ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — After struggling through the first nine months under coach Mauricio Pochettino, the United States entered the World Cup year with a five-game unbeaten streak and its most lopsided victory over a South American Confederation opponent.
“We wanted to make a statement. We wanted to show what American soccer is,” coach Sebastian Berhalter said after the Americans scored four goals with 25 men in the first half. Lost to Uruguay 5-1 on Tuesday night. “We had a chance to go out here and give it everything we had and show we were ready.”
Berhalter, Alex Freeman and Tanner Tessman all scored their first international goals, Freeman, the son of former NFL All-Pro receiver Antonio Freeman, added his second and Diego Luna scored his fourth. The United States led 4-0 against a team outside the CONCACAF region, marking the first time they had scored five goals. Beat Scotland 5-1 in 2012.
After acquisition CONCACAF Nations League semi-final loss In March, Lost to Mexico in the CONCACAF Gold Cup final in July. after that Lost 0-2 in a friendly match against South Korea In September, the United States, ranked 16th, ended the year with a strong performance. 2-0 victory over Japan, 1-1 draw against Ecuadorwon 2-1 Australia and paraguay And the explosion of 15th place Uruguay.
“What we’ve focused on is DNA and building that DNA and grit and hardworking mentality because that’s who we are, that’s who we are as a country, that’s who we are as a team,” Luna said.
The United States was without more than half of its potential World Cup starters, including Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, Tim Ware, Malik Tillman and Chris Richards.
Pochettino bristled at questions about facing Uruguay without many of his first-choice players.
The manager said, “I hate it when we don’t have regular players.” “You’re playing for America. You’re playing for the national team. Stop thinking like that. … I hate talking like this. It’s very disrespectful. It’s very rude, because I think we need to give credit to all the players that were involved today.”
Asked another question about the absence of regulars, Pochettino said: “I think we’ll probably have to cancel the press conference. We’ll have to go to the dressing room and come back and redo the press conference because it’s like we’re the other way around and we’re losing 5-0, no, 5-1.”
There are only two games left before Pochettino selects his World Cup squad, with friendlies likely to be against Belgium and Portugal in March.
“We are starting to feel the World Cup and the excitement,” Pochettino said. “I think wins and results like this are important for the fans because I think they make them really believe in the team. We never doubted it because we saw the quality of the players.”
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