NY Times · Mar 25, 2022
U.S. Faces Mexico With Simple Goal: ‘We Just Have to Qualify’
Only a handful of the current members of the U.S. team took part in the last failed qualifying cycle.Credit...Hector Vivas/Getty ImagesMEXICO CITY — There is a tendency among professional athletes and coaches, when faced with the hype of high-stakes competition, to undersell the sense of occasion.
A big game, they might say, is in fact just another game. Looking ahead at a stretch of daunting contests is futile; better to go one day at a time.
But when the United States men’s soccer team gathered this week in preparation for its final three qualification games for the 2022 World Cup, Coach Gregg Berhalter was uncharacteristically blunt with his staff.