The 2017 Confederations Cup kicks off today in Russia. The international tournament is played once every four years, always in the host country the year before the World Cup. The premise of that competition is that the champion of each continent's confederation, plus the host country and World Cup holder (8 teams in total) meet for a trial run of the World Cup. It isn't necessarily the most appealing tournament, with just eight countries involved, but it is high quality soccer to watch in the summer nonetheless.
The United States Men's National Team is not involved in this tournament (Remember that extra-time loss to Mexico a while ago?