Given the FIFA stood by the horrible decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar in the winter, this summer’s international window has been full of meaningless friendlies and Nations League matches. That meant the U.S. men’s national team was stuck playing one more of those notoriously awful road matches in CONCACAF … during a World Cup year.
And, oh man, it was peak CONCACAF.
The USMNT traveled to El Salvador to play its second CONCACAF Nations League group stage match — a tournament stage that won’t resume until 2023. And while the U.S. easily defeated Grenada in Austin, a match in San Salvador was going to present a challenge unique to CONCACAF.