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This already was just about the least climactic sendoff possible, coming more than five months before the World Cup and against a team ranked 170th on the planet. Add a heat index that hovered around 97 degrees at kickoff—Austin, Texas, was warmer Friday night than it’s supposed to be in Qatar this November—and you had the makings of a match that would test just about anyone’s focus, fitness and resolve.
Fortunately for the American men, Jesús Ferreira has spent a lot of his life in Texas. As uncomfortable as U.S. strikers have looked in recent months, and as much pressure as Ferreira could have felt as November nears, neither the heat nor the (scoring) drought seemed to weigh on the 21-year-old. After a languid 40-plus minutes, Ferreira brought the evening—and his World Cup prospects—to life with three goals in 13 minutes on either side of intermission, followed by a late fourth.
