The adversaries had been identified since Friday evening. It remained to know the precise schedule and the stadiums in which the France team will play next summer during the 2026 World Cup (June 11-July 19) in the United States.
The Blues already knew that by being in Group I, they would play on the East Coast but the cities still had to be defined.
Kylian Mbappé’s teammates are now set. They will first challenge Senegal on Tuesday June 16 at MetLife Stadium in New York, then the winner of the intercontinental play-off (Bolivia, Suriname or Iraq) on Monday June 22 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, and finally Norway on Friday June 26 at Gillette Stadium in Boston.
The other question, worrying for Didier Deschamps’ staff due to the high heat expected in the middle of summer in the United States, concerned the match times.
A match at 11 p.m. in France
Unsurprisingly due to the time difference and the need to offer matches at a decent time in Europe, the Blues will play in the middle of the afternoon in the United States, at 3 p.m. (9 p.m. Paris time), 5 p.m. (11 p.m.), then again 3 p.m. (9 p.m.).
“The heat is a subject, like the distances, the recovery days,” admitted the Blues coach Friday evening after the draw in Washington. We will have to adapt and also make sure to reduce travel to limit fatigue. Everything is important! »
And now find base camp
From this precise calendar will now result a more active search for the base camp, a decisive choice in the success of the competition. “Members of the staff have just spent a week here trying to clear the bush and study the options,” said Didier Deschamps. We will go deeper from Sunday to validate our base camp. »
Over luxury, the coach above all favors a spacious, modern establishment, promoting group cohesion, equipped with real collective living spaces, with outdoor areas and practical proximity to the training ground. He has excellent memories of Doha in 2022 or Istra in Russia in 2018.
Arriving Thursday on the eve of the draw, Didier Deschamps and Guy Stephan stayed in the United States for a few days to visit different establishments in the east of the country. Philippe Diallo, the president of the FFF, confirmed on Friday that it would undoubtedly be located between Boston and New York where a hotel would have already caught the attention of some of the French staff who had gone on a scouting trip in recent days. The final option must be validated before January 9, the deadline imposed by Fifa.
