THE BASICS

MNT vs. Brazil

Date: Friday, September 7th, 2018

Location: MetLife Stadium (East Rutherford, NJ)

Time: 7:30pm ET (coverage), KO... closer to 8pm ET

TV: FS1, UniMas, UDN

Watch with your #AOFamily at one of nearly 200 chapters bars 

THE HYPE

It's been a couple of minutes, hasn't it? The MNT last squad'ed up vs. France back in June tying the eventual World Cup champions, 1-1. It means we get shared custody of the trophy every other weekend now.

So, yeah, there was this whole World Cup thing over the summer and now we're here with a series of high-profile friendlies starting with Brazil tonight.

The roster features a whole slate of kiddos ready to put the past behind them and make their own name for themselves.

“I hope they’re ready for us. We’re going to be a challenge for them," said Timothy Weah when asked about facing five-time World Cup champs Brazil and three PSG teammates in Neymar, Thiago Silva and Marquinhos.

“I told them, ‘I’m still going to beat you, because we’re not scared of you guys. We’re not scared of anything to be honest.’”

OK SON.

We like this confident approach from the youngsters and we're ready for a fight as we face the likes of Mexico (Nashville), Colombia (Tampa), England (London), Italy (TBD), and possible one more opponent before the end of the year.

A World Cup year without a World Cup for the MNT wasn't easy, but we're bullish on the future (you may have heard we're #HereForTheFuture).

You may even have heard that we sent the guys a bunch of notes from you, our family.

Just check out this roster where the average age is like 24 and the likes of DeAndre Yedlin and John Brooks are considered VETERANS. "Play your kids" they say. Alrighty... here we go.

*IN Marky Delgado - OUT Sebastian Lletget

BRAZIL ROSTER

Led by Neymar, 13 of the players featured for Brazil at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, while 11 players combined for a total of 21 trophies won across domestic and European club competitions last season (Source: USSoccer.com).

WHATEVER. 

GOALKEEPERS (3): Alisson (Liverpool/ENG), Hugo (Flamengo), Neto (Valencia)

DEFENDERS (8): Alex Sandro (Juventus/ITA), Dedé (Cruzeiro), Fabinho (Liverpool/ENG), Fagner (Corinthians), Felipe (Porto/POR), Filipe Luís (Atlético Madrid/ESP), Marquinhos (Paris Saint-Germain/FRA), Thiago Silva (Paris Saint-Germain/FRA)

MIDFIELDERS (8): Andreas Pereira (Manchester United/ENG), Arthur (Barcelona/ESP), Casemiro (Real Madrid/ESP), Fred(Manchester United/ENG), Lucas Paquetá (Flamengo), Philippe Coutinho (Barcelona/ESP), Renato Augusto (Beijing Gouan/CHN), Willian (Chelsea/ENG)

FORWARDS (5): Douglas Costa (Juventus/ITA), Éverton (Grêmio), Roberto Firmino (Liverpool/ENG), Neymar (Paris Saint-Germain/FRA), Pedro (Fluminense)

You can still be mad about the World Cup, but you can also feel happy about the MNT being back in action with a buncha fresh faces in front of us.

Find your local AO chapter, grab a beer and some nachos, watch these kids and their swagger, and learn to love again.

Because we love you, too, still.

XOXO,

AO