Los Angeles, United States | AFP | With goals from Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie, the United States defeated Mexico 2-0 this Friday and reached the top of the Concacaf octagonal towards the World Cup in Qatar-2022.
After the seventh day, in the middle of the qualifying rounds, the United States leads the group tied at 14 points with Mexico, which suffered its first defeat in the octagonal.
Pulisic (Chelsea), shortly after taking the field, and McKennie (Juventus) made the American dominance profitable with two targets in the 74th and 85th minutes that made TQL Stadium in Cincinnati (Ohio) vibrate.
“In a United States against Mexico, you know that there is going to be intensity,” said Pulisic, who is between cotton wool after two months out due to an ankle injury.
“It was a crazy game, what we expected (…) We are happy where we are now. We have many games to play and this is just one more step to reach the World Cup,” said the leader of the US team, who failed qualify for the last World Cup in Russia-2018.
The United States thus completed a full three-game win over archrival Mexico in 2021, following their triumphs in the Concacaf Champions League and Gold Cup finals.
“It is not a personal confrontation against the United States,” underlined the Argentine Gerardo Martino, coach of ‘Tri’. “I understand the importance of the defeat by the rival, because I know that Mexicans always want to win.”
“We lost the first knockout game and in a classic. Now the important thing is to recover for the game (Tuesday) against Canada,” asked the ‘Tata’ Martino.
In his turn, the US coach, Gregg Berhalter, stressed that this victory was also a matter of pride for his team.
“We talked about how Mexico did not respect us and today we went out to earn that respect on the field,” he said.
After the United States and Mexico is Canada, which with 13 points provisionally occupies the third place, the last one that gives direct access to Qatar-2022. Panama, with 11 units, is in fourth place, which opens the door to an intercontinental playoff.
– ‘Captain America’ to the rescue –
The United States jumped before their public with an ultra-offensive approach despite having sensitive casualties such as Sergiño Dest (FC Barcelona) and Gio Reyna (Borussia Dortmund).
With the top of the group at his fingertips, Berhalter displayed a brave 4-3-3 and exerted high pressure committing several misalignments in the first half, which Mexico came close to making him pay for.
Raúl Jiménez, Hirving Lozano and Jesús Corona, the promising offensive trident of ‘Tri’, found large spaces behind the American defense and could only be stopped with several saves by goalkeeper Zack Steffen.
After these scares, the United States managed to adjust the pressure and contain the counterattacks of the ‘Tri’.
At the start of the second half, the local team completely controlled the game and presented themselves with danger in the area of veteran Guillermo Ochoa.
With Mexico cornered, Berhalter put into play Pulisic, whom he had left on the bench after Chelsea asked to limit his playing time.
Only five minutes later, the so-called ‘Captain America’ responded with the first target of the match by heading into the net a center from the right of Tim Weah.
Pulisic took the opportunity to send a message at the celebration. After Ochoa himself declared this week that Mexico is the mirror in which the United States wants to reflect, Pulisic lifted his shirt after the goal to display the phrase “Man in the mirror.”
Mexico also did not react after the goal and conceded the 2-0 in an unfortunate play in which McKennie took the ball in the area after a rebound from the Mexican defense and overcame Ochoa with a cross shot.
“The difference in the game was that when they managed the game they were forceful, when we had it it was not like that,” summarized Martino, who was rebuked at the end of the conference by some fans who left the stadium.
Mexico will have a tough commitment on Tuesday in Canada in the eighth day of the qualifiers while the United States will visit Jamaica, sixth classified with six points.
