USMNT draws El Salvador in beautiful, muddy mess of a CONCACAF night

The USMNT’s four-game window ended with a game that was pure, undistilled CONCACAF

The U.S. men’s national team ended its four-match June window with a pure, undistilled taste of CONCACAF.

Tuesday night’s game in El Salvador had brutal challenges, fisticuffs between players, a pair of red cards, a goalkeeper howler, a blown penalty call, torrential rain, and mud. Lots and lots of mud.

In the end the USMNT drew El Salvador 1-1 in the CONCACAF Nations League, a result that was only secured by a late Jordan Morris equalizer after both teams had been reduced to 10 men.

The first goal on the night came from a bizarre bit of goalkeeping from Ethan Horvath. The Nottingham Forest keeper was caught out of position when Alexander Larín shot from an impossible angle far out on the flank, and then simply froze as he watched the ball sail into the back of the net.

That goal looked like it would stand up for the home side at the Estadio Cuscatlán, but Morris came off the bench to score a stoppage-time header and give the U.S. a deserved share of the points.

After a stop-start opening period the USMNT came out improved in the second half, with halftime subs Jesús Ferreria and Weston McKennie making a notable impact on proceedings right away.

It appeared a result may be slipping away in the 70th minute though, when Paul Arriola, having only come off the bench nine minutes prior, was shown a straight red card for a studs-up challenge.

But Yunus Musah, who again was perhaps the most impressive USMNT player on the evening, drew a straight red card on Ronald Rodríguez just minutes later after a surging run through the midfield forced the defender to take him down when he was set to be in alone on goal.

That set up a grandstand finish with Morris connecting off a cross from fellow substitute Luca de la Torre, scoring his first USMNT goal since coming back from a torn ACL suffered in February 2021.

Watch the goals from USMNT at El Salvador

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