West Ham confirm first World Cup break friendly

West Ham United have confirmed their first World Cup break friendly in an official announcement on the club website.

It says a lot about West Ham’s progress under Moyes in the last two-and-a-half years that they now have a squad filled with international stars.

But not all of them will be heading out to Qatar for the first ever winter World Cup next month.

West Ham signed eight players to the tune of over £170m in the summer. And seven of them are fully fledged internationals.

The likes of Lucas Paqueta, Thilo Kehrer, Nayef Aguerd – if he can get fit in time – and Alphonse Areola will surely all be heading out to Qatar with the Brazil, Germany, Morocco and France national teams respectively.

West Ham captain Declan Rice will be one of the first names on Gareth Southgate’s England squad list while Jarrod Bowen has a chance too having been named in the last squad.

Pablo Fornals will be hoping he can earn a place in Luis Enrique’s Spain squad but is also an outside shot having been in and out of the setup under the former Barcelona manager.

A host of West Ham’s players definitely won’t be flying out to the Middle East in November.

Italy trio Gianluca Scamacca, Emerson Palmieri and Angelo Ogbonna won’t be there because the Azzurri did not qualify.

It is the same story for Ivory Coast winger Maxwel Cornet, Algeria playmaker Said Benrahma, Jamaica striker Michail Antonio and Czech duo Tomas Soucek and Vladimir Coufal.

With a number of other West Ham players not involved with their national teams there were be a sizeable contingent left behind at Rush Green.

There is no precedent for a World Cup in the middle of the season. So West Ham and the other 19 Premier League clubs are entering uncharted waters.

Hammers boss David Moyes recently revealed West Ham have friendlies planned for World Cup break.

The Scot told talkSPORT that the club have some friendly matches in the pipeline for the break which lasts for six weeks between November 14th and Boxing Day.

“Yea we have (got a fair few who will be remaining here and not going to the World Cup),” Moyes said on talkSPORT Breakfast.

“And it will mean that it will be a decision of how we’re doing, what sort of games we’re going to have to play.

“We’ve sort of got a couple of friendlies half prepared at the moment for when we do have the break.”

Now the identity of one of those opponents has been revealed.

West Ham have confirmed their first World Cup break friendly in an official announcement on club website.

The Hammers first team squad left behind during the World Cup break will head to EFL League One side Cambridge United for a mid-season friendly match on Tuesday 6 December.

“David Moyes will take his team to the Abbey Stadium for the 7pm kick-off – a Testimonial for long-serving U’s captain and Hammers fan Greg Taylor,” the club states on whufc.com.

“The trip to Cambridge promises to give the Hammers a strong test two weeks before the 2022/23 Premier League campaign resumes following the break for the FIFA World Cup finals in Qatar.”

West Ham say ticket details will be confirmed in due course.

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