The Concacaf Nations League is suffocating the USMNT, CanMNT and El Tri

There are plenty of legitimate reasons to criticize the performance of the United States Soccer

men’s national team over the weekend in the Concacaf Nations League.

More worrying than the final scores in a 1-0 loss to Panama Football

and 2-1 loss to Canada Football

was the palpable lack of energy throughout the squad, sending a message that, despite being only 15 months from the beginning of the 2026 World Cup, focus and buy-in are still lacking.

But all the hand-wringing ignores some very crucial context: The Nations League is still a new competition. It has taken up an extraordinary amount of real estate for the region’s top international sides, and it has artificially inflated the number of “big” games those sides play. And it’s doing so despite a lack of any evidence that there is benefit for the region’s elite international sides, aside from generating ticket revenue.

In fact, the circumstances suggest the tournament has become a toxic chore first for Mexico Football

and the USMNT, and will soon be that way for Canada if the fan expectations around that program continues to grow.

Familiar teams preempt

A glut of Concacaf commitments has resulted in an oversaturation of games against regional foes

Even before the Nations League, Concacaf sides were forced to play their version of the continental championship — the Concacaf Gold Cup

— twice as often as UEFA and CONMEBOL nations now play theirs.

Throw in the Nations League and there is clearly an imbalance between games that help the three 2026 World Cup

co-hosts grow, and games that stoke the flames of regional rivalry but actually provide far less value in terms of generating momentum and tactics toward a strong World Cu.

Consider the Americans’ match load following the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In total, the USMNT has played 67 total matches. Of those, 42 have been sanctioned competitive Concacaf fixtures, including World Cup qualifying (14), the Gold Cup (12) and Nations League (16). In that span, the USMNT has played six Concacaf semifinals and four finals.

Because the United States is the United States, those high-leverage matches generally bring very little to gain in terms of fan support, and a lot to lose.

Remember, a sizable portion of the U.S. fans still opposed Berhalter despite winning three consecutive Nations League titles. But now, the Americans’ first failure to win the tournament has brought widespread catastrophizing among fans and pundits alike.

This isn’t only a USMNT problem. Failures in Concacaf Nations League have also contributed to Mexico going through four coaches between the start of the 2022 World Cup and now. A Concacaf-heavy schedule in 2021-22 may have also contributed to the worst Mexico World Cup showing since it was disqualified from the 1990 tournament.

No easy way out

Scheduling high-quality friendlies is harder than ever

It’s unlikely Concacaf considers its competitions a problem, though. Playing real or perceived “high-stakes” international games on American soil is enormously profitable. But even if it did, and even if it wanted to rectify the problem, there are few obvious solutions.

Europe has launched its own UEFA Nations League

project, one that is far more beneficial for nations of all sizes and footballing statuses. That makes it increasingly hard for Concacaf teams to schedule friendlies against high-profile European foes, the kind that can test a team’s ceiling more than playing Costa Rica for a fifth time.

And while the drawbacks of Concacaf Nations League are real for the USAs, Mexicos and Canadas of the federation, the competition has demonstrably helped give more match opportunities to smaller nations that need them.

If there is a solution out there, it may be some sort of compromise with CONMEBOL, which could easily cut back its exhausting 18-match World Cup qualifying format to open space on the schedule for a Nations League-style competition involving teams from both federations.

South American teams at the top and bottom of their own power structure could also benefit from having more diverse competition introduced to their four-year cycles. But CONMEBOL and Concacaf would both have to feel like they’d be benefiting from such a relationship, so finding a satisfactory format prove daunting.

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