Until Wednesday's crucial 3-0 victory over Honduras, the U.S. men's national team had gotten little out of its first halves, out of set pieces and out of star forward Christian Pulisic in its current set of World Cup qualifiers.
USMNT starts scorching hot, beats Honduras 3-0 in five-degree chill at Allianz Field
The United States' men's soccer team came to Minnesota in the middle of winter because it wanted a home-country advantage over its tropical opponent. Mission accomplished.
February 3, 2022 at 11:57AM
All that changed in the night's bitter cold at Allianz Field.
Seeking a home-country advantage against a winless and already eliminated Honduras team, U.S. Soccer brought its last of three qualifiers in a week to Minnesota in the middle of winter.
They now find themselves headed to March's final window second only to Canada and in prime position to get back to the World Cup in Qatar in November.
The U.S. team scored twice by halftime and once after when Pulisic unexpectedly came off the bench as a second-half sub and scored the night's third and final goal in the 67th minute.
Until Wednesday, the U.S. team hadn't scored a goal on a dead-ball set piece in its first 10 qualifiers. Until Wednesday, Pulisic had scored once in six recent qualifiers.
The temperature was 5 degrees with a minus-12 windchill shortly after kickoff.
By halftime, three Honduras players subbed out of the game. Two of them, including goalkeeper Luis Lopez, reportedly were treated for hypothermia.
Players from both teams jumped to warm themselves before both halves and the Honduran team delayed until the last moments before taking the field after half.
"To be honest, I don't think they wanted any part of that tonight," said U.S. defender Walker Zimmerman, who scored the game's second goal. "You could just tell, coming out for warmups, not coming out until right before the second half."
U.S. goalkeeper Matt Turner started the game wearing a pouch to keep his hands warm, an idea borrowed from the Vikings and their quarterbacks. But within seconds, the game referee ordered it off.
Before game's end, U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter took a photo with bundled fans during a long break in the action. Afterward, he praised the field's condition and an announced sellout crowd that filled the outdoor stadium in single-digit temperatures.
He called Minnesota fans "unbelievable" and thanked them for creating what he called an "amazing atmosphere" despite — or maybe because of — the cold.
"It was hard to stand out there, I can't imagine sitting out there all night," Berhalter said. "It's easy to say on a night like [Wednesday], you just stay home and sit in front of the TV and stay warm in your living room. But these fans came out with energy and noise and really made it a great environment for us to play in."
Afterward, he was asked if the two Honduras players' departure at halftime makes him think again about holding a qualifying game in Minnesota in winter.
He called it a "really difficult question to answer" and said U.S. Soccer provided the Honduras team and referees with cold-weather gear and other measures to combat the cold.
He said his team has faced severe conditions when it travels to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean for away qualifying games. The high temperature in Honduras Wednesday was in the 80s.
"When we go down to those countries and it's 90 degrees and 90 percent humidity and it's unbearable, our guys are getting dehydrated and cramping up, getting heat exhaustion. That's the nature of our competition."
All three goals came on set pieces — free or corner kicks — off the foot of midfielder Kellyn Acosta. Those were the first set-piece goals in the team's 11 current qualifying games.
Midfielder Weston McKennie scored the first in the eighth minute on a perfectly timed header. Zimmerman scored the second in the 37th minute on a spinning, short shot of a bounding ball from well inside the 18-yard box.
Pulisic scored the third and final goal in the 67th minute, three minutes after he entered as a sub, a surprise decision made by Berhalter before the game. He called upon teenage sensation Ricardo Pepi, MLS player Jordan Morris and Tim Weah up front.
"Decisions like that are never easy," Berhalter said. "We had a conversation with him and told him, 'You'll still affect the game, just in a different role.' We had to do what was best for the team and put Christian in the best possible position to make an impact and he did that. That's all you can asked from a player."
In a postgame FS1 interview, Pulisic said it's his job either way before he turned his attention to a fast exit.
"It's freezing out here," he said. "I'm looking forward to getting into the locker room with the guys."
Minnesota started only two strikers against Seattle, leaving Sang Bin Jeong and Joseph Rosales to provide the width behind Teemu Pukki and Kelvin Yeboah.
