USMNT strikes early and late in tougher-than-expected win over Uzbekistan

Don’t let the score fool you: this was a tough one for the USMNT

The U.S. men’s national team welcomed Gregg Berhalter back with a big win on the scoreboard, without necessarily providing the performance to go with it.

The USMNT defeated Uzbekistan 3-0 at St. Louis’ CityPark on Saturday, getting an early striker from Tim Weah before padding the lead with two stoppage-time goals from Ricardo Pepi and Christian Pulisic.

Fans expecting an easy game against an unfancied opponent didn’t get that, however, as the Uzbeks caused danger on the break and used some hard-but-clean tackling to unsettle the USMNT for long spells.

Any worries about a slow start to the second Berhalter era ended quickly, as an enterprising run from Luca de la Torre — who would depart after 33 minutes with a potential broken nose — sparked a USMNT attack that eventually ended with Weah’s powerful strike.

Uzbekistan were struggling whenever the U.S. got numbers forward, with Folarin Balogun heading off the post in the 17th minute after good work from Weston McKennie teed him up.

That said, a rare foray forward nearly gave the Uzbeks a stunning equalizer. Khojakbar Alijonov raided forward from his right wingback role before cutting inside and launching a rocket that was only denied by the crossbar.

Despite the USMNT’s overall control, a gift nearly handed Uzbekistan an equalizer just before halftime. Tim Ream simply took a poor touch preparing for a backpass to Matt Turner, handing striker Eldor Shomurodov a chance to race in alone on goal from 50 yards. Shomurodov tried to shoot back across goal after dragging Turner to one side, but was denied by a huge stop from the Nottingham Forest goalkeeper.

Turner was tested again by Alijonov in the 61st minute as Uzbekistan was becoming a more frequent threat by playing early balls in behind the USMNT back line.

The positive U.S. start seemed like a distant memory as the game wore on, with Uzbekistan’s ability to get in behind causing fits. Berhalter got less than ideal news elsewhere: both McKennie and Antonee Robinson joined de la Torre as substitutes whose fitness will be in question for Tuesday’s match against Oman. Robinson came off having received treatment for some kind of hamstring discomfort (allowing Kristoffer Lund to make his USMNT debut), while McKennie had gestured at his left hamstring in the minutes preceding his exit.

The U.S. needed something to give the match more of a positive feel, and got it in stoppage time from Pepi. The move started with his PSV teammate Sergiño Dest, and ended with Pepi simply overpowering goalkeeper Utkir Yusupov.

Substitute Malik Tillman still found time to win an even later penalty kick, with Pulisic firing past Yusupov five minutes into stoppage time.

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