CHICAGO (AP) — The United States will play an exhibition against Bosnia and Herzegovina on Dec. 18 at Carson, California, to keep its Major League Soccer-based players fit ahead of January World Cup qualifiers.
The match announced Tuesday is not on a FIFA international fixture date, which means neither team will have most of its Europe-based players.
The U.S. is second in the final round of the World Cup qualifying in North and Central American and the Caribbean through six of 14 matches. The Americans host Mexico on Nov. 12 at Cincinnati and are at Jamaica four days later, then play three qualifiers from Jan. 27 to Feb. 2 and their final three from March 24-30.
MLS’s regular season ends Sunday and its postseason ends Dec. 11. The U.S. training camp will start Dec. 5 at Carson.
Coach Gregg Berhalter also plans a January training camp for the MLS players before the Europe-based players report ahead of the qualifiers.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is fourth in Europe Group D behind France, Ukraine and Finland heading into qualifiers against Finland on Nov. 13 and Ukraine four days later, both in Zenica.
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