The U.S. men’s national team will look to get back on track after its first loss in World Cup qualifying as it gets set to meet a Costa Rica side that is back from the dead in its bid to make it to Qatar 2022.
An American squad with seven new starters from its previous 2-0 win over Jamaica logged what was arguably the worst U.S. performance in the Gregg Berhalter era on Sunday, failing to register a single shot on target in a 1-0 loss to Panama. Berhalter’s decision to heavily rotate the squad was met with criticism, but he made it clear that it was a gamble for which the payoff comes on Wednesday.
“It obviously doesn't look like the best choice, but I think we have to wait till Thursday,” Berhalter said after the Panama loss. “If we were going to play the same players [vs. Jamaica on Thursday] in this game [vs. Panama on Sunday], I’m not sure we would position ourselves in the best way to win again on Wednesday [vs. Costa Rica]. Again, the conditions that we’re dealing with [in Panama] with the travel and the weather made it complicated. And we had to make, I guess, somewhat of a risky decision."
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