The United States, unlike other national teams, does not have a designated national stadium; instead, the squad has played home matches in 111 venues across 29 states and the District of Columbia. The most common venue is now known as FedExField in Landover, Maryland, which has served since July 2016 as the new home of Major League Soccer's Washington DC United.
Before that, from 1930 to 2015, the team played their home matches at Chicago's Soldier Field, which has been called "the mecca of American soccer" by ESPN editor John Powers on account of its large fan base and great atmosphere. Other notable stadiums include Los Angeles' Rose Bowl and San Francisco's Candlestick Park.
The only country with more international matches played than the United States is Brazil, but because they play in much smaller arenas when they come to Europe or South America they often use larger stadiums for their home games here in the United States. For example, during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, Germany's stadiums held over 100,000 fans per match, while Mexico's stadiums usually have 40,000 to 60,000 fans.
In addition to playing in different cities around the country, each game also has a distinct location within those venues. For example, one of the most famous locations in U.S. sports history is Section 8, Row 9.
A short list of soccer stadiums in the United States is shown below. It contains all stadiums in the top three divisions of American soccer, as well as several minor league and university venues. Some of these locations are soccer stadiums. Others host football, lacrosse, or other sports uses on occasion.
There are seven major league soccer stadiums in the United States. They are Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey; RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C.; PPL Park in Philadelphia; Providence Park in Portland; Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas; and Toyota Park in Chicago. All but PPL Park are also used by their respective cities' NFL teams. The only other stadium that is exclusively for soccer use is Nippert Stadium in Cincinnati. That venue is home to both the MLS's Cincinnati Reds and the USL's Cincinnati FC.
The other five major league stadiums have been used for soccer in some form or another. In addition to those seven facilities, two more are under construction - Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta and Globe Life Field in Houston - and one has been announced recently but has not yet started playing matches - State Farm Arena in Dallas.
Since its existence, the national team has fielded 242 players. The United States has participated in a number of friendly and competitive events, and all players who have appeared in a match, either as a starter or as a replacement, are mentioned here.
The most recent player to be added to the roster is Ventura County native Joe Corona, who was called up by Jürgen Klinsmann after Tim Howard retired from international play. The former UCLA star had previously been selected by Bob Bradley for the 2011 World Cup team but did not make the final cut.
Corona made his debut on June 25, 2015 in a friendly against Germany, coming on as a substitute for Michael Bradley in the 79th minute of the game. He scored his first goal with the U.S. national team later that year during an October 15 match against Haiti. Correa helped lead the United States to a 3-2 victory at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.
He became only the second player from Ventura County after Eric Wynalda to earn a callup to the United States national team, following in the footsteps of his father, Bobby, who earned three caps for the country between 1973 and 1975.
Ventura College alumnus DaMarcus Beasley is the most decorated player in U.S. history with 51 goals and 31 assists in 98 matches.
The quarterfinals and final will all take place in the United States, with Mexico and Canada participating in certain group stage and perhaps round of 16 games. According to the United 2026 proposal, the World Cup final will be held at MetLife Stadium, home of the New York Giants and New York Jets. The other three quarters of the final will be held at different U.S. venues, with at least one game per venue.
The tournament will run from June 14 to July 5 this year. It will be the 22nd time that countries have competed against each other on continental soil since the first World Cup in 1930.
The current format of the World Cup was introduced in 1998. There are now 32 teams competing for the title over six stages of play. The first four places are guaranteed, while the fifth and sixth spots are determined by playoffs. No team can appear in more than one playoff position simultaneously.
All matches during the group stage will be played on Saturday and Sunday afternoons except for two games which will be played on Wednesday evenings. The last eight groups will be split into two pools of four groups. Each group will use a round-robin style competition to determine who qualifies for the next stage. The top two teams in each pool will advance to the round of 16, while the third and fourth place teams will contest a play-off match to determine which third-place finisher is eliminated from world cup contention.
They presently play the majority of their home matches at Soccer City in Nasrec, Soweto, also known as the FNB Stadium. They are one of the most popular clubs in the country, with the highest average home attendance in the league in 2016-17. Their final match of the season took place on 29 May 2017.
When they first started playing games in South Africa, most of them were held in white sports stadiums because of security concerns about black players being killed during matches. The only black professional club when they first started playing games in 1966 was Transvaal FC which later became Kaizer Chiefs. Transvaal played in the white stadium until they moved into their own ground called Loftus Versfeld which is near Pretoria. There were no other black teams so Transvaal mainly played against white teams from elsewhere in South Africa or overseas opponents.
In 1989, after many years without a black team, Premier League launched a new franchise called Johannesburg Black Diamonds. This was part of an effort by the league to improve its image in South Africa after many controversies about racism in the past. In the beginning the club didn't have any money to pay the players so they had to work as taxi drivers or shop assistants to be able to travel to training and matches. But over time they managed to find some sponsors who helped them build a new stadium called Ellis Park. This is where most of their home matches are now held.
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