Christian Pulisic on Wednesday walked across the field with a towel draped around his head, angry after another US defeat, but relieved that a 2-0 loss against Costa Rica was enough to secure qualification for this year’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
“We’re competitors, man. We hate to lose. In the moment I was frustrated,” Pulisic said after the game. “It took me a little bit for it to sink in, that the qualification hit.”
Nearly four-and-a-half years after Pulisic buried his head in his hands to hide tears of failure, the US rebounded to qualify for the World Cup. Their third place after the final night of qualifying gave them the final guaranteed berth from North and Central America and the Caribbean.
Photo: EPA-EFE
For Pulisic, DeAndre Yedlin, Kellyn Acosta and Paul Arriola, smiles of relief broke out after an unrelenting burden was lifted.
“This is whatever I’ve always wanted to be and right now emotions are a bit crazy,” Pulisic said, his voice quavering.
On the 1,267th day after a 2-1 loss against Trinidad and Tobago ended the US’ streak of seven straight World Cup appearances, Yedlin addressed the team before kick-off.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“I just thanked each and every one of them for giving me a second opportunity to redeem myself, and the country a second opportunity to redeem itself,” said the 28-year-old defender, the only US player left from the 2014 tournament.
The US remained winless in 12 qualifiers in Costa Rica, with 10 defeats and two draws.
Juan Pablo Vargas got behind Walker Zimmerman and headed Brandon Aguilera’s corner-kick past goalkeeper Zack Steffen in the 51st minute, and Anthony Contreras knocked in Jewison Bennette’s cross off a scramble in the 59th minute after Steffen palmed Aguilar’s free-kick and blocked Contreras’ initial shot.
Coach Gregg Berhalter, who played for the US at the 2002 World Cup, congratulated the players in the locker room.
Starting lineups in the 14 qualifiers averaged a US-record low of 23 years, 302 days.
“Being the youngest team in the world to qualify for the World Cup is no easy task,” Berhalter said. “It’s a proud moment for the team, proud moment for US soccer, and we’re looking forward to competing in the World Cup again.”
A sellout crowd of about 35,000 at the National Stadium came to life with the goals, but the US’ 5-1 rout of Panama at home last weekend gave them a huge goal-difference margin over Costa Rica.
That meant the US merely had to avoid losing by six goals or more to claim an automatic berth.
Canada finished first in the group with 28 points after a 1-0 loss against Panama, ahead of Mexico on goal-difference.
El Tri clinched their eighth straight World Cup berth with a 2-0 home win over El Salvador, while the US (25 points) finished third with a plus-11 goal-difference to plus-5 for Costa Rica (also 25 points).
Ticos coach Luis Fernando Suarez did not include six starters from Sunday’s win against El Salvador who carried yellow cards, not wanting to risk a suspension for a June World Cup playoff against Oceania champions New Zealand.
“Now we have to test ourselves against the best players in the world, the best teams in the world,” said US midfielder Tyler Adams, who came off at halftime with a bruise above his left knee from a tackle. “This was only the first stage in our development.”
The other teams who have qualified so far for the World Cup are: Germany, Denmark, France, Belgium, Croatia, Spain, Serbia, England, Switzerland, Netherlands, Portugal and Poland, from Europe; Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador and Uruguay from South America; Qatar, Iran, South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia from Asia; Ghana, Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco and Cameroon from Africa.
Twenty-nine of the 32 qualifying berths have been decided. The remaining three are to be placeholders in the World Cup draw in Doha today until they are played.
Additional reporting by AFP
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier