The 2022 World Cup competitors USA and Morocco will face each other for the fourth time in their histories on Wednesday when they meet for a friendly at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati with kickoff at 2:30 am.
The US national team will be pleased with their qualification for the 2022 World Cup, despite their last-gasp defeat by Costa Rica. The US booked their place in Qatar after winning five of their six qualifiers, including a 5-1 victory against Panama that gave them an unassailable lead in their qualifying group.
Although Gregg Berhalter’s side were beaten 2-0 by Costa Rica in their final game, they still qualified automatically from North America as winners of the CONCACAF region.
With fewer than six months until the tournament begins, we are likely to see Berhalter experiment with various players and systems as he looks ahead to Qatar 2022.
The reigning CONCACAF Gold Cup and Nations League champions have not lost in 18 consecutive games on US soil, recording clean sheets in four of their last five matches.
Morocco is currently ranked 24th globally and will be making its second appearance at the World Cup. It will be Vahid Halilhodzic’s first time as a manager at the tournament, having guided four nations (Ivory Coast, Japan, Algeria and Morocco) to their respective World Cup finals.
USA vs Morocco Head to Head
Both sides have one game against each other with hosts winless while visitors with one win. Here is a look at their previous encounters:
Home
- Costa Rica 2-0 USA
- USA 5-1 Panama
- Mexico 0-0 USA
- USA 3-0 Honduras
Away
- Morocco 4-1 DR Congo
- DR Congo 1-1 Morocco
- Egypt 2-1 Morocco
- Morocco 2-1 Malawi
USA Team News
Matt Turner and Zack Steffen have emerged as the frontrunners to be the starting goalkeeper for The US heading into Qatar, and they both had solid outings in qualifying as the future Arsenal man (Turner) collected three clean sheets, while the Man City backup had two.
Morocco Team News
Ayoub El Kaabi led Morocco to a 5-0 win over Congo in their 2022 World Cup qualifying match, while strikes from Tarik Tissoudali and Achraf Hakimi, plus a brace from Azzedine Ounahi helped them defeat the Congo, thus punching their ticket to Qatar.
Prediction and Odds
The Atlas Lions have done well in their qualifying matches, but it will be hard for them to get past an organized and talented US squad.
- USA Win
- Goals Under 2.5
- No Goals: Away
