- The planned trip from England to the US next year is now canceled
- Thomas Tuchel’s team has been placed in the World Cup qualifying group of five teams
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England will now not travel to America for two friendlies in June after Friday’s World Cup qualifying draw placed them in a group of five teams.
If Thomas Tuchel and his players had been drawn with just three other teams, they would not have qualified for the 2026 World Cup until September 2026. This would have left room on the calendar for two lucrative matches in the US at the end of this season .
As it stands, England will now begin the qualification process during the March international break, when they expect to play one qualifying match and one friendly. They expect to do the same in June.
The development certainly averts what could have been a difficult situation between club and country at the end of what is set to be another debilitating domestic season.
Players from Manchester City and Chelsea, for example, will appear at the new and renewed Club World Cup in America from mid-June to mid-July. That tournament will also feature Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham and England captain Harry Kane, who will play for Bayern Munich.
Their clubs had not wanted their star players to play two friendlies in the US between the end of the domestic season at the end of May and the start of the Club World Cup just over two weeks later.
Thomas Tuchel’s England will now not travel to America for two friendlies in June after the World Cup draw