The US men’s national team met Germany in a pre-World Cup friendly at Chicago’s Soldier Field on Saturday, June 6, a scheduled final tune-up for both sides less than a week before the tournament opens.
Searches for "USA vs Germany" spiked because the match was the last high-profile test on American soil ahead of the 2026 World Cup, coming off the USMNT’s 3-2 victory over Senegal in Charlotte on May 31 and a 26-man roster announced by coach Mauricio Pochettino last week.
Pochettino pointed to one player in particular as he shaped his attacking options: Sebastian Berhalter, who logged the most minutes against Senegal and, Pochettino said, has the fitness and temperament to handle heavy workloads. The coach praised Berhalter’s intensity — saying he could play two matches in a row, that the midfielder is “a monster” in his words, and that he appears to operate beyond the usual physical limits — and added that his forwards are producing chances and goals as a group.
Germany arrived in Chicago with a roster that included Jamal Musiala, Joshua Kimmich, Florian Wirtz and Kai Havertz, underscoring why this friendly felt like a step up in class. Framed as the USMNT’s toughest pre-tournament opponent, the four-time world champions brought the kind of star power and tactical discipline that previously troubled the Americans in March, when the US lost to European heavyweights Belgium and Portugal.
The contrast is stark: the team that beat Senegal provided momentum and confidence, but Germany offered a sterner examination of how Pochettino’s lineup handles pace, possession and late-game pressure. That gap — a freshly confident US side versus a European powerhouse still sharpening its own World Cup form — is the match’s clearest lesson for Pochettino and his staff.
Beyond the collective test, the most immediate questions are personal and decisive. Pochettino has to choose which forwards will start, and whether he uses Berhalter as a high-minute anchor again. The options include Ricardo Pepi, Folarin Balogun and Haji Wright among the striker candidates; Pochettino has emphasized that his strikers are creating goals, but he has not fixed a single, unambiguous plan heading into the tournament.
What happens next is concrete: the 2026 World Cup begins on June 11, and the USMNT open their tournament against Paraguay in Los Angeles on June 12 at 9:00 p.m. ET. The lineup decisions made in Chicago — who starts, who finishes, and whether Berhalter is rolled out as a multi-game workhorse — will be watched as immediate signals of how Pochettino intends to approach a World Cup group stage that begins days after this friendly.
