The U.S. men’s national soccer team will play Cuba on Friday at Audi Field in the Nations League.
If you are not familiar with the Nations League, you are forgiven.
It falls under the auspices of Concacaf, the sport’s regional authority, but it’s not a World Cup qualifier or the Gold Cup. Yet in a tangled, only-in-soccer way, this new competition is tied to both of those established tournaments.
And it comes at the expense of high-profile friendlies typically scheduled in such FIFA match windows.
In autumn 2018, the Americans faced Colombia, Peru, England and Italy.