It's Dos a Cero: The next generation.
Into the game for just five minutes as a second-half substitute, Christian Pulisic scored the go-ahead goal, while Weston McKennie added a second soon after to give the U.S. men's national team a familiar 2–0 lead over Mexico in an intense bout between the two storied rivals Friday night at FC Cincinnati's TQL Stadium.
The stakes are big, where a U.S. win would guarantee the hosts a share of first place halfway through the 14-game qualifying gauntlet, while a loss would make things significantly more nervy heading into Tuesday's match in Jamaica and the remaining two windows early next year. The top three teams in the Octagonal automatically qualify for the World Cup, while the fourth-place team goes to an intercontinental playoff.
The U.S. was a bit shorthanded for the match. Pulisic wasn't available from the start, Gregg Berhalter announced Thursday, citing his bandwidth after just returning from injury, while Sergiño Dest and Gio Reyna are sidelined with injuries of their own. Mexico wasn't playing with a full deck either, with the visitors facing a bit of a center back crisis. Néstor Araujo is suspended, while César Montes and Héctor Moreno are out injured, forcing manager Tata Martino to dip into his depth at a pivotal position.
Things were busy on the U.S. left to start the match, with left back Antonee Robinson pushing forward and trying to drive the U.S. attack only to be thwarted, while Jesús "Tecatito" Corona tried to go 1-v-1 on Miles Robinson—who was covering Antonee Robinson's area—on the other end, with the Atlanta United center back coming out on top in their duel.
The first U.S. half-chance emanated from the right, though. Yunus Musah did well to keep possession in the midfield before finding Tim Weah out wide, and he picked out Mexican-American forward Ricardo Pepi, whose redirect in the box went wide of the target in the fifth minute.
Weah called his own number from long range on a one-man transitional moment a couple of minutes later, trying to beat Guillermo Ochoa with a low blast when he had Brenden Aaronson streaking forward into the box. The veteran goalkeeper calmly and cleanly made the save.
Mexico tested Zack Steffen for the first time in the 12th minute. Edson Álvarez curled a shot from over 20 yards out toward the left post, but Steffen, who got the start over Matt Turner for a second straight qualifier, was equal to it, diving to his right and pushing it around the target.
Steffen made another massive save in the 18th minute, when Hirving Lozano was played through by Corona and found himself on a breakaway. With DeAndre Yedlin bearing down, Lozano still had room to shoot, but a sprawling Steffen made the save.
Another chance fell for Mexico at the half-hour mark, with Lozano feeding Corona after a U.S. turnover in the midfield, only for the Porto winger to mishit his first-time, close-range volley wide of Steffen's goal.
The best chances of the first half certainly went Mexico's way, but the U.S. did enjoy some menacing moments in the final third as well. In the 39th minute, Pepi's layoff set up Musah for a chance from the edge of the box, but the Valencia midfielder overpowered his chance and sent it into the stands.
The U.S. came out aggressively in the second half and forced Ochoa into action just a few minutes in. Weah was played down the right by Yedlin and cut back a ball through the Mexico box, with Pepi letting it roll to an unmarked Weston McKennie. The Juventus midfielder lined up his shot and blasted it right at the Mexican goalkeeper, who parried it away for a corner.
The match turned physical a little after the hour mark, with a pair of confrontations between the sides, the latter coming after Chaka Rodríguez appeared to grab Aaronson's face and eyes.
In the aftermath, McKennie was among those given a yellow card, which is his second of the Octagonal and rules him out for Tuesday's match in Jamaica.
Shortly after, Pulisic made his entrance, coming off the bench to replace Aaronson. It didn't take long for him to make his mark. Weah took his defender 1-v-1 down the right, while Pulisic got into position in front of the goal, heading home the cross to give the U.S. a 1-0 lead.
Stay tuned here for live updates and highlights of goals and key plays from through the match (refresh for most recent updates).
Here are the lineups for the night:
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