The U.S. men’s soccer team will play in North Jersey in September

The U.S. men’s soccer team will come the closest it has to Philadelphia for a while when it plays South Korea in Harrison, N.J. on Sept. 6.

Though the venue is now called Sports Illustrated Stadium instead of Red Bull Arena, it‘s still plenty familiar to local fans who travel there for exhibitions, the Union’s visit to the New York Red Bulls, and the NWSL’s Gotham FC.

The U.S. men haven’t played there since 2017, when they lost a World Cup qualifier to Costa Rica. It wasn’t what ultimately knocked them out of the 2018 tournament, but it was a harbinger of things to come.

In the years that followed, the Americans visited Subaru Park in 2018 for a friendly, Lincoln Financial Field in 2019 for the Concacaf Gold Cup, and MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., later in 2019 for a friendly.

They didn’t play another game anywhere in the Northeast until October 2023, when they went to East Hartford, Conn., for a friendly. Last summer, they played a Copa América warmup game in Landover, Md.

This year, they will stop twice in this part of the country: East Hartford on June 7 for a Gold Cup tuneup against Türkiye, and the September friendly.

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Three days after the South Korea game, the U.S. will face another stern test from an Asian power in a friendly against Japan in Columbus, Ohio. In March, Japan became the first team to earn qualification for the 2026 World Cup, with the three cohosts automatically in.

Since then, New Zealand, Iran, and reigning champion Argentina have booked their tickets.

The U.S. men haven’t played South Korea — officially the Korea Republic in the soccer world — since a 2014 friendly in suburban Los Angeles. They haven’t played Japan since a 2022 World Cup warmup on neutral turf in Germany.

After these games, there will be just three FIFA windows left before the 2026 World Cup arrives: October, November, and next March.

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Tickets for both contests go on sale to the public on Friday at 10 a.m. A series of presales for various groups starts Wednesday at 10 a.m.

It always stirs people up when the national team unveils new jerseys, and that happened again on Tuesday. U.S. Soccer unveiled two kits, a dark blue one with red-and-blue pinstripes and a white one with blue stars that‘s exclusive to the women’s team.

The latter hearkens back to perhaps the most famous U.S. jersey of all time: the 1994 men’s World Cup shirt that was denim-shade blue with white stars.

Since the women’s team plays sooner than the men, they will have the first crack at the new jerseys, They’ll wear the white kit in a May 31 friendly vs. China in St. Paul, Minn., and we’ll see which one they wear on June 3 vs. Jamaica in St. Louis.

The men’s team will wear the dark blue jersey for the first time in the Türkiye game.

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June 7: vs. Türkiye in East Hartford, Conn., 3:30 p.m. (TNT, truTV, Telemundo 62, Universo, Max, Peacock)

June 10: vs. Switzerland in Nashville, 8 p.m. (TNT, truTV, Universo, Max, Peacock)

June 15: vs. Trinidad & Tobago in San Jose, Calif., Concacaf Gold Cup group stage, 6 p.m. (Fox and Univision channels TBD)

June 19: vs. Saudi Arabia in Austin, Texas, Gold Cup group stage, 9:15 p.m. (Fox and Univision channels TBD)

June 22: vs. Haiti in Arlington, Texas, Gold Cup group stage, 7 p.m. (Fox and Univision channels TBD)

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June 28 or 29: Gold Cup quarterfinal in Glendale, Ariz. or (more likely) Minneapolis, time TBD (Fox and Univision channels TBD)

July 2: Gold Cup semifinal in Santa Clara, Calif. or (more likely) St. Louis, time TBD (Fox and Univision channels TBD)

July 6: Gold Cup final in Houston, 7 p.m. (Fox and Univision channels TBD)

Sept. 6: vs. South Korea in Harrison, N.J., 5 p.m. (TNT, Telemundo 62, Universo, Max, Peacock)

Sept. 9: vs. Japan in Columbus, Ohio, 7:30 p.m. (TNT, Telemundo 62, Universo, Max, Peacock)

May 31: vs. China in St. Paul, Minn., 5:30 p.m. (TBS, Universo, Max, Peacock)

June 3: vs. Jamaica in St. Louis, 8 p.m. (TNT, Universo, Max, Peacock)

June 26: vs. Republic of Ireland in Commerce City, Colo., 9 p.m. (TBS, truTV, Universo, Max, Peacock)

June 29: vs. Republic of Ireland in Cincinnati, 3 p.m. (TNT, truTV, Universo, Max, Peacock)

July 2: vs. Canada in Washington, 7:30 p.m. (TNT, truTV, Universo, Max, Peacock)