Reading this post made me go back and watch the highlights again. God, what a nerve-racking hour that was...
Two more routs in the group stage of the Concacaf Nations League 10.11.19 US 7-0 Cuba 11.19.19 Cuba 0-4 US I take particular joy in the fact that the last USMNT game of the decade was a rout.
Insomnia, you are a fickle wench. Yet what better excuse to fart around with rout-related numbers on the eve of the decade's end? Here's one grouping: 80s--2 routs 90s--5 routs 00s--14 routs 10s--17 routs Kind of interesting that even though the 10s were a decade of marked decline for the MNT, as opposed to the fairly consistent quality of the 00s, we scored more big-ticket victories in this most recent decade. Here's the breakdown for those who may be interested (and I realize that "those who may be interested" is very likely just me). 00 3 01 0 02 2 03 2 04 1 05 0 06 2 07 1 08 2 09 1 10 0 11 0 12 1 13 3 14 0 15 3 16 5 17 2 18 0 19 4 14 routs in the past five years alone. That's as many as in the entire decade of the 00s. What this may say is that there's no correlation between big victories over presumably weaker teams and overall quality. It could also reflect some artifact of the schedule, though you don't see much relationship between years with more routs and Gold Cup years (odd years). Most routs ever was 16, not a Gold Cup year. Rather, we rebounded from almost shitting the bed in the hex semis after the first three games to win the final three by at least four goals each, not giving up any. We then beat Bolivia by 4 in a Copa America warm up game, and Costa Rica by 4 in the CA group stage. And of course it could and likely does to some extent mean that my chosen threshold of 4-0 victories is not that meaningful, and that to get some sense of how we compare on average to opponents it would make sense to use something like average goal difference against all opponents while adjusting for strength of opposition. I get that this is far from statistically valid.
Took us only three games (and one pandemic) but we made it y'all--first rout of the decade. Behold, US 6-2 Panama May there be many more, and soon, and with real crowds at that.
From what I am seeing I'd be willing to bet we will get plenty of those wins in the coming decade also.
USA 6-0 El Salvador Pity the poor Sallies, the team we've routed more than any other: now five routs total. Strangely I have to admit as a rout enthusiast I was hoping for a bigger scoreline after we were up 5-0 before a half-hour had transpired. But I'll take it. 2020: four games, three wins, one draw, two routs. Not bad! Maybe we just perform better amid global pandemics.
USA 7-0 Trinidad & Tobago Welcome 2021! May this be the first of many routs. This is just the second time we've scored three routs in a row. This run of 19-2 vs Panama, Salvador, and T&T outdoes the previous rout record of 14-0 over three games by a margin that is itself nearly a rout.
It's not official till it hits this thread, frankly. And this thread is gonna be way busier in the next 5 years than the last 5 years
It’s happened once: beating Barbados 4-0 in Barbados in the last game of the WCQ semis. Couple mentions of this game elsewhere in the thread. I would not be shocked if we saw another road rout this WCQ.
There was also that 6-0 win over St. Vincent and the Grenadines in 2018 WCQ. Our only road win during qualifying that cycle
That match was a joke. The guys on the pitch for T&T were woefully out of shape. Did you see the guy that was injured in the second half on the near touchline? He must have weighed over 200 pounds. He looked like a Sunday league player. I know exactly why we played them, I know why they were so ill prepared, but I don't even know if that match should count in any official statistics for the USMNT. That should have been played behind closed doors.
It wasn't pretty, no doubt. But this was the best anyone could do in light of Covid. Serbia cancelled, USSF had to scramble to find an opponent, and T&T was up for it but notice was so late they could fly in only players in US/Canadian league or the T&T domestic league (which has been suspended since the pandemic started last March. So yeah, these were T&T's scrubs for the most part. I'm sympathetic though--the coronavirus has been rough for everyone, including athletes, and I appreciate that T&T stepped in at the last minute to give us a game, even if not as competitive a game as we would have liked.
Holy crap that's right. Recall that in this round we drew T&T away 0-0 and lost to Guatemala away 2-0. Against the team that ended up last in the hex and a team that didn't even get to the hex, we got a total of one point away. In light of that, the bed-shitting at Couva probably should not have been regarded as a surprise but just a continuation of historically crappy form.
Sorry, but yeah in my post I said that I knew the whole backstory about why we played these guys and why they were so ill prepared. My point was that a game like this should never be referred to in any benchmark sort of way, ie, The highest number of goals scored in a match, or most players to have multiple goals in a single match, etc. It was a fun watch, and nice to see the guys have a good time together, but that was just about worthless from the standpoint of getting useful information for Berhalter. Enough said, I'm just saying my peace that the result and any all time records should just not count from this game.
Switzerland was an underwhelming amuse-bouche. Honduras was a zesty appetizer. Mexico was a rollicking and unforgettable main course. And for dessert, we have that most delicious of specialties, the Costa Rican rout. USA 4-0 Costa Rica
https://www.eloratings.net/United_States says it was the second time we scored 4 goals against Costa Rica, and the first time was a 4-0 win in the 2016 Copa America Centenario.
US 6-1 Martinique Fun fact: we scored more v Martinique in this game than we had scored previously against them in all our storied history (two games, a 2-0 win in 2003 and 3-2 in 2017).
Aw yeah: 5-1 is 100% officially a rout baby! It’s been a while. May this story end better than the last time we routed Panama in the next to last game of wcq.