LAS VEGAS — Thursday’s Concacaf Nations League (CNL) semifinal against Mexico was the U.S. men’s national team’s version of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” in that there were enough deviations from perceived reality to fill a feature length movie.
There was the news that emerged just before kickoff that Gregg Berhalter was making an unexpected return as U.S. manager. This after the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) let his contract expire last December, investigated him for a domestic violence incident, and then concluded it was satisfied with his explanation and maintained he was still eligible to return. In the meantime, the USSF employed not one, but two interim coaches: Anthony Hudson and B.J. Callaghan. It then used a search firm to hire a sporting director, in Matt Crocker, who simply led the USSF back to where it was last December — handing Berhalter what is technically his second stint as U.S. manager.
Time is indeed a flat circle.
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The game against Mexico was chaos, and not just because the U.S. prevailed 3-0 instead of its usual 2-0 scoreline. There were two goals from Christian Pulisic, a third from substitute Ricardo Pepi, and four red cards — two for each side.
The lopsided scoreline brought out the usual anti-gay chant from El Tri fans, and with Step 1 of Concacaf’s anti-discrimination protocol already enacted, referee Ivan Barton blew his whistle with only seven of the 12 minutes of second-half stoppage time played. Concacaf insisted that the game was not abandoned and that it was stopped at Barton’s discretion. It later issued a statement that it “strongly condemns the discriminatory chanting” and that “the Confederation is in the process of urgently establishing further details and reports from security and match officials and will make a further statement in short order.”
That didn’t change the U.S. team’s thoughts on the crowd’s behavior.
“[The chant] goes against everything that we stand for on our side,” said U.S. keeper Matt Turner. “We’ve been very open and vocal about the strength of our team being our diversity, the strength of our nation being its diversity. So to use something so divisive during a spirited game … it has no place in the game.”
Oh, and the U.S. was led on the sideline by Callaghan, who was serving as a head coach for the first time at the professional level. No problem. While Callaghan led his side to its most lopsided scoreline against Mexico in official competition, he will probably only be in charge for one more game: Sunday’s final against Canada. That said, his postmatch comments had him sounding like he’d been in the role for ages.
“We were confident in the game plan that we were able to put together and I think the performance from our side speaks for itself,” he said. “We couldn’t be more happy with the performance, but at the same time we also understand that we need to turn the page and already start the recovery and preparation process to play versus Canada.”
“I’m not going to lie, it wasn’t my best game,” said Balogun. “I think it’s important at the same time I have to be realistic coming into a new environment with new teammates. And of course I’m playing in a semifinal so it’s never going to be an easy game of football, but at the end of the day I’m just happy we got a result.”
Yet Balogun still managed to endear himself to teammates and fans when, in the 69th minute, he chased down Mexico defender Cesar Montes, dispossessed him and drew a foul that resulted in a red card to Montes. It also sparked a melee that saw U.S. midfielder Weston McKennie get ejected as well.
The chippiness didn’t end there, as U.S. defender Sergiño Dest was sent off after a scrap with Mexico substitute Gerardo Arteaga, leaving both teams to finish the game with nine players each. As much as Callaghan tried to publicly back his men, it did take some luster off the win. McKennie and Dest will be suspended for Sunday’s win, a reality that wasn’t lost on Pulisic.
“It’s crazy. All year round, I’m never a part of games like this. And then I come here and it’s like, suddenly, everyone is just … it was a mess,” he said. “But I was disappointed in the end. I really wish some of our guys kept their heads a little bit better. It just turned into something that wasn’t this beautiful game. We did enough to show off on the field with our play that we deserve to be winning that game and a dominant performance, and now that all this this stuff happened, it just takes away from the way we played.”
