United States of America will be a rival to be considered in Qatar 2022. The North American team will share Group B with England, Iran and Wales. After being absent from Russia 2018, after completing a qualifying round to forget, he will make his return to the World Cup. In the last Concacaf qualifiers, they finished in third place. After 14 games, they added 25 points like Mexico and, in turn, finished three units behind Canada, who finished in first place.
Gregg Berhalter, has already played a World Cup as a player and now it’s his turn as DT
The 49-year-old has been at the helm of the team since December 2018, after what was the blow of not qualifying for the World Cup in Russia. With his arrival, the face of the national team changed and he managed to win two titles: the Concacaf Nations League for the 2019-2020 season and the Gold Cup in 2021.
Although it will be his debut as a manager in major football events, Berhalter already knows the atmosphere and the way the top-level tournament should be played. During his time as a player, he was present in Korea and Japan in 2002 – when the United States moved into the quarter-finals – and in Germany in 2006, where he was prematurely eliminated in the group stage.
His coaching career began in 2011, the institution that gave him the opportunity was the Swedish Hammarby IF, where he coached a total of 46 games and remained until July 2013. In November of the same year, he is originally returned to his country, he was appointed coach of the Columbus Crew and commanded the team continuously until 2018. His next step was the national team.
The biggest challenge, but at the same time the goal of the coach, was to deal with a squad full of young people. The Stars and Stripes team is the youngest to qualify for Qatar, taking into account the qualifying matches. The average age is only 24. Berhalter’s merit and work throughout his trial are indisputable.
The strongest rival in the group is, without a doubt, England. The team led by Gareth Southgate has many famous players, and the coach’s work began in 2015. Having said that, Gregg Berhalter talked about the incredible English team, but did not hold back and compared it to a historic event . “It’s going to be this small group of Americans against the billion dollar team, that’s what it’s going to be; we had that fight before in the 18th century and we got to the top, it’s going to be something like that. I mean, can you imagine playing against England in a World Cup? It’s an extraordinary event, “he commented on an Alexi Lalas podcast.
The figure: Christian Pulisic, the young star who plays as a veteran
The American team has pinned its football hopes Cristiano Pulisico. Despite being only 23, the Chelsea player positions himself as the leader in football and is the big hope of the fans when it comes to thinking about a good performance in the competition.
A very interesting fact is that, despite his age, he has already been defending the national team for six years. He made his debut at the age of 17 and is the youngest player to make his debut with the national team. However, he suffered the disappointment of not having been able to play the last World Cup and will arrive in Qatar with the intention of showing all his talent and potential.
His beginnings as a footballer took place in Borussia Dortmundwho signed him at the age of 16 after an excellent participation in a national friendly tournament organized by Nike for the under 17 category. The United States was crowned champions and Pulisic was the MVP of the competition. His debut in the German team was in 2016 and participated in 90 games, where he scored 13 goals and distributed 16 assists. For the 2019/2020 season he was bought by Chelsea in exchange for 53 million pounds, making him the most expensive American player in history.
Captain America, as he is often dubbed, has statistics that thrill national team fans. In June of this year he broke a record held by the historian lando donovan, which is reaching double figures in both goals and assists. The young talent has averaged 21 goals and 10 assists in just 49 games, while Donovan has done so in 50 games.
Certainly the American team does not appear among the favorites to win the World Cup, however the common denominator of all the teams is the illusion of being crowned. From his football, Pulisic will try to bring his nation to glory and add an extra star, but not on the flag but on the jersey.
Best performance in a World Cup: Uruguay 1930
One fact that many may not know is that The United States took a very strong step in the first World Cup in history. In fact, he reached the semifinals, but the team that deprived him of his passage to the final was the Argentine national team.
Back then, the World Cup format was very different from today. The number of participants was 13 countries, the total number of groups was 4 – a group of four and three groups from three countries – and two points were awarded for winning a match. Only one team per group has advanced and the semi-finals of the tournament have been played directly.
The United States joined group 4, shared with Belgium and Paraguay. The performance of the North American team was sensational, which beat the two rivals 3-0. In this way they were together with Argentina, the one who had the best goal difference in the first phase -both with + 6-.
His rival in the semifinals was Argentina, the match took place on July 26 in Montevideo. The American dream was completely shattered, as he was beaten 6-1 by an Argentine side that were unstoppable and were a serious candidate to prevail as the winner of the competition, of which Uruguay ultimately became champion.
The 1930 World Cup did not have an instance to define third and fourth place. If it had been played, the rival of the United States would have been Yugoslavia, which in the other semi-final lost 6 to 1 to Uruguay. Despite this, this participation is considered the best of the North Americans in the world championships. In modern history, only Korea and Japan 2002 have been able to advance beyond the round of 16.
Source: Clarin
