The US men’s team traveled to Mexico on Thursday for a World Cup qualifier and came away with a 0-0 draw and a valuable point to put the team on the brink of qualifying. With Panama playing at home to Honduras, the Americans are on the cusp of qualifying for the 2022 World Cup and could do so on Sunday when they host the Panamanians in Orlando. A win would nearly blow their ticket, and only a disastrous, heavily one-sided loss in Costa Rica would follow the last day of play and be the only way to miss them.
It was a sloppy, tense and physical match in which both teams had good chances. However, the USMNT had the best two chances, with Guillermo Ochoa denying Christian Pulisic in the first half and Jordan Pefok shockingly missing from eight yards in the second.
Gregg Berhalter was aggressive throughout the game, but he needed some strong saves from Zach Steffen and a solid defense to the point to extend his unbeaten streak against El Three to four games.
Mexico had 63 percent of the ball but recorded an xG of just 0.40 on 11 shots. USA had nine shots but xG 1.26.
Here are three takeaways from the match:
Zimmerman deserves credit
While there are other centre-backs with great talent in the system, there is none better than Walker Zimmerman at the moment. The Nashville SC man put on a show at the Azteca even though it wasn’t as luxurious. It was a smart performance, with no mistakes on the part of the veteran. He didn’t have to record tackles, but he won every one of his fights and air strikes. His position was excellent, he often applied pressure from the top of the penalty area when Mexico was too patient. It was the result of confidence building for this defense, and Zimmerman continues to fight for his rights to the World Championship.
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The misses were inexplicable
It’s pretty shocking that the US failed to score. They had two chances that weren’t just great, they were golden. Pulisic’s first-half miss on Tim Weah’s ball caused the Chelsea player to stumble a little and fail to make clean contact, giving Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa a chance to get ahead of him and he knows he should have done it. away. But Jordan Pefok’s miss is a nightmare. After a brilliant pass from Gio Reyna, all he had to do was hit the ball. There was so much room to just put the ball in the net, but the ball seemed to be closer to the corner flag than the flag. goal.
Happy Gilmour would be very upset to see this.
Here’s a video. Try not to cringe:
Gio Reina made them look stupid
Reyna stepped off the bench and blinded. He was the team’s best offensive player despite only playing 30 minutes. He made Mexican defenders look stupid, broke ankles along the way, and created an event that USMNT fans would watch for years to come. Here is that moment:
On top of that, he should have had an assist for a smart pass to Pefok, who had just been scored. But Reyna once again showed why no one on this team can match his talent, and he may have just earned the opening game against Panama with such a display.