ATLANTA — The United States enters this weekend’s friendlies against Belgium and Portugal in fine form.
But fine enough to upend their recent struggles against European (UEFA) competition?
“We have a lot of guys on the team all playing in top European clubs. So we play these players every single week,” said Lake Grove-bred defender Joe Scally, who starts for German Bundesliga side Borussia Mönchengladbach after coming up with New York City FC. “We’ve all won at the highest of levels.
“So I think we just trust ourselves on the field. We go out as a team, I think we showed against Uruguay, against Paraguay — even when we played Brazil a couple years ago before Copa America — that we have it in us. We can beat any of these teams. So I think just showing our abilities on the field.”
Team USA has dropped five straight games against European foes, and has won just 27 percent of their World Cup matchups against UEFA teams.
They’ll get to test themselves against a pair of European sides ranked in the FIFA Top 10.
And after Thursday they are one step closer to adding a Top 25-ranked UEFA team to their World Cup schedule.
Turkey beat Romania 1-0 in a playoff semifinal, while Kosovo twice came from behind to beat Slovakia 4-3 away to set up a decisive home clash in Pristina in Tuesday’s playoff final.
The Balkan country has only been playing international football since 2014, and had never qualified for a major tournament, but is now just a win away from the World Cup. But Turkey — which sits 23rd in the latest FIFA rankings — will be the overwhelming favorite to win and book a place in Group D at the World Cup against the United States, Australia and Paraguay.
Defender Miles Robinson did individual work Thursday during U.S. Men’s National Team practice. The other 22 position players were all on the field at practice as they prepared for friendlies against Belgium and Portugal.
Fans from several nations playing in this summer’s World Cup will be forced to make up to $15,000 in bond payments to get tourist visas to enter the United States, while FIFA is privately pressing president Donald Trump’s administration to make exemptions for the players.
The problems have come as travelers from certain nations coming stateside on a business or tourist visa — ie, B-1 and B-2 visas — have been subject to bond payments after policy changes by the Trump administration.
Five World Cup countries — African nations Algeria, Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Senegal and now Tunisia, who was added last week — are among the 50 included in the “Visa Bond Pilot Program.”
