National team to train, play in Orlando

U.S. Soccer will announce today that Exploria Stadium will host the U.S. men’s national team’s final group match of the CONCACAF Nations League on March 27 at 7:30 p.m., the Sentinel has learned.

It’ll be a Group D match vs. El Salvador and the match is scheduled to air on TNT.

Joining the U.S. and El Salvador in Group D will be Grenada. The Americans will play there on March 23, four days before the Orlando game.

The U.S. team also will train in Orlando before traveling to Grenada.

Presales for the Orlando game will begin Feb. 13, with the public sale starting seven days later.

For this cycle of the Nations League, the U.S. already played two games last year, beating Grenada in Austin, Texas, and scraping out a last-second draw at El Salvador.

Historically, Orlando City’s Exploria Stadium has been a favorable venue for the USMNT, with the Americans sitting undefeated in all five games.

The stadium, which opened in 2017, has seen two World Cup Qualifiers, two International friendlies and a CONCACAF Nations League group match in 2019.

That match, played against Canada, saw the USMNT beat its northern neighbors 4-1, with Gyasi Zardes scoring twice and Jordan Morris and Aaron Long adding one each. That win also marked the 10th win for former National Team coach Gregg Berhalter, whose contract expired at the end of 2022.

U.S. Soccer has still yet to make a decision on Berhalter’s replacement, as well as the recently vacated positions of sporting director by Earnie Steward and general manager which had been filled by Brian McBride.

With this last match in Orlando, the U.S. will look to make it back-to-back trips to the Nations League semifinals, the first of which turned into a thrilling championship victory for the Americans in 2021.

The semifinals and final of the tournament are set to take place in June, with a location to be determined.