Drone spotted above USMNT training before Concacaf Gold Cup semifinal against Guatemala

A drone controlled by a non -created party flew on Tuesday about the training session of the American national team on Tuesday in St. Louis, where the group is preparing for the semi -final of Wednesday Concaf Gold Cup against Guatemala.

Members of US Soccer staff are busy identifying the drone, According to ESPN. The USMNT had three own drones to record their training session, but the fourth drone came as a surprise, later landed outside the fenced perimeter and near a temporary employment compound on the training site.

It was not the only disruption during the training session of the USMNT on Tuesday, where a group of people were reportedly caught filming the team before being asked to stop. It is currently unclear whether the two incidents are related.

The USMNT will be confronted with Guatemala in St. Louis’ Energizer Park in the Gold Cup Semifinals on Wednesday, focused on their first performance in the final since winning the competition in 2021. Guatemala will meanwhile reach their first Gold Cup and Halve Games for the first time in the history of the team.

Drones, a surprise concacaf staple

Although teams have a better chance than they would ever use to use drones to record their own training sessions, there have been stories about teams from North -America with drones to spy on their opponents.

The most striking among them is the Canada Drone scandal that turned the 2024 Olympic Games upside down, which later led FIFA to moor the Women’s National Team Six Points and resulted in the then head coach Bev Priestman who was dismissed from her post. The team had used drones to watch the training sessions of opponents for years, by reports, in a practice introduced by John Herdman, formerly the head coach of both Canada’s Women’s and Men’s National Teams from 2011 to 2018. According to TSNHerdman heard the practice discussing in 2016 at the U-17 Women’s Championship Concacaf.

Herdman received a written admonition in May After a disciplinary hearing for an independent committee.