The U.S. Men's Soccer Team Is Headed Back To The World Cup

The United States Mens National Team hold a 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualified banner after defeating Panama 5-1 at Exploria Stadium on March 27, 2022 in Orlando, Florida.

Despite falling 2-0 to Costa Rica at Estadio Nacional in San Jose, the Americans qualified for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The U.S. is now headed to its eighth World Cup in nine tries since 1990, and the team can officially put its failure to qualify for the 2018 tournament in the rearview mirror.
Coming into the final game of CONCACAF “Octagonal” final round of qualifying, the U.S. could have secured its World Cup spot with a win or a tie at Costa Rica. Short of that, the Americans just needed to lose by five goals or less to earn a trip to Qatar 2022.
In the end, Canada secured first place with 28 points, followed by Mexico, which also had 28 points. Both the U.S. and Costa Rica had 25 points, but the U.S. ended in third — and, crucially, win the automatic berth — based on goal differential. Fourth-place Costa Rica now moves on to an intercontinental playoff against Oceania champion New Zealand in June.
“I’m extremely proud, I’m extremely proud of this group,” U.S. forward Christian Pulisic said. “It’s a bit of a weird feeling right now because I hate to lose so much, but I’m really proud and am excited to go to the World Cup.”
The U.S. has never won a World Cup qualifier in Costa Rica in 11 tries.
The visitors faced a much less than optimal Costa Rican lineup as head coach Luis Fernando Suarez decided to rest several key players. The Ticos had nine players on yellow cards, and another would take any of those players out of the intercontinental playoff. Instead, the hosts fielded a mostly young lineup with three players making their international debuts — in contrast to 35-year-old goalkeeper Keylor Navas, who had 105 matches under his belt. 
The Americans dominated the first half but could not break through as Navas made three saves, two of them spectacular on defender Miles Robinson in the eighth minute and Ricardo Pepi in the 13th minute.
The Central Americans took advantage of some sloppy defensive play by the visitors in the 51st minute, and Juan Pablo Vargas took advantage to put Costa Rica up. Eight minutes later, Jewison Bennette found an unmarked Anthony Contreras in front of the goal as he tallied from close range to increase the lead to 2-0.
“Although we’re disappointed with the result tonight, we can put it past us because we’re in the World Cup,” U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said.

Michael Lewis, who covers soccer for Newsday, has written about the sport for four decades and has written six books about soccer. He is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.