U.S. strategy to gain advantage over El Salvador and Honduras will be cold weather

The U.S. national team once again applied the cold weather strategy as a climatic benefit for the octagonal matches in the first FIFA window of 2022 (January-February), when it faces El Salvador on January 27 and Honduras on February at home. 

That's why the U.S. will head to the cold Columbus, Ohio to take on El Salvador and to Saint Paul, Minnesota to face Honduras.

It will be the first time St. Paul, Minnesota, will host a World Cup qualifying match, making it the 21st city to host a duel on the road to a World Cup. It will be Minnesota United's second home duel, following a 4-0 Gold Cup win over Guyana in 2019.

This is not the first time the USMNT has applied the cold weather strategy in these World Cup qualifiers. They did it in Cincinnati against Mexico and it worked. US Soccer defeated "El Tri" 2-0 and are two more wins away from confirming their presence at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. 

USMNT vs El Salvador

With less than five days to go before their match against El Salvador, corresponding to the ninth round of qualifying, Team USA will have a 'freezer' in Columbus, Ohio, as the forecast for the match is -5 degrees Celsius.

The Salvadoran national team will visit Lower.com Field on January 27, 2022. On that date, the weather in Columbus is expected to average between a maximum of 2ºC and a minimum of -7ºC. 

The good news for El Salvador is that, despite the high cold that is expected on January 27, there will be no snow, so the ball will be able to roll without any problem on the Lower.com Field.

Columbus had been one of Team USA's favorite venues in the past, with 11 playoff games since 2000, winning eight and losing only two. They last played there in October 2021 in a 2-1 win over Costa Rica.

In the case of St. Paul, Minnesota, the weather is expected to be between -2 ºC and -11 ºC.

The United States is in second place in the CONCACAF qualifiers and after the three-game January-February window, there would be three qualifiers left, so the U.S. could earn enough points to reach the World Cup in Qatar.