IRVINE, Calif. \u2013 This FIFA World Cup is different. Not only is it the second in tournament history to be played on home soil here in the United States, but it\u2019s also expanded quite a bit. It\u2019s the first World Cup with a field of 48 teams\u2014up from 24 the last time the tournament was played in this country n 1994\u2014and the first to feature three host nations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n
The increased scale of the tournament has meant more: more time between matches, more airline miles, and more time away from home. That said, the record-breaking tournament has also meant more time together as a team.<\/p>\n
“It’s an amazing feeling. It’s a great group of guys,\u201d forward Brenden Aaronson said. \u201cThe togetherness is really close. Everybody jokes around, everybody has fun with each other. Sometimes we’re a little too goofy, but we have that ability to flip the switch and become serious like we did against Paraguay. Now, we have two other games coming up where we have to be at our best, and hopefully more later on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coming off its opening victory against Paraguay last week, the USMNT has enjoyed several advantages that come with playing a World Cup on home soil. Woven into a week of training, recovery and preparation for Friday\u2019s matchup against Australia<\/a> has been a rare day off, a friends and family day at training<\/a> and plenty of opportunities to take in a few of the 69 FIFA World Cup group stage matches not involving the Stars and Stripes.<\/p>\n \u201cSpending this time with these guys is amazing,\u201d Aaronson added. \u201cBeing able to watch all these games together, and then in our downtime I’m always playing video games with the guys, whether it’s Clash Royale on our phones, PGA, FIFA or other games. We always like to have fun with each other. I think that’s the [best] part of this group.\u201d<\/p>\n Another innovation in this year\u2019s World Cup structure is the increased number of days between matches. There\u2019s roughly one week between each of the USMNT\u2019s three group stage matches, quite the contrast from Qatar four years ago.<\/p>\n “It’s different,\u201d defender Antonee Robinson\u2014who\u2019s played every minute of the USMNT\u2019s past five World Cup matches\u2014explained. \u201cLast time it was pretty much play, recover, play. This time we obviously have a long time to recover and work on things for the opposition. I see benefits to both, to be honest. I’ve enjoyed the fact that we’ve had time to de-stress from the game and have more time in between. People who pick up little knocks have time to get ready for the next team, so I do think there are benefits to it.”<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest, I love it,\u201d Aaronson said with a chuckle. \u201cA lot of us are coming off long seasons where we’ve played a lot of games and a lot of minutes. This downtime gives your body time to get ready for the next one. You can do all the little things that you need. It feels like you have a week in between games like you do in league play. You’re able to actually game-plan and prepare properly. I think that’s going to help us throughout this tournament.”<\/p>\n