You’d think after what happened in the 2018 World Cup qualifying cycle that the U.S. men’s national team would be a bit more cautious about jumping the gun.
Yet after a 5–1 win over Panama on Sunday night, U.S. players prematurely unveiled a “qualified” banner for fans despite not yet having qualified for the 2022 World Cup. With one game to go, the U.S. is all but there. The U.S. leads fourth-place Costa Rica by three points and has a +10 edge in goal differential, meaning that even with a loss of five or fewer goals in their head-to-head matchup to close qualifying on Wednesday night, the U.S. is heading to Qatar in November.
If the U.S. manages to lose by six goals or more—a highly unlikely outcome; perhaps even less likely than, say, losing in Trinidad & Tobago while events in two other simultaneous matches conspire against the U.S.—then this moment from the postgame celebrations will go down as an all-time gaffe.
“We know we’re not there yet, despite what that banner said,” manager Gregg Berhalter said in the opening remarks of his postgame press conference, addressing the mistake head-on.
It was Christian Pulisic who pulled the banner back from being completely unfurled, after a U.S. Soccer staffer appeared to alert him to what was going on. After his hat trick on the night—the first of his USMNT career—he wound up having the magic touch even after the final whistle.
When asked about the snafu, Pulisic explained: “The guys didn’t know at all what it said. Once we realized it, it was just, there’s no need to show that off because we still have a job to do and we know that. That’s why we moved it.”
The U.S. will look to put that banner to good and proper use on Wednesday in Costa Rica, where traveling supporters will happily accept a second go-around if it means that the U.S.’s ticket to Qatar has officially been punched.
And if the worst-case scenario somehow does transpire, the U.S. isn’t out of the World Cup. It has clinched at the very least a fourth-place finish, which in Concacaf’s Octagonal is good for a place in the World Cup qualifying intercontinental playoff. The Concacaf representative will meet either New Zealand or Solomon Islands in Qatar in June in a one-match playoff for one of the last places in the World Cup’s 32-team field.
