The US Men's National Team has an incredible home field advantage over visiting teams, and going into the remainder of World Cup 2018 qualifying campaign the USMNT needs to capitalize on this "12th man". In an effort to climb global rankings, the USMNT can rely heavily on our country's geography and local supporters by playing more games within the U.S.A. The sheer size and geographical characteristics of the US make travel for visiting teams secretly difficult. Whether it's elevation, climate, or hometown supporters, playing more games at home can only help as USMNT coach Jurgen Klinsmann rebuilds the currently struggling side and strives for WC 2018 qualifying.
In soccer whether a team is playing at home or away can play a huge role psychologically and physiologically on the player. Most notably this can be seen in the tournament structure of the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League home-away legs, where weaker teams often beat the bigger and favored clubs when playing at home. At the international level, the World Cup victories of Uruguay (1930), Italy (1934), England (1966), Germany (1974), Argentina (1978) and France (1998) are all in part attributed to the fact that the World Cup was held in the winner's country. A 2006 study by The Times found that in the Barclays Premier League, a home team can be expected to score 37.29% more goals than the away team. Although this changes depending on the quality of the teams involved, the point is the advantage can be pretty massive. Whether familiarity of the grounds, weather conditions, language, food or cheers of the fans, playing at home can be like running with the wind at your back.
Compared to most other countries, the United States of America, with its large size, diverse range of climates and geographic variety, can be difficult on athletes as they jump time zones and change elevations. For this reason, it makes the MLS one of the most difficult leagues to play in. Along the east coast a player can experience the humid tropics of the southern tip of Florida, subtropics in the southern states and the cold humid continental climate of the Northeastern states. Imagine a mid-summer game in Louisiana or Florida, where the air is so humid and thick it's practically tangible. It would be great to play a country like Sweden or England or even defending World Cup Champions, Germany in the likes of the Southeast. It might bring guys like Zlatan and Muller down to Earth.
Heading towards the Midwest the climate gets arid and as most all Americans know, the winters can be brutal close to the Great Lakes. The wind coming South off the lakes can create temperatures well into the negatives. If it were me, I would want to play a team like Mexico or Honduras or one of the South American countries in Chicago. The harsh wind and cold of Chicago could really play in the favor of an acclimated home side. We all can remember the old highlights of the '86 Bears winning a Super Bowl in some down-right difficult weather conditions.
Now, it gets really interesting heading towards the Rockies where the climate is classified as alpine. Only a few countries experience alpine weather characteristics. We can look back to March 22, 2013, the WC qualifier when the US played Costa Rica for a spot in that summer's World Cup in Brazil. Played at Dicks Sporting Goods Park just outside of Denver, Colorado, in clear blizzard conditions, this was a job well done in terms of home field advantage. Maybe even a bit harsh considering the conditions. Visibility reduced to simply a white blizzard; a plow was brought on to clear the field lines. The US wearing white, green and whites lines, The Costa Ricans, I can only imagine could not distinguish between a US player, the snow or even the ball. They had no idea how to prepare. Not to mention the elevation change. How does a Costa Rican National Team prepare for a game in a blizzard a mile above sea-level? In the end, the US won 1-0 to solidify their place in the World Cup in Brazil, crushing Costa-Rica's hopes of qualifying. Obviously, the Costa Ricans were furious and questions were certainly asked, but not about where they were playing, but about the specific decision to play in those weather conditions.
The coastal region of California is categorized as Mediterranean, and, in my opinion, the most ideal weather I would want to play in. From that perspective Coastal Cali may not provide that much of an advantage, but, as far as, changing time zones is concerned it would definitely be difficult for a European player to adjust to the time change and long travel necessary to cover such a distance. Imagine being Italian, playing in Italy, enjoying your margarita pizza and chianti's all day, and then suddenly jetting to California, a 9 hour difference. Assuming kick-off is at 7pm, that would be 4am in Italy. It's safe to say that 15 hours in a plane across multiple time zones and the Atlantic Ocean could be a bit difficult. Obviously, the team would get there with time to adjust, but 9 hours is still a big difference. Travel is still tough on the legs even with time to adjust.
Now the Northwest, to me, is another gold mine for home field advantage. It provides a good blend of both fairly difficult weather conditions and great supporters. This region of the US provides visitors with an oceanic climate consistent with most of Western Europe. So the northwest would be ideal when playing the likes of Mexico or other CONCACAF countries. Most teams from this region are located in warm tropical or desert climates near the equator.
Going back to October 10th, 2015, the USMNT played Mexico in Pasadena, CA and unfortunately lost, the support was probably split 60/40. Some of my mates, attended the match and said it was incredible; 93,000 strong, but of the thousands of fans in the stands, they said 70 percent were repping the green, white and red, while the quiet 30 percent were supporting the red, white and blue. They felt alone, cornered up against a wall in their own house. Obviously the social demographics and geographic location of Southern California are conducive to a pro-Mexico supporter, but where is the home field advantage? It was 91 degrees and partly cloudy. Weather similar, if not, the same to what a player in Mexico would experience. This was an important game with invitation to the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia on the line. It's a tough pill to swallow, a 3-2 defeat on our home soil to a side we know how to beat.
The USMNT has a 12th man that needs to be used and that's home field advantage. The geographical characteristics of the US make travel for visiting players and supporters difficult, and if there is a time to play at home it's now. Most importantly we need to qualify for the World Cup 2018 in Russia. Currently, second in our group for WC qualifying and ranked 29th in the world on FIFA World Rankings we're not in the worse spot, but we've been better. We've moved up one place since the last rankings came out and we need to keep progressing. The potential is there. The pieces are there. We just need to put them all together.
