that features fans since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Attendance for this match will be capped at 2,500 fans. Inter Miami CF Stadium has a normal capacity of 18,000. Strict safety protocols will be in place for this match for all fans who choose to attend.

This will be the first friendly against El Salvador since a 2-1 USMNT win back in February 2010 in Tampa. The most recent match between the two teams came in the 2017 Gold Cup quarterfinals, where the USMNT won 2-0 in Philadelphia. The USMNT holds a 17-1-5 W-L-D record all time against Los Cuzcatlecos.

Hit the comments to discuss this upcoming match against El Salvador.