The U.S. men’s national soccer team went to Mexico sensing a rare opportunity to achieve what no group of men had managed in a century of American soccer. They spoke about it on the trip to Azteca Stadium and they brought it up in the locker room. The U.S. was there to win its first-ever World Cup qualifier on Mexico’s national pitch.
When the Americans fell short on Thursday night, settling for a 0-0 draw, they landed on a decent consolation prize: avoiding disaster.
The tie on the road means that with two matches remaining, the U.S. could punch its ticket to the 2022 World Cup as early as Sunday with a victory against Panama in Orlando. A repeat of the 2017 fiasco in Trinidad and Tobago, which cost the Americans a spot at the last World Cup, now seems unlikely. They know that even two defeats—against Panama and Costa Rica—could theoretically leave them with a shot of making it to Qatar 2022.
The hard part was coming away from Mexico with something to show for themselves.
“The point will be a valuable point,” U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said. “The game was there for us to win. Unfortunately, we didn’t get that goal.”
This qualifying run has been a grind for the Americans, but after a rocky start, they have found it mostly uneventful. It hasn’t been scintillating. But it hasn’t been awful for the U.S. either. Compared with five years ago, that counts as a major improvement.
Canada sits in first place in the standings and has all but guaranteed that it will make its first appearance at the World Cup since 1986. The U.S. and Mexico are tied on 22 points, three behind Canada, and Costa Rica has 19. The top three teams will all secure automatic berths, while the fourth faces a two-leg playoff against the winner of the Oceania qualifying region, where New Zealand is a heavy favorite.
That playoff would take place in Doha later this spring and the U.S. is desperate to avoid it.
Thursday night’s draw means that the strange road to Qatar in November via Qatar in June is still possible, which makes it all the more frustrating for the Americans that they couldn’t bring home all three points.
The timing of the Mexico game had been nearly perfect for the U.S. The home team was far from its best. And Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium, normally a hostile fortress, was somewhat less intimidating on Thursday night with attendance capped at 40,000 due to the pandemic and fans under threat of punishment for past abusive chanting. The bear pit known for showering visitors with beer and vitriol was now just another road match.
Plus, the U.S. saw the return of its most electric player, Borussia Dortmund’s Gio Reyna, after a six-month injury layoff. Everything was in place for a memorable American result. The U.S. even had the best scoring chance of the night, only for Christian Pulisic to be denied at point-blank range by Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa. “We’re a little disappointed we didn’t do that,” Berhalter said.
But in World Cup qualifying, where avoiding catastrophes is the only priority, regional rivalries can take a back seat. Too much can go wrong too quickly, as Italy found out when it was eliminated on Thursday by lowly North Macedonia. So for the U.S., still banishing memories of Trinidad, the most boring possible result was good enough.
“We put ourselves in a position to play on Sunday and win,” Pulisic said, “and go to the World Cup.”
Write to Joshua Robinson at Joshua.Robinson@wsj.com
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Appeared in the March 26, 2022, print edition as ‘U.S. Men Inch Closer to World Cup.’