Jozy Altidore scored twice in a three-minute span of the second half, Sacha Kljestan and Paul Arriola added goals and the United States beat Trinidad and Tobago 4-0 on Tuesday night to reach the final round of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup. Pulisic was again heavily involved, gliding past opponents on the left, as he did repeatedly during the 90 minutes, before laying the ball across the face of goal for Altidore to slide in at the back post and convert.
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If any player boosted his national-team stock more than Pulisic in the past two games, it was the New York Red Bulls veteran. That’s well short of the 52,033 who came to EverBank the last time the American men showed up for a game, a 2-1 friendly win over Nigeria just prior to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Overall, their record for 2016 stands at 2-4-2 (W-L-D) and their last win came way back in March (a 6-0 win over St. Vincent & the Grenadines in World Cup Qualifying).
Tuesday’s match has high stakes for the usa team. He missed a shot in the box early but gave the USA the lead late in the first half when he blocked a clearance and scored when it landed at his feet.
He turns 18 on September 18. Having played five rounds, Trinidad and Tobago scored 11 points with 13 goals difference: 5 and it’s 1 in the standings. Some changes will be made from the squad that beat St. Vincent & the Grenadines 6-0 on Friday, but the USA should still be good enough to get the job done against the Soca Warriors. We just need to make sure it all kind of comes at the right time.
Obviously, U.S. Soccer will take into account that playing on a mid-week night instead of Friday, and the difficulty of competing with football season, could mean a future change in game plan.
More importantly, the US holds an 11-0-1 all-time record at home against T&T, with the only tie coming in a World Cup qualifier, a 1-1 draw on May 13, 1989 in Torrance, Calif. Once we got it, we gave it to them.
U.S. had to wait until the 31st minute for their first real chance on Tuesday as an Altidore cross led to 17-year-old Christian Pulisic hitting the post. Together, the wins put the team into a six-nation competition that begins in November.
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Noted goalkeeper Hope Solo during the U.S.’s quarterfinal Olympic match against Sweden in August. He played in teammates for shots and sent in risky crosses, ably supported by the work of Altidore up top and Kljestan in midfield. Some of the players are maybe looking for a contract – maybe even here in MLS – like some of them already have. “We’ll see how it pans out”. Also among those six teams is Group B victor Costa Rica and runner-up Panama.
