Doug McIntyre
Soccer Journalist
The United States men’s national team will take on two-time World Cup champion Uruguay in its final match of 2025, according to multiple sources.
The friendly game, the second of two exhibitions the Americans will play during FIFA’s November international fixture window, will take place on Nov. 18 at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida – the 75,000-seat home of the NFL’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The identity of the USMNT first opponent that month is expected to be announced in the coming days. That foe is also expected to come from the CONMEBOL region that includes the top 10 South American nations.
After November, U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino will have just two more tune-up matches left in March before he has to submit his 26-player roster for the 2026 World Cup that will be co-hosted next summer by the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
The U.S. Soccer Federation had been in discussions to host record five-time world champ Brazil in November, multiple sources told me, but the two sides were unable to reach an agreement in time to schedule the contest.
Uruguay sits fourth in CONMEBOL qualifying behind three teams who’ve already booked World Cup spots – Argentina, Brazil, and Ecuador. La Celeste hosts ninth-place Peru in qualifying action on Thursday before playing at last-place Chile on Sept. 9.
The U.S., who qualified as World Cup hosts, has two friendlies this month – Korea Republic on Saturday in Harrison, New Jersey, and then Japan next Tuesday in Columbus, Ohio.
Uruguay will play the U.S. men’s team in a friendly in November. (Photo by Omar Vega/Getty Images)
Uruguay won the inaugural FIFA World Cup in 1930 and again claimed soccer’s biggest prize in 1950. La Celeste is currently ranked 16th by global soccer’s governing body, one spot behind the No. 15 USMNT.
The two teams played last year, a 1-0 victory for Uruguay in Kansas City in both squads’ group stage finale at the 2024 Copa América. The defeat made the U.S. the first host in tournament history to be eliminated before the knockout rounds. That led U.S. Soccer to part ways with Gregg Berhalter, who was then replaced last September by Pochettino.
The U.S. and La Celeste also played to a scoreless draw in the lead-up to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Uruguay leads the all-time series, which began more than a century ago, with a record of three wins and two losses, along with four draws. The USMNT’s last win in the series came in 2002.
Uruguay boasts several all-world talents, including Barcelona defender Ronald Araujo and Real Madrid midfielder Federico Valverde. They are led by legendary Argentine manager Marcelo Bielsa, who once recruited a teenage Pochettino to Newell’s Old Boys, his first professional club.
Pochettino’s side will meet Ecuador on Oct. 10 in a friendly in Austin, Texas, before taking on Australia on Oct. 14 in Commerce City, Colorado.
Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports who has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @ByDougMcIntyre.
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