This is how the Exploria Stadium must have felt for the United States and its lavish fans, at least, as a Christian Pulisic hat-trick helped get Gregg Berhalter’s men to the brink of Qatar 2022. A difficult and occasional torture qualifying The campaign is now sure to enjoy a happy ending. Of course, the USA knows from the anxious experience that strange things can happen on the last night of the Concacaf qualifiers, after an easy victory over Panama at the headquarters of Orlando City. But this will probably not be a case in point. Unlike in 2017, the USA can afford a defeat in their final match, away from home in Costa Rica on Wednesday. In fact, they can afford to lose a lot. Even a five-goal defeat would not be fatal given the goal difference between them and Costa Rica in the fourth. The result excluded the fifth Panama from the claim, which means that the USA can not finish less than the fourth, the ranking that implies an intercontinental playoff in Qatar in June, possibly against New Zealand.
