Of all members of the United States men’s national team gathered on the field at Estadio Nacional in Costa Rica, only midfielder Yunus Musah dared to flash a smile. It wasn’t how any of them imagined this moment, so they settled for handshakes and hugs and satisfaction. Joy would come eventually, once they were out of public view and dancing after a defeat wouldn’t seem so awkward.
“It was a full-on party,” coach Gregg Berhalter confessed when asked by CBS Sports what the mood of the locker room had been. “These guys earned it. They deserve it.”
The result Wednesday night was of no consequence. A 2-0 defeat to Costa Rica? Hey, it wasn’t 6-0, right? Losing by six or more was the only intolerable result for the USMNT.
By protecting their advantage in goal differential, the USMNT qualified for the 2022 World Cup, which ended a five-year sojourn through ignominy. The U.S. had fully recovered from the shock of failing to qualify in 2017 when they only needed a draw against the last-place team and managed to lose. These young Americans will be figuratively stuffed into a ping-pong ball for Friday’s World Cup draw and literally step on a plane in the autumn to travel to Qatar.
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The one good aspect of the apparent chicanery that led to Qatar being awarded the 2022 World Cup, rather than the United States, is this team needed to prove its worth on the field after what occurred in the 2018 cycle. If the…
