Given the FIFA stood by the horrible decision to award the 2022 World Cup to Qatar in the winter, this summer’s international window has been full of meaningless friendlies and Nations League matches. That meant the U.S. men’s national team was stuck playing one more of those notoriously awful road matches in CONCACAF … during a World Cup year.
And, oh man, it was peak CONCACAF.
The USMNT traveled to El Salvador to play its second CONCACAF Nations League group stage match — a tournament stage that won’t resume until 2023. And while the U.S. easily defeated Grenada in Austin, a match in San Salvador was going to present a challenge unique to CONCACAF.
See: San Salvador was in the midst of multi-day rainfall, which wreaked havoc on the already-suspect playing surface at Estadio Cuscatlán. The result was a muddy (and dangerous) mess that the USMNT managed to escape with a point thanks to a stoppage-time goal.
JORDAN MORRIS 90' EQUALIZER FOR THE USMNT!
(via @FOXSoccer) pic.twitter.com/QWjxoLOsSj
— USMNT Only (@usmntonly) June 15, 2022
The horrible field was the talk of U.S. Soccer Twitter all Tuesday night. I mean, look how horrible this is:
Christian Pulisic never played in the 1960s. But he can tell the old English men that complain that today’s footballers have it so good that they’ve never played in CONCACAF #USMNT pic.twitter.com/WgiCMIjAEg
— Footy Prime presented by @NorthStarBet (@footy_prime) June 15, 2022
Photos from the match didn’t make the experience seem any more enjoyable for the players either.