U.S. Soccer announced today that the U.S. Men's National Team is headed to Foxborough’s Gillette Stadium for a pair of important matches in the next five months. In the first match, the U.S. is set to meet CONCACAF foe Honduras in an international match on Wednesday, June 2 at 7:30 p.m. ET at Gillette Stadium in a match to be broadcast via tape delay on Telemundo.
The match would be the team’s final preparation before they begin the Road to Germany 2006 on Sunday, June 13, at Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, where the USA will take on Grenada in the first of a two-game CONCACAF World Cup qualifying series that will end in St. George's, Grenada on June 20.
The winner of the USA-Grenada aggregate goals series will advance to the semifinal round of qualifying, where they will play six round-robin games against three other teams from Aug. 18 through Nov. 17, 2004. Should the U.S. advance past Grenada, the semifinal round home opener is scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 4 and would also be hosted by the three-year-old Gillette Stadium at a time to be determined.
Advance tickets for the June 2 game against Honduras range from $25-$45 and go on sale starting Thursday, April 22 at 10 a.m. Tickets will be available at all Ticketmaster outlets (including all Filene’s stores), by calling 617-931-2000 (Boston), 413-733-2500 (Western Mass.), 207-775-3331 (Maine), 603-868-7300 (New Hampshire) or 401-331-2211 (Rhode Island), and on-line at ussoccer.com. Advanced ticket information for the Sept. 4 match in New England will be announced soon.
"Foxborough has been an outstanding home for soccer and for the U.S. National Teams," said U.S. Manager Bruce Arena, who has led the team to a 1-1-2 record in 2004. "They've hosted a number of important games over the years and we've had great success there. We know that fans from all over the Northeast will come out to support us, and it is a great venue for us to have a home-field advantage in these important matches against two tough CONCACAF opponents."
The U.S. Men’s National Team holds an impressive 10-1-3 mark playing in Foxboro, including an undefeated 7-0-3 record at the old Foxboro Stadium. The U.S. was 4-0-1 in World Cup Qualifiers at the original stadium, including a 2-1 win over Jamaica on Oct. 7, 2001, that clinched a berth to the 2002 World Cup for the U.S., the first time the team has ever done so on its home soil.
The U.S. is 3-1-0 at the new venue, including a trio of wins as part of the 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup. The team’s only blemish in Foxborough was a 2-0 loss to Holland in the team’s final match before the hugely successful World Cup in Korea/Japan.
The U.S. has a 4-3-2 all-time record against Honduras that dates back to 1965. The U.S. defeated a young Honduran team 4-0 in a friendly in front of 38,534 fans in Seattle on March 2, 2002, in the last meeting, but the two teams split their pair of World Cup qualifiers in 2001. The match will mark the first meeting between U.S. MNT manager Arena and Honduras head coach Bora Milutinovic, who held the position from 1991-1995 and led the U.S. to the Round of 16 at the 1994 FIFA World Cup.
In its last match, the U.S. Men’s National Team used a 26th minute strike from midfielder DaMarcus Beasley to defeat Poland for the first win of the year and the first win on European soil since Arena began coaching the team in the Fall of 1998.
The U.S. Men next face arch rival Mexico on Wednesday, April 28 at the
Cotton Bowl in Dallas (live at 7:30 p.m. CT on Telemundo). After the June
2 friendly, the team has a return match against Poland scheduled for July
11 at Chicago's Soldier Field (live at 6 p.m. CT on ESPN2).
