ST. LOUIS — In international soccer lingo, Wednesday night’s Gold Cup match between the United States and St. Kitts and Nevis was, technically, a competitive one. Anyone who watched the Americans’ 6-0 win can appreciate the irony of that designation.
Not that anything that transpired was surprising. Ever since the teams were drawn together two months ago, the game never had serious potential to deliver something more than a glorified exhibition. Even with the United States’ first-choice players vacationing all over the world, it wasn’t realistic to allow for the possibility that St. Kitts and Nevis — a Caribbean nation of roughly 50,000 people — would serve as much of a hurdle.
For the Sugar Boyz, No. 139 in the FIFA World Rankings, it was a significant accomplishment just to qualify for the tournament’s group stage. They reached the qualification phase through their performance in the 2022-23 Concacaf Nations League C — made up of the 13 lowest-ranked teams in the confederation — and beat both Curacao and French Guiana on penalties early this month to advance. And while they’ve made great strides in recent years, including a respectable showing in 2022 World Cup qualification when they won their first-round group, both sides understood the reality of the gulf in talent.
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Under different circumstances, the United States might have been content to secure the three points and shut it down, but after drawing with Jamaica on Saturday there was a goal differential incentive in play. That factor combined with a U.S. roster made up of less established players looking to improve their standing with the national team made for an even longer night for St. Kitts and Nevis.
The winner of Group A will play the second-place finisher from Group D — Canada, Cuba, Guatemala, Guadeloupe — in Cincinnati on July 9, while the second-place finisher will take on Group D’s winner. Perhaps more importantly, the second-place finisher will likely end up on the same side of the bracket with Mexico in the knockout rounds.
“We knew from the results against Jamaica we need to pick up some goals because it’s an important tiebreaker if we get the job done in the next match,” midfielder Djordje Mihailovic said. “But that’s something that we spoke about before, when one comes to try to keep going as much as we can.”
Prior to the United States’ game, Jamaica scored three first-half goals against Trinidad and Tobago before it settled for a 4-1 win, which leaves the U.S. ahead by three on goal differential heading into the final match of group play against Trinidad and Tobago on Sunday in Charlotte. The Americans have outscored T&T 13-0 in the last two meetings since their infamous 2-1 loss in 2017 to be eliminated from World Cup qualifying.
Using Wednesday’s performance as a possible indicator of what’s to come for this U.S. team doesn’t make much sense. However, there were several promising performances to build upon with Mihailovic’s perhaps the most meaningful. After scoring in his debut in 2019 — which doubled as coach Gregg Berhalter’s first game as head coach — and featuring five times that year, Mihailovic had just one cap (El Salvador in December 2020) in the years since leading up to this tournament. Against St. Kitts and Nevis, he was the United States’ most influential player, scoring twice and assisting twice in a strong 90-minute performance.
“I thought he showed his quality,” interim U.S. coach B.J. Callaghan said. “He’s a player that is really comfortable in between the lines and as he gets closer to the penalty box, he becomes a real threat, whether it’s from running behind the line, arriving in the penalty box. So, I thought the performance we saw from Djordje was the performances that we expect from him.”
Both of his assists set up Jesus Ferreira, whose hat trick put him in historic USMNT company. Following his four-goal game against Grenada last year in the Nations League, Ferreira is just the team’s fifth-ever player with multiple career hat tricks, joining Landon Donovan (3), Jozy Altidore (2), Peter Millar (2) and Clint Dempsey (2). He also became the fastest to ever reach double-digit goals (20 games).
“It means a lot,” Ferreira said. “Obviously, growing up you always want to join the big names and want to join the exclusive lists and join those lists that barely any people touch. And for me to do it here in the U.S. shirt scoring goals, it means a lot.
“This is a national team that gave me the opportunity to represent a country on the biggest stage and a country that gave me that joy of playing at the highest level possible. So, I’m just excited and happy that I can give that back to the fans and excited for what’s to come.”
