Why you should care about the USMNT upcoming matches

We are four months removed from the United States Men’s National Team’s World Cup match on Black Friday against England that most, alright some, of you were locked into. The United States advanced out of the group, but fell to Netherlands in the Round of 16.

Now, the United States starts the push towards the 2026 World Cup, hosted in the United States, that will likely be the next time most of you watch a soccer match. But just hear me out, the 2026 World Cup will be much more exciting as a fan if you’ve been following the team for three years, right? You will feel more invested, more committed, more of a fan.

I know that will be a tough sell for most of you, but here’s why you should care about the USMNT pair of upcoming matches.

It Means Something

Although this won’t be the first time the USMNT are in action in 2023, it’s the first time the results mean something. The USA played a pair of friendlies in January with a very young roster, where the results didn’t matter. That will not be the case this time.

These upcoming matches with Grenada and El Salvador are the final group matches in the CONCACAF Nations League. In very simple terms, the United States need to win their group to advance in the tournament to the Final Four, if you will.

They would then compete against the other four advancing teams (likely Mexico, Canada, and Panama) for a chance to win the tournament. The USMNT won the first edition of the tournament back in 2019 over Mexico. The results of this tournament also help decide qualifying for the Gold Cup, another CONCACAF tournament the USMNT are the defending champions of.

So, in short, the results matter. The USMNT should be considered favorites to win the tournament, so not advancing out of the group would be incredibly embarrassing. And as it currently stands, the USMNT are not leading the group. El Salvador holds the top spot in the group, which sets up an important matchup on Monday in Orlando.

Full Squad Ready

As I mentioned above, this isn’t the first time the USMNT will hit the field in 2023, but it is the first time players like Christian Pulisic, Gio Reyna (more on that in a minute) Yunus Musah, Brenden Aaronson and the majority of the European club players will play for the Red, White, and Blue in 2023. They will be without World Cup captain Tyler Adams, who will miss the matches with injury.

But in majority, these are the best players that represent the United States in soccer. They are the players you saw in Qatar in November, and they will be tasked with making a deeper run in the 2026 World Cup hosted on home soil.

There will also be the return of some players who were left of the World Cup squad for unknown reasons. Ricardo Pepi was the most surprising name missing from the World Cup roster in November, but he returns to the USMNT this weekend in good form as he has scored 10 goals with his club team FC Groningen in Netherlands.

Other names that should ring a bell that return to the squad are Zack Steffen, Daryl Dike, and Miles Robinson.

The Gio Reyna part of the story

Well, it was difficult to miss this story, even if you aren’t a soccer fan. I had listeners in our chat on Brent & Friends and OT with Kuhrts and Middleton on ESPN690 asking me about it for days. However, if you did miss it, it’s quite interesting.

In my opinion, Gio Reyna is the most talented player that represents the USMNT. At just 20-years-old, Reyna is the present and future of the team. However, Reyna only played 57 minutes for the USMNT at the World Cup, which had me irate, and most U.S. soccer fans confused.

After returning from Qatar, we found out why

Gregg Berhalter, the USMNT coach at the time, talked about an anonymous player who he almost sent home from the World Cup because they were “clearly not meeting expectations on and off the field.” As it turned out, the unknown player at the time appolgized to the team and stayed with the team throughout the World Cup.

Although Berhalter didn’t name Reyna, it quickly came to be known that Reyna was the player mentioned by the former coach. Reyna then issued a statement, leading to a very strange next part of the story.

“During the World Cup an individual contacted U.S. Soccer, saying that they had information about me that would ‘take me down’” said Gregg Berhalter in a statement on Twitter after his contract ran out as the USMNT coach.

Now, you may or may not have guessed it, but that person was Danielle Reyna. Yes, Gio Reyna’s mother revealed an incident between Berhalter and his now wife from 1991, leading to an investigation into the former coach.

Now, as you can imagine, the situation between U.S. Soccer and Gio Reyna has been interesting since then. Other than a possible lack of effort in practice, the player did nothing wrong. But there were questions about Reyna’s future with U.S. Soccer. However, interim coach Anthony Hudson selected Reyna in the squad for this group of matches, which was the right call.

I’ll end this section like I started it - in my opinion, Gio Reyna is the most talented player that represents U.S. Soccer, and although mistakes were made by a previous coach and Reyna’s parents, that should not keep the 20-year-old out of the squad now, or ever.

They should win

Listen, it’s just easier to be a fan when a team wins, which hasn’t always been the case for the USMNT, but it is now. This is the best CONCACAF team for my money, and they should have no issues winning on both Friday and Monday nights.

They have more talent than either team they will face in this window, and that should come to the forefront.

These matches really shouldn’t be close, the USA should win easily in both, and win their group.

A little bit of drama, a little bit of talent, and what should be two victories for the USMNT, what else do you need to get into the sport? The World Cup may be three years away, but the road starts now - might as well get in early, right?

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