This time, there was no unthinkable capitulation for the U.S. men’s national team with a World Cup berth hanging in the balance.
The U.S. is heading back to the World Cup, clinching despite a 2-0 defeat in Costa Rica on Wednesday night and securing a return for the Americans after they missed out in 2018. There were some eerie similarities for the U.S. in the final stages of this qualifying campaign. It was another four-goal win over Panama in Orlando over four years ago that put the U.S. on the precipice of qualification, only for an infamous loss to Trinidad & Tobago and a wild set of simultaneous circumstances elsewhere keeping the U.S. from competing in Russia. But Gregg Berhalter’s young side flipped the script, avoided the impossible scenario—it would’ve taken a loss by six goals or more in San José on Wednesday to finish out of the top three in Concacaf this time—and will indeed be taking part in the fall competition in Qatar.
The U.S. wound up securing a third-place finish in the Concacaf Octagonal, and it joins fellow 2026 World Cup co-hosts Canada and Mexico in occupying the region’s three automatic berths in Qatar. Canada ended a 36-year drought on the men’s side by thrashing Jamaica at home on Sunday to make history of its own and punch its ticket with a game to spare. Costa Rica, meanwhile, finishes fourth after coming on strong in the second half of the Octagonal and will go to a June intercontinental playoff against Oceania’s qualifying champion, New Zealand, in a match that will be held in Qatar.
This was a qualifying slog unlike any other, due to the expanded final round and the compressed timeline on account of the pandemic. Four three-match windows tested depth, endurance and resiliency, and the road was far from smooth for the U.S. Two draws to open qualifying, including a home tie against Canada, put immediate pressure on Berhalter and his side, especially considering the 2018 qualifying baggage the program was carrying, even if it didn’t belong to the vast majority of the current group of players.
Beyond that, the team had to overcome early absences due to COVID-19; John Brooks’s apparent exile after a poor first window; Gio Reyna’s hamstring injury in the first qualifier, which knocked him out of action for five months; and Weston McKennie’s September suspension for breaking team hotel protocols. Berhalter still hasn’t had what most would consider to be his optimal lineup available for a single match—not during qualifying or any friendly or competition that preceded it.
Yet new talents and heroes emerged to help fill the void. Ricardo Pepi’s performance in Honduras in the third match of the opening window gave the U.S. the spark it needed to get back on track. Fittingly, it came from a player nicknamed “El Tren” for the hype train that the 19-year-old striker has been driving since emerging as a talent in the FC Dallas system.
Brenden Aaronson’s meteoric rise continued, with the Salzburg winger the only U.S. player to appear in the first 11 qualifying matches before a late knee injury ruled him out for the final window. Tim Weah also helped fill Reyna’s void with clutch contributions in the attacking third. Antonee Robinson emerged as the answer to the years-old question at left back, even scoring a pair of vital goals along the way.
There were iconic moments from the more heralded stars in the form of Sergiño Dest’s sensational goal vs. Costa Rica in Columbus and Christian Pulisic’s “Man in the Mirror” T-shirt celebration after his goal vs. Mexico in Cincinnati, where the legend of Dos-A-Cero was revived, and his hat trick vs. Panama in the match that all but sealed the deal. The U.S. played in the idiosyncratic climates and settings of Central America and, by choice, in the frigid temperatures of a February night in Minnesota. It hasn’t been straightforward and it certainly hasn’t been boilerplate.
But then again, Concacaf qualifying rarely is, and with a nucleus of players whose primes are, in theory, years away, cementing a World Cup berth and putting the failure of their predecessors in the past is quite the achievement.
The U.S. will be in Pot 2 for the draw on Friday, when it will learn its opponents for the November-December World Cup in Qatar. Before then, there’s some celebrating to do for a job that is now completed and a reputation that has been restored.
