My 3 Thoughts on Costa Rica-USMNT
My 3 Thoughts on Costa Rica-USMNT
The U.S. Clinches a Berth in World Cup 2022, But Another Loss in Costa Rica Made Sure It Didn't Look Pretty
SAN JOSÉ, Costa Rica — The USMNT clinched a berth in World Cup 2022 despite losing to Costa Rica 2-0 in the 14th and final game of the World Cup qualifying Octagonal on Wednesday. Here are my three thoughts on the game:
Fútbol with Grant Wahl is a reader-supported soccer newsletter. You can sign up (free or paid) to get my posts in your inbox. Quality journalism requires resources. The best way to support me and my work is by taking out a paid subscription now.
• Mission accomplished, style points not included. The USMNT is back in the World Cup for the first time since 2014, completing an arduous 14-game qualifying campaign and achieving the objective that matters most. But man, this second-half performance against a Costa Rica B-team was miserable, producing yet another qualifying defeat here, and the U.S. celebrations on qualifying for Qatar will be rightfully muted. That’s a shame. Good thing the U.S. got a point at Mexico, or this result would have sent the Americans to the World Cup qualifying playoff in June against New Zealand. (Instead, Costa Rica goes there on a huge high thinking they’ll also make it to Qatar.) What went wrong for the U.S. on Wednesday? Well, goalkeeper Zack Steffen could have done better on two occasions, both on Juan Pablo Vargas’s set-piece header and on the box scramble that led to the Ticos’ second by Anthony Contreras. (Steffen just didn’t get out in time to clear the danger and paid the price.) It raises questions about Steffen and whether there might still be a competition with Matt Turner (and now even Ethan Horvath) for the No. 1 spot. By contrast, Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas was immense on the night, frustrating the U.S. constantly and giving Costa Rica a chance to win pulling away.
• The No. 9 role remains a huge USMNT problem. And it’s just getting worse. Ricardo Pepi got another chance to start and score his first goal for club or country since his two strikes way back in October for the U.S. against Jamaica. But Pepi didn’t have much influence at all, and you have to hope that he can get some measure of his destroyed confidence back in the next couple months at Augsburg. It’s hard to imagine the U.S. finding a reliable No. 9 in time for the World Cup, but right now it’s more difficult than ever to think of who that player might be. Jordan Pefok? He had a brutal game as a sub against Mexico. Jesús Ferreira? He’s active but hasn’t shown much goal-scoring potential for the U.S. yet. Josh Sargent? It’s just not happening at club level for him. Daryl Dike? He hasn’t shown much yet either in his limited time with the team. It’s also frustrating that the U.S. doesn’t produce many crosses for a No. 9 that should be coming out of Gregg Berhalter’s game model. Tim Weah gets a few crosses off from the left wing, but Christian Pulisic almost never does from the right.
• Can this U.S. team do something at the World Cup? We’ve long known that how a team performs in qualifying often has little correlation to how that teams fares at the World Cup itself. The U.S. World Cup quarterfinalists of 2002 struggled in the qualifying tournament. We have yet to see Berhalter’s USMNT play any true global powerhouses—the best teams they’ve faced have been Switzerland and Uruguay in friendlies—and so it will be helpful to get some quality opponents on the schedule for June and September friendlies. But the World Cup is a young man’s tournament, and the U.S.’s youth and experience in the UEFA Champions League should combine with the manicured fields of Qatar (nothing like what we’ve seen in CONCACAF) to give the U.S. a chance to do something. That’s the optimist’s view. But the pessimist’s view is that what we saw in the second half on Wednesday—a mistake-filled capitulation—is just too common for this team to build a sustained run when it gets to Qatar.
What were your thoughts on the game? You can join the discussion in the comments below.
Way too much hate here. This game was a gimme. After 2 exhausting games, where they did enough to cross the line barring a tragic, complete 2nd half collapse, they were going through. Did it end on the greatest note? No. Is there PLENTY to work on? Yes. And good thing. If they’d blown CR out, they might’ve rested on their laurels. Did they sort of back in? Yes. But ALL that matters right now is that they earned a ball for Friday’s draw.
After all the discussion about 3-game windows, and how tired US opponents were in the 2nd half of those 3rd games - throughout qualifying - it looked to me like the US got tired. Can’t blame them.
After the *disaster* of T&T, I say “well done”.
The squad needed greater rotation. Too many tired legs in the second half.