Canada struck early and again late on to defeat the U.S. men\u2019s national team 2-0 on Sunday to remain unbeaten and extend their lead in the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers.
Canada collected a goal kick from U.S. keeper Matt Turner in the seventh minute and Jonathan David set up Cyle Larin, who raced forward and fired in past a diving Turner, sending the fans at Tim Hortons Field into a frenzy.
Sam Adekugbe added a second deep into second-half stoppage time to wrap up victory for Canada.
\u201cThe guys feed me the ball, and Jonathan up top helps me a lot,\u201d said Larin, who became Canada\u2019s all-time leading goalscorer with 23.
\u201cWe\u2019re a close team. We\u2019re a brotherhood.\u201d
Canada top the standings with 22 points, while the U.S. are second on 18 and Mexico, who play Costa Rica later on Sunday, are third with 17 points in the eight-team group. After falling behind, the U.S. looked like they would equalise when Christian Pulisic\u2019s corner found Weston McKennie\u2019s head, but Canada keeper Milan Borjan leapt up to swat the ball away, pounding his chest triumphantly after making the save.
Following a sloppy first half, the USMNT had more life in the second, especially after head coach Gregg Berhalter sent on Kellyn Acosta, Ricardo Pepi and Jordan Morris in the 69th minute.
The U.S. stepped up the pressure and had another excellent chance to score, but Paul Arriola\u2019s bicycle kick from inside the box with about three minutes to go was off target.
Adekugbe then scored on the counter in the fifth minute of stoppage time to seal the win for Canada on a cold day in Ontario.
\u201cThis means everything,\u201d Canada head coach John Herdman said of the victory.
\u201cFor these boys, for these fans, for this country. We\u2019re turning into a football country.\u201d
After the game, Berhalter had a positive take on his team\u2019s effort as they look ahead to hosting Honduras in St. Paul, Minnesota on Wednesday, while Canada travel to El Salvador.
\u201cIt was a game where, with that performance, you don\u2019t expect to lose that game,\u201d Berhalter said.
\u201cSo for us we say, put it away, it\u2019s done. Turn the page, now it\u2019s about Honduras.\u201d
The top three teams in the group will earn automatic qualification for the World Cup starting in Qatar in late November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Canada struck early and again late on to defeat the U.S. men\u2019s national team 2-0 on Sunday to remain unbeaten and extend their lead in the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers.Canada collected a goal kick from U.S. keeper Matt Turner in the seventh minute and Jonathan David set up Cyle Larin, who raced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":248427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-248416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}