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DOHA, Qatar — When the U.S. men’s national team’s World Cup qualifiers were announced in April, the match against England was, understandably, the headliner that grabbed most of the attention.
What remained a bit of a mystery was the USMNT’s opening match, which had not yet been set when the April draw took place. Wales finally won the World Cup playoffs to secure that spot, ahead of Ukraine and Scotland, and as we’re less than a week away from the USMNT’s World Cup opener on Monday, the Americans find themselves up against a that they don’t see. t in sight.
“I think at least to the American media, I think Wales is underrated,” Berhalter told reporters in Qatar on Monday. “When I look at their team, it’s basically a Premier League team. You’ve got Daniel James, who scored against Man United the other night. Top quality player. You’ve got Harry Wilson, top quality player. Kieffer Moore, Neco Williams , Brennan Johnson, Gareth Bale, Ben Davies.
“For me, it’s a really good team, a tough team,” he added. “They’ve been in international competition before, they know what it’s like. And it’s going to be a very tough game, like when they play England, it’s going to be a tough game. So I think they’re going to be a very tough team. contenders, and we know the starting point is next Monday night. We are definitely in the fight.”
The USMNT brought all of its players together for training for the first time on Tuesday, as the final arrivals converged on camp. That group included Tim Ream and Antonee Robinson, who both featured fresh for Fulham in Sunday’s 2-1 draw at Manchester United.
Tim Weah also came on late, playing 90 minutes for Lille in Sunday’s 1-0 win over Angers.
“We completed a training session today. I did the first part because obviously I played, so I had to do (the regeneration), and things like that,” Weah said on Tuesday. “So I think tomorrow we will train again. taste it, get your feet.”
Photo by John Todd/ISI Images
Tight scheduling around the World Cup means Berhalter will have less than a full week with his squad, with Wednesday offering the first real chance for the whole squad to train together as a whole.
“We hope we can use this week effectively. We have four training sessions this week, three left and then we go to two before the game against Wales, but we will work on these two things,” said Berhalter. on Monday. “Today we did some good things on the field. We start by giving them some details about Wales and how we will look to play against them. And then we will go ahead and stop Iran in England.
“For us, it is important to focus on this Wales game, but we will also work on the general concepts that we always work on.”
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