The USMNT face four-time world champions Germany today in the second of two friendly games programmed before the 2026 World Cup. Soldier Field in Chicago will host the match - the last warm up before Team USA’s first World Cup match on June 12 against Paraguay.

First meeting in Chicago in 1993

The two nations have met a number of times in both official and unofficial competition - the first meeting was just over three decades ago, in 1993, in the second edition of the U.S. Cup, an invitational tournament with four participating teams. After losing to Brazil, then beating England, Bora Milutinovic’s USMNT faced the reigning world champions at Chicago’s Soldier Field for a place in the final.

Eight members of Germany’s 1990 World Cup triumph took part in the tournament, including iconic players such as Lothar Matthäus (gaining his 100th cap) and Jürgen Klinsmann - both of whom would later be involved with US soccer at club and international level.

And those two combined for the opener - Klinsmann nodded in Matthäus’ corner on the quarter hour as the Germans capitalized on their early dominance. The hosts were back level 10 minutes later when Thomas Dooley turned in Wegerle’s centre but after that, the goals started flowing in with Karl-Heinz Riedle completing his hat trick in less than an hour - all headers! Late goals from Dooley and Stewart ensured a gripping final 10 minutes but it ended 3-4 on the whistle.

Germany beaten

The next two meetings with Die Mannschaft ended in defeat and it wasn’t until February 1999 that USMNT would record their first win against Germany and the first victory under coach Bruce Arena. The team had gone almost 300 minutes without scoring a goal, yet took just 11 minutes to fire three past the European champions - Jovan Kirovski, Tony Sanneh and Claudio Reyna all finding a way past Oliver Kahn to make it a memorable afternoon for the USMNT in Jacksonville.

In total, the USMNT has registered four wins in their 11 meetings with Germany and lost the rest. Three of those defeats came during three separate editions of the World Cup (1998, 2002 and 2014). Recent games have been closely contested - the last three were all decided by the minimum, the US edged the last game between the two - a friendly in Cologne in June 2015 - the team’s first win on German soil.

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