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

The U.S. Soccer staff is reportedly in the process of trying to find out where the drone came from

A drone controlled by an unidentified party flew over the U.S. men's national team training session on Tuesday in St. Louis, where the group is preparing for Wednesday's Concacaf Gold Cup semifinal against Guatemala.

Members of U.S. Soccer's staff are in the process of identifying the drone, according to ESPN. The USMNT had three drones of their own to record their training session but the fourth drone came as a surprise, later landing outside the fenced perimeter and near a broadcast compound at the training site.

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

The USMNT will face Guatemala at St. Louis' Energizer Park in the Gold Cup semifinals on Wednesday, targeting their first appearance in the final since winning the competition in 2021. Guatemala, meanwhile, will play their first Gold Cup semifinal since 1996 and hope to reach the final for the first time in the team's history.

Drones, a surprise Concacaf staple

While teams are more likely than they once were to use drones to record their own training sessions, there have been stories of teams from North America using drones to spy on their opponents.

The most notable among them is the Canada drone scandal that rocked the 2024 Olympics, which later led FIFA to dock the women's national team six points and resulted in then-head coach Bev Priestman being fired from her post. The team had used drones to watch opponents' training sessions for years, with TSN reporting that members of Canada Soccer's staff were using the tactic as early as 2016 at the Concacaf U-17 Women's Championship. The list of reported incidents includes an episode in January 2021 involving Canada's men's national team using a drone to spy on the USMNT, with an ESPN report describing Canada's then-head coach John Herdman as a "common denominator" in the list of incidents. Herdman denied wrongdoing last year.

An independent review commissioned by Canada Soccer in November found that "practice of conducting surreptitious surveillance of opponents" predated the Olympics. At the time, the federation said it also "initiated a proceeding with respect to Mr. Herdman under its Disciplinary Code." In a subsequent disciplinary hearing in front of an independent committee in May, Herdman received a written admonishment.

"The independent committee informed the parties that Mr. Herdman was found to have committed misconduct under the Canada Soccer Disciplinary Code," Canada Soccer said in a statement to the Canadian Press. "The committee determined the appropriate sanction was a letter of admonishment and informed the parties that their decision was final and binding. Canada Soccer is still analyzing the committee's decision."