U.S. Men’s National Team Roster For Final Three World Cup Qualifiers To Be Revealed March 17 Exclusively On ESPN SportsCenter

CHICAGO (March 16, 2022) – The U.S. Men’s National Team roster for the crucial final three matches of 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifying will be announced exclusively on ESPN SportsCenter this Thursday, March 17, during the 6 p.m. ET edition. Along with revealing the list of players who will attempt to complete the long and arduous task of qualifying for Qatar ‘22, head coach Gregg Berhalter will be interviewed by SportsCenter co-hosts Kevin Neghandi and Elle Duncan.

 

After 11 matches played in the final round Octagonal, the USA sits in second place with the top three teams in Concacaf earning automatic qualification, while the fourth-place team will participate in an intercontinental playoff in June.

 

This World Cup qualifying cycle wraps up with a trio of matches during the March international window as the USA faces regional rival Mexico in Mexico City on March 24 (10 p.m. ET; Paramount+, CBS Sports Network, Univision, TUDN), Panama in Orlando, Fla. on March 27 (7 p.m. ET; FS1, UniMás, TUDN) and Costa Rica in San Jose on March 30 (Paramount+, Universo, Peacock).

 

Teams qualify for the World Cup through their regional confederations and the USMNT has had to run the gauntlet of Concacaf (North America, Central America and the Caribbean) to reach Qatar 2022. For the first time, this Concacaf qualifying cycle featured eight teams contesting the final round of World Cup qualifying which started last September and finishes this month, as all eight nations play a 14-match round-robin, with home and away games against each of the other seven teams.

 

Due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the World Cup qualifying schedule was condensed from 18 months to seven. To accommodate the new schedule, the USMNT had to play three matches during four of the five international windows rather than the usual two matches per window.