U.S. soccer beats Honduras to secure first victory in World Cup qualifying

The first World Cup qualifying window didn’t go as planned for the U.S. national team.

The Americans drew two games they could have won, lost three starters to injury and another to COVID-19 and saw a one-time locker room leader get suspended and sent home for repeated violations of team protocols.

But they ended the three-match, eight-day ordeal by rallying for an improbable 4-1 win over Honduras that gives their qualifying chances, if not their confidence, a boost.

The goals, all in the second half, came from Antonee Robinson, Ricardo Pepi, Brenden Aaronson and Sebastian Lletget, erasing a 1-0 deficit Honduras built on Brayan Mora’s diving header midway through the first half.

And the win, accomplished with the youngest starting lineup in a qualifier in the modern era, is the freshest memory the players will take with them when they begin returning to their club teams Friday.

“You always try to go home with a good feeling,” coach Gregg Berhalter said before the game. “Every time we play, even if the result doesn’t go our way, we’re trying to pull positives from the game.”

Here are a few positive things Berhalter can pull from the Americans’ first road victory in CONCACAF qualifying in eight years, and their first victory in Honduras since 2009:

• Despite the slow start in the tournament, the U.S., unbeaten at 1-0-2, has five points through three games and is tied for second with Canada and Panama in the qualifying table. It has to finish in the top three among eight teams to reach next year’s World Cup, a tournament the U.S. missed three years ago.

• In the October qualifying window, the U.S. will play two of its three games at home, where it has lost only three of 31 qualifiers since 1989. And with the COVID-19 pandemic expanding the qualifying tournament to 14 games, the U.S. has plenty of time to make up lost ground. While the previous hexagonal format ended after 10 games, the U.S. has 11 matches remaining this time, six of them at home.

United States’ Christian Pulisic, left, jumps over Honduras’ Maynor Figueroa during a qualifying match for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

(Moises Castillo / Associated Press)

• Then there’s midfielder Weston McKennie, the player sent back to his club in Italy as punishment for what ESPN reported were multiple violations of the national team’s COVID-19 protocols. He could be back next month, Berhalter said. “It’s an open-door policy,” the coach said. “Very rarely would there be a situation where a player would never be allowed back into national team camp.”

That remains to be determined. But with McKennie unavailable, Berhalter gave teenager Pepi his national team debut, and George Bello, 19, James Sands, 21, and Mark McKenzie, 22, made their qualifying debuts. The lineup had an average age of 23 years, 85 days and 17 caps, making it the equal-youngest in a competitive game in U.S. history.

And the mistake-prone U.S. showed its age and inexperience in the first half, allowing Honduras to go in front in the 27th minute on Mora’s header. It marked the first time the U.S. has trailed since the Nations League final with Mexico three months ago.

A menacing, leaden sky hugged Estadio Olímpico, Honduras’ massive concrete home on the southern edge of the country’s second-largest city, for much of the day. But the rain stayed away and the game kicked off before a COVID-limited crowd of more than 25,000 in 81-degree temperatures with 83% humidity and no breeze.

The U.S. was outshot 11-4 in the first half, failing to put a try on target. Things changed after the intermission, though, with Robinson coming on for Bello and tying the score three minutes later, celebrating his first international goal with a backflip.

Pepi then put the U.S. in front to stay in the 75^th minute with his first U.S. goal before the 20-year-old Aaronson and the Galaxy’s Lletget, both second-half substitutes, put the game away in the closing minutes.

For Christian Pulisic, the U.S. captain who was on the bench for the final three goals after sustaining an ankle injury, the win ended a complicated, frustrating and emotional week.

“We were pretty much just forced to look past it, which we have,” he said. ”And now we just have to focus on what’s ahead.

“There’s no doubt within this team. We’re a confident bunch of guys.”