The USMNT took care of business Friday night in Cincinnati, as they triumph over Gerardo Martino’s Mexican squad to take over the top spot of the CONCACAF hexagonal standings.
Christian Pulisic opened the scoreboard in the 74th minute with the first goal of the game, followed by the second goal scored by Weston McKennie 11 minutes later.
With this victory over their rivals, the Americans have now defeated Mexico 3 consecutive matches in a calendar year, a concerning statistic for Mexico’s manager Gerardo Martino.
U.S. national team manager Gregg Berhalter says, "the game changer in this match was the energy Pulisic brought off the bench in the second half" he added, “When we brought Christian, he gave our team a boost and brought fear to Mexico,”.
On the other side of the field, Mexico's team manager Gerardo Martino is focusing on the bigger picture and has his eye on the World Cup qualifiers. Martino says the most important thing is to win as many points as possible during the qualifiers leading up to the World Cup in 2022.
“The game is not a question of losing three games to the US, the situation is to continue recovering in the qualifiers. We are in the qualifying round, not a personal match against the U.S."
After this match, both the U.S. and Mexico have the same amount of points in the CONCACAF standings, however, with both goals scored tonight by the Americans, the U.S. takes the lead based on goal difference.
