AL-RAYYAN, Qatar — Four days before its opening World Cup game against Wales, the United States men’s national team scheduled a closed-door training session with Qatari Stars League side Al-Gharafa SC.
Details about how the training session was structured were not available — only that it was not deemed a scrimmage — but the need to involve an outside team into preparation is reflective of the challenges with beginning the tournament in November.
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With only about a week together before the first game, coach Gregg Berhalter opted against lining up a more formal friendly, as other teams that start deeper in the tournament have done.
Al-Gharafa sits in fourth place in Qatar’s 12-team domestic league and its home ground, Thani bin Jassim Stadium, will serve as the U.S.’ training site for the duration of its tournament run.
For DeAndre Yedlin, the only holdover from the team’s last World Cup appearance in 2014, it’s has been a different process than the lead up to Brazil. Before that World Cup, the team trained together for about a month in the United States and played three friendlies before departing for the tournament.
Yedlin has been peppered with questions from teammates about how Qatar compares to what he experienced eight years ago.
“The answer I’ve given is you’re really playing all the games in one city,” Yedlin said.
“In Brazil, you’re flying three or fours hours so you can’t really have a base. We had base hotel but it didn’t feel like a base. Whereas here the first thing Gregg told us was ‘Unpack your things, put your books in the bookshelf, put your clothes in drawers, get comfortable.’ Psychologically, that has a big positive effect on people.”
