Win at home; draw on the road — that’s long been said to be the formula for success in Concacaf World Cup qualifying. If true, the U.S. is at least on track to book a trip to Qatar, but it wasn’t exactly the barnstorming start to World Cup qualifying many U.S. fans were hoping for after a summer full of trophies.
After two Gold Cups and one Nations League, now is when the USMNT finally gets to show where it’s at and how it’s grown over the last four years. Now is when World Cup qualifying begins. Now is when the matches really count. Now is when we try to figure out what in the heck Gregg Berhalter is going to do with this team, and for us to predict a USMNT potential starting 11 for World Cup qualifiers.
For the first time in history, Americans will play in all three of UEFA’s European tournaments. This season is also the first time there have been three tournaments, but minor details. There are tons of Americans playing in Europe, but only 22 have made it to the group stages across the three competitions.
Here are the numbers for Americans playing in European tournaments.
First, let’s look at the 11 in the Champions League.
After all the tearful farewells to Lionel Messi in the morning, Barcelona still had a match to play on Sunday evening. And in the 10th minute, the limited fans in attendance gave a preview of how they’ll honor the club legend throughout the upcoming campaign.
A lot of people have questioned Gregg Berhalter for picking a B (or C) team for this summer’s Gold Cup. After a long club campaign, the USMNT coach opted to let most of his Europe-based players return to their clubs for the start of preseason instead of competing for a meh trophy. That decision is already paying dividends for one young USMNT star with a Weston McKennie goal vs Cesena in Juventus’ preseason opener on Saturday.
I have a bone to pick with you, UEFA. Not only did you block me from embedding your video with all the nominations for Goal of the Season, forcing me to find them on Twitter, but you didn’t include Weston McKennie’s scissor-kick goal at Camp Nou. I need to have a word with the committee.
U.S. soccer fans who last saw the men’s team lift the Concacaf Nations League trophy will be taken aback to see a lot of big names missing off the Gold Cup roster. Why is Pulisic not playing in Gold Cup? Where are the stars? The answer to these questions is quite simple.
The U.S. men's national team defeated Mexico in a highly contested match on Sunday to win the CONCACAF Nations League, marking the country’s first competitive victory over its rivals since September 10th, 2013.
The fruitless streak continued so long that I personally graduated middle school, high school and was just one year away from graduating college before the U.S. was victorious again. Christian Pulisic, the American captain who scored the go-ahead goal, was just 14 years old when the U.S. last claimed victory.