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After the shame and disappointment of that night in Trinidad in 2018, the US has slain its demons and qualified for the 2022 World Cup. The squad looks vastly different too, with only a handful of players having stuck with the USMNT since 2018. This shakeup by the staff clearly paid off, with the USMNT claiming two trophies in 2021 in addition to qualification for Qatar. This new group of players, more so than any other in the history of the United States, has the potential to be truly special, and there are reasons to believe the USMNT could go far in the World Cup. Here's 3 reasons you need to pay close attention to the United States as contenders when the World Cup kicks off on November 21st.
1. Berhalter's tournament record
Despite his tactics being much maligned, Gregg Berhalter has only lost two games in a tournament setting since taking charge of the national team in 2019, those being a 1-0 loss to Mexico in the 2019 Gold Cup Final, and a 2-0 loss to Canada in the CONCACAF Nations League group stage in 2019 after the USMNT had already secured qualification to the finals. Other than that, Berhalter's record is flawless. 15 wins out of 17 tournament games is impressive, it doesn't matter what your tactics look like. Sure, you could say that the competition much of the time wasn't particularly tough, but that includes two wins over Mexico, and not stumbling to easier opponents is a huge part of being successful in tournaments.
Berhalter's tactics may not have always worked on the road in qualifying, but something about them seems to work in a tournament setting, which should bode well for the US in Qatar.
2. The Draw
Friday, the World Cup draw took place in Doha, Qatar, and it was about as friendly to the United States as it could've hoped. The USMNT were drawn into Group B with the likes of England, Iran, and the winner of the yet to be finished Playoff, which could be one of Wales, Scotland, or Ukraine.
The matchups in this group are good for the US, as only England is clearly superior, and all the others are roughly equal in talent to the USMNT. Should the US make it out of the group, Group B's Round of 16 pairing is with Group A, which contains Qatar, Senegal, Ecuador and the Netherlands, meaning the first place team in Group A would play the second place team in Group B and vice versa.
If the US finishes first and wins their Round of 16 game, their quarterfinal pairing would be with either the winner of Group D or the second place team in Group C, and vice versa for finishing second. It's worth noting that the quarterfinal stage is as far as the USMNT has ever gotten in the modern era, reaching it after beating Mexico 2-0 in the Round of 16 in 2002.
This path is one of the most favorable into the deeper stages of the tournament across the entire draw, and with some luck, there's no reason the US can't get there.
3. The Players
As previously mentioned, the USMNT vastly shook up the squad after the failures of the 2018 World Cup qualification cycle. Lots of fresh young talent was introduced to the national team, including the likes of Gio Reyna, Brenden Aaronson, Timothy Weah, Ricardo Pepi and others. Some like Christian Pulisic, Tyler Adams and Walker Zimmerman had already earned caps prior, but were able to carve out a larger role in qualification for Qatar.
All of the players mentioned have the potential to be truly special, perhaps Pulisic, Aaronson, and Reyna more than others. Nonetheless, each of these players understands the feeling the USMNT went through after failing to qualify in 2018, and fought tooth and nail to make sure history did not repeat in 2022. Sure, they may not quite be in their primes yet, but all of them play hard for their country, something that cannot be said about all the participants in this year's World Cup. For example, we've seen Portugal's stars take their foot off the gas plenty of times in qualifying despite being potentially the best team in the world when they're on.
It didn't always work, mind you, but the USMNT could never be accused of taking its foot off the gas in qualification. Sure, sometimes the actual quality of play was lacking, like in losses on the road to Canada and Panama, but the fight was always there, and that should pay off in spades come November when the whole world will be watching.
