US head coach Gregg Berhalter was explicit about the reason for tacking this friendly onto the back end of the Nations League final four: he wanted to mimic the new World Cup qualifying cadence, one in which the US have multiple three-game windows.
Past FIFA international dates have only been two games. Thanks to the global pandemic that has had to change, as the field for the final round of qualifying has been expanded — the old Hexagonal is now an Octagonal. At the same time, while the field’s expanded the calendar has shrunk. There is simply less time to get these…
