February 04, 2022

What the USMNT Need to Qualify: The U.S. men have three more qualifying matches in late March: at Mexico, Panama (in Orlando) and at Costa Rica. They're in second place with 21 points and either three or four teams will get in. Here's a rundown on what they need to avoid another colossal national heartbreak.

posted by rcade to soccer at 02:34 PM - 4 comments

The U.S. has never won in Mexico's great soccer cathedral.

We did. In a 2012 friendly.

posted by Ricardo at 04:07 PM on February 04, 2022

I caught a little of the 2nd half vs Honduras, tuning in just in time to see Pulicic enter the game. Within seconds he drew a foul, and then later scored the 3rd US goal when the ball found him during a scramble following a corner. I don't know what happened with Pulicic against Canada, perhaps it was good marking, but it might well be "as Pulicic goes, so goes the Nation". The bad news is that I still have to put up with comments from my Nova Scotian cousins about their win over US.

posted by Howard_T at 04:42 PM on February 04, 2022

We did. In a 2012 friendly.

Yep, and followed that up with a draw in our next WCQ at Azteca (2013), which was our second ever WCQ result at Mexico.

USMNT's play in the most recent set of three games left a bit to be desired, however (1) the team got a bit better with each game, (2) the cold weather at all three stops can be viewed as having hampered play (for everyone), and (3) six points still leaves them in a solid position to qualify. The stakes go up in March, and the difficulty increases--playing the three teams we are looking to stay ahead of.

There is good reason to be optimistic for the World Cup, if/when that qualification eventually comes. We have a very youthful team that has shown a lot of raw talent and a lot of upside. With the World Cup not until November, there are several months for them to develop further.

*Aside: I made the trip to Columbus for the match against El Salvador. That really is a beautiful new stadium they have there, and there was a raucous crowd to go with it. Even having to wait well into the second half for the lone goal to be scored, the entire stadium was on its feed for the entire match.

posted by bender at 02:28 PM on February 06, 2022

[Double post]

posted by bender at 02:28 PM on February 06, 2022

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