{"id":46380,"date":"2022-06-11T16:52:04","date_gmt":"2022-06-11T16:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/the-oddities-of-preparing-for-qatar-2022\/"},"modified":"2022-06-11T16:52:04","modified_gmt":"2022-06-11T16:52:04","slug":"the-oddities-of-preparing-for-qatar-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/the-oddities-of-preparing-for-qatar-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"The oddities of preparing for Qatar 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The US beat Grenada 5-0 on Friday night in its last stateside match before the 2022 World Cup. (Photo by John Dorton \/ ISI Photos \/ Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

In an alternate universe devoid of corruption, the 2022 World Cup began Thursday before 90,000 festive fans in Los Angeles. That’s how American soccer officials dreamed it, anyway, and this, the second week of June every four years, is when the planet’s most prestigious sporting event typically begins.<\/p>\n

But in a universe disrupted by Qatar, the US men’s national team instead strolled into a 20,000-seat stadium on Friday night. It beat a small Caribbean island ranked 170th in the world in a game not shown on English-language cable TV. Its two best players, having been given the night off, kicked their feet up and relaxed.<\/p>\n

That’s how Austin, Texas, sent the USMNT off to a World Cup that feels eons away. This was the team’s last match on American soil before the global showpiece, but it ended without drama or postgame ceremonies, a little before midnight ET with the sports world’s eyes on the NBA. The US will fly to El Salvador this weekend, then break for summer vacations. It’ll reconvene in Europe in September, ever so briefly. And then, 24 hours after players duel for their clubs in November, they’ll gather in Doha – with a World Cup opener seven days away.<\/p>\n

So this, a three-week, four-city tour in May and June, is the closest thing the USMNT will get to a pre-World Cup training camp. There was a watered-down media day in Cincinnati, and a big promotional shoot in Austin. There was team bonding – video games and birthday dinners and golf – and an inescapable sense that World Cup roster spots were on the line.<\/p>\n

Yet there were several players absent – some injured, some just resting. There were no film sessions on World Cup opponents. And \u201cwe didn’t really have many training days,\u201d head coach Gregg Berhalter admitted. \u201cWe’re learning the most from these guys in the games\u201d – and yet two of four games are against vastly inferior opponents that won’t come close to replicating the challenges that await in Qatar.<\/p>\n

It all adds up to the strangest, most contradictory World Cup send-off the USMNT has ever had.<\/p>\n