By Amy Tennery
(Reuters) – A heavy burden was lifted from the shoulders of the United States men’s team as they booked their ticket to the Qatar World Cup this week, exorcising the demons of their failed attempt four years ago.
The Stars and Stripes clawed their way onto the game’s biggest stage despite losing 2-0 away to Costa Rica on Wednesday, securing one of CONCACAF’s three guaranteed spots for the tournament, which begins in November.
It was a palpable relief for the team and their fans, who still bore the scars of their failure to qualify for Russia 2018.
“We really felt the public was behind us in this and it was a great feeling,” head coach Gregg Berhalter said on Thursday.
“There was also this feeling that the public was on edge. They desperately wanted us to make it – we desperately wanted to make the World Cup.
“I think overall it’s just a great lesson for everyone that you can’t take qualifying for granted.”
The U.S. failed to reach the World Cup for the first time in more than 30 years after finishing fifth out of six teams in their qualifying group in 2017.
The debacle, capped by a humbling 2-1 defeat to the already eliminated Trinidad and Tobago, raised serious questions about the progress of the men’s game in the U.S., as the women’s team flourished.
Their under-23’s squad, meanwhile, failed to reach their third successive Olympics in 2021, doing little to quieten those concerns.
‘DIFFICULT TIME’
When Berhalter, a former player who was part of the 2002 and 2006 U.S. World Cup squads, took the reins in 2018, there were high expectations that he would turn around the Americans’ bad run.
The youngest head coach in 23 years assembled a squad of young talent to match, but their qualifying campaign got off to a tepid start with a 0-0 stalemate against El Salvador in September.
They followed that with a 1-1 draw against Canada, who would go on to book only their second trip to the World Cup finals, before securing their first victory, a 4-1 win over Honduras.
They gave fans a scare in their eighth match in November, when Jamaica, a team they beat in their previous four meetings, held them to a 1-1 draw and the result put Berhalter on the defensive, as he fielded questions about his squad’s potential inexperience.
“Everyone’s talked about what a difficult time qualifying was going to be beforehand and then when we’re going through it, the expectation is that we win every game,” Berhalter told reporters on Thursday.
“And so there’s a disconnect in between expectations and reality – and I think that builds pressure on the team a little bit.”
The U.S. capably handled what Berhalter described as the “most difficult window” of qualifying: the final three games that saw them draw 0-0 with Mexico away and build a comfortable cushion in the table with a 5-1 win at home over Panama.
“Our mentality in that window was just take it just one game at a time, get the most you can get out of each and every game,” said Berhalter.
“We set ourselves up in that second game to make that third game almost inconsequential.”
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Toby Davis)
