On Wednesday night in San Jose, Costa Rica saw this young USMNT book his ticket to Qatar, although it came after a poor 2-0 defeat, where the team was inconsistent and struggling with his physical condition. her opponent. It was more anti-climatic than electrifying, it would raise silly questions because of the bad taste left in the mouths of players and fans, but let us remember – kids make mistakes. Young groups, at times, just do not perform, especially on the street. They may not have followed instructions in a T, at times it was a slow step, but there were some encouraging moments early on. And as always, the road to Concacaf is like nothing else in the sport. The qualifying moment came after a wild qualifying round for the US, a round where depth was tested to a great extent due to a COVID-influenced program that was more congested than polite, and is a cycle that the manager Greg Berhalter handled well. From Weston McKennie being sent home early for off-field problems to trying to figure out how to deal with all his injuries, he’s not perfect at all. But, on the contrary, it showed that the USMNT, to a large extent, returned. In 14 games, only two players, Antonee Robinson and Tyler Adams, played more than 1000 minutes. Just two more, center-backs Miles Robinson and Walker Zimmermann played more than 800. So completing this goal was a real team effort, it took a next-man mentality and a pool of players committed to climbing and meeting the moment. “It must have been an amusement park train,” Christian Pulisic told CBS Sports after the race. “It is never easy to go down and play in these Concacaf countries. We know that. We fought for most of it and at the end of the day we are in the top three and we will go to the World Cup. We have to be proud.”
Through the ups and downs, the good and the bad results, this team once again found its footing under Berhalter and achieved what it set out to do. Qualifying in 2022 is really the continuation of a year of 2021 which was really the time when this generation of players came to its own. That summer they won not only the Nations League but also the Gold Cup. And now 2022 is their chance to show the world that America’s boys can play too. They won this right, through 14 exhausting matches and 1260 minutes when qualifying was not guaranteed, when the game was not always beautiful, but where there was heart and determination that inspired the fans who were offended by what they saw for a while. before. Do not let this match fool you – this team was more good than bad and was much better than what we saw during the 2018 round. USMNT has never had so much talent, and never a team so young wore these colors and did not do what he did. They won half their games, conceded just 10 goals in 14 games and averaged 1.7 points per game after taking just 1.2 in the 2018 round. And, perhaps most importantly, this was the newest USMNT in the history of qualifiers – 23 years old, 302 days on average, and did what the last round of the team could not do. The fan base has been hit by what happened in 2017. Tonight, the healing begins with a future that was no brighter.