The USA remained winless in their last game before Mauricio Pochettino took over. They had everything under control in the test against New Zealand – then things got strange
When Mauricio Pochettino plays his first international match as USA national team coach in October, his first priority will be to end a short winless streak. On Wednesday night (CEST), the Americans were held to a 1-1 draw in a friendly against New Zealand, their fourth win in a row.
In their second and final appearance under interim coach Mikey Varas, the USA dominated large parts of the match in front of 15,711 spectators in Cincinnati, but were unable to hold on to their lead. The former Dortmund and current Milan professional scored twelve minutes after coming on as a substitute at the end of a beautiful passing sequence to make it 1-0 and move into the top five in the all-time US top scorers’ rankings.
Only Clint Dempsey (57 goals/141 caps), Landon Donovan (57/157), Jozy Altidore (42/115) and Eric Wynalda (34/106) are now ahead of Pulisic, who only needed 73 caps for his 31 goals and will now set his sights on the top three. However, he was only able to celebrate his goal to a limited extent because it was not enough to win the game
Pure slapstick in the 89th minute
A few minutes before the end, the US defense – in which right-back Marlon Fossey made his international debut – failed to clear a long ball. Substitute Caleb Wiley headed it uncontrollably towards his own penalty area and team-mate Mark McKenzie’s attempt to clear the ball hit Ben Waine so awkwardly that the ball sailed over goalkeeper Matt Turner and into the net – pure slapstick (89′).
After three defeats in a row, including the early exit from the Copa America and the first home defeat against Canada since 1957, the game was not a liberating blow. Pochettino, who was presented as the new national team coach immediately before the game, has plenty of work ahead of him. He will make his debut against Panama in Austin on October 13 (3:00 CEST), and three days later things should really heat up against Mexico in Guadalajara (4:30 CEST), even if it is also just a test match.
