By Alonso Contreras
It was a beautiful night for soccer and a special win to end the year. USMNT made the opponent feel uncomfortable by attacking since the beginning of the match.
The National Team was constantly attacking from Jordan Morris’s side, he almost scored after two years playing with the USA, but the Bosnian goalkeeper made a great save in the line. Morris’s last game appearance was November 19, 2021. The United States could’ve scored numerous times in the first half but at the 40th minute of the first half the tactic drastically changed; Bosnian player Amar Begic was red carded by a brutal tackle against Colorado rapids player Kellyn Acosta. Rapidly, the Bosnian Team made a formation with 5 defenders by parking the bus and making it almost impossible for the American offense to penetrate and score.
During the second half, the strategy didn’t change much. USMNT was controlling the game, but the goal was not coming. Bassett had entered the game in the 78th minute and scored the winning goal in the 89th minute after picking a rebound inside the box.
Playing against 10 men was a difficult situation since during the 11 versus 11 phase, the USA was demonstrating a solid team.
Head Coach Gregg Berhalter made more substitutions
Ricardo Pepi out – Gyasi Zardes in
Brooks Lennon out- Bryan Reynolds in
Johnny Cardoso out – Jackson Yueill in
Jordan Morris out – Cole Bassett in
Jonathan Gomez out – George Bello in
It was great communication between GK Matt Turner and both centers back Walker Zimmerman and Henry Kessler
Turner ” Kessler and I played a lot of games together and I thought he was excellent tonight, new system new style, he was challenged to play a little bit maybe outside the way we usually play with the revs by the coaching staff here and I think he had a great camp he adapted well, and then he had a great game tonight and obviously the communication between us is seamless and Walker and I have played together enough, it was a really nice back four to work with today and we got the clean sheet.” said during the postgame press conference
This victory maintains the momentum for the national team who will be facing next month three games in 10 days road to the world cup Qatar 2022
- Tonight’s result sees the USMNT finish 2021 with 17 wins, setting a new team record for victories in a calendar year. With a 17-2-3 record, the team also ends the year with a .841winning percentage, the team’s best in a calendar year in which five or more matches were played.
- Kellyn Acosta earned his 21st cap of 2021, marking the most appearances by a USMNT player in a calendar year since 1994.