Young USMNT ready to lay World Cup qualifying ghosts to rest vs. Costa Rica

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — Inside a luxury hotel roughly nine miles from the site of the final game of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying, United States men’s national team coach Gregg Berhalter was at ease Tuesday. Six days earlier, he called the forthcoming week the most important of his coaching career and though the team has not officially qualified for the 2022 World Cup yet, no rational observer would seriously still allow for the possibility that the U.S. won’t be headed to Qatar.

The United States can lose by five goals or fewer against Costa Rica Wednesday and still qualify on goal differential, but it has not lost a competitive game by six goals or more since 1957, a stretch that includes six World Cups, 16 qualifying cycles and several decades in which the sport existed in the country beyond the fringes of public consciousness. At Costa Rica’s National Stadium — against a team that has scored just 11 goals in 13 qualifying matches and will likely rest its best players (due to having nine players on yellow cards ahead of a potential playoff) — the U.S. are huge favorites to progress.

So, yeah, Berhalter deservedly exuded confidence that his team would soon officially get to celebrate. It had been earned. At the same time, he was careful not to cast qualification as a foregone conclusion.

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“We’re not taking anything for granted,” he said. “It’s as simple as that. We’re coming here to be aggressive in the game and to win the soccer game. That’s our intention. We’re not going to be cautious. We’re not going to sit back. We’re not going to play for a tie. We know we’re 90 minutes away from a potential berth the World Cup. Now is not the time to take your foot off the gas.”