Review: Most impressive tournament game in USMNT history?

It was not widely seen,but we beat Argentina3-0 in the 1995 Copa.Still not as good as this one.

 

I didn't watch that Argentina game live, but that's a big one.

.................................I would say based on the quality of the competition, I'll go with the 3-2 win over Portugal in 2002 and the 2-0 win over Colombia in 1994 as better wins.

I mean we were 3-0 up on Portugal. That's the one I voted for.

The quality of the performance last night was fantastic. It was impressive. The meaningfulness of the win, however, will be revealed when the tournament is over. If Australia and Turkey beat them comfortably, then we'll perhaps see it differently.

Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay failed to beat that Paraguay team in qualifying. So we'll see........................

 

Portugal win is still it for me. Last night was great but the win itself was not surprisings.

 

If the question is “in which of these games did we play best,” then yeah this was it. It was more impressive to beat Portugal but if you’re old enough to recall (as I am), after we went up 3-0 we were mostly on the back foot, doing a lot of defending and nearly blowing the lead we’d built up.

I have never seen a USMNT world cup game when we end dominantly and on the front foot like this. I’ve seen us do that when we’re schooling a mediocre or weak team in the Gold Cup, but never in the WC.

 

Yeah,Portugal woke up a bit and gave us a hard time.We actually ended that game well though as they ran out of gas.

 

So I’m the only vote for “another game” because we are forgetting USA 1 - 0 England 1950. That was, by far, most impressive.

 

Fun question, it's nice to revisit high points rather than pick at low points.
Quality of opponent matters and situation matters. This was by far the most dominant performance I've seen in a world cup. Absolutely amazing. Keep Puli in instead of Berhalter and we were looking at Germany 7-1ing Brazil. It's also likely not in my top 5 of most impressive.
Match that doesn't get the credit it should: US v Italy 2006.
I'd also add US v Germany in 2002. That's an obvious stolen goal away from the US taking it to the best team in the world in the quarterfinals of the cup.

 

The big teams start slowly and gather steam during the tournament. The Paraguay match was very exciting. And we're not a big team yet.

 

I feel like USA vs Germany Quarterfinal 2002 should maybe be on this list. We lost of course, but went toe to toe, down to the wire, and arguably even tied it up against the world's best while under extreme pressure. People could write off beating Portugal as an opening-game fluke, they could say beating Mexico is just a CONCACAF thing, but we did put a scare into Germany. Unlike our other showings in the knock-out rounds, we showed that we were a world-class, dangerous team capable of advancing to the Semis of a World Cup.

 

I give props to the USA game against Spain in 09 and kudos to the OG's in the 90s but this was a World Cup match where the US was attacking and dictating the plays which was a joy to watch. Some folks watching this may have never experienced US players doing this.

 

I think the clear point is that ~nobody~ watching this HAS ever experienced US players doing this. Even the players doing it had never experienced it! The label placed on this team (and rightfully so) was "zero signature wins against top opponents in a game that matters."

The poll should be for "second most impressive after last night."

 

Spain 2009 for me; this one’s in second though.

 

2002 USA-Mexico WC.

• The stakes
• The rival
• The blood sacrificice
• The domination
  
• The dos a cero

 

Wasn't that 1950? I agree it might be the best result just because of how each team was rated at the time. Now as to adding in how our team played this may be the best because Paraguay was snuffed out. I guess it depends on whether you value a result farther along, against a great team or how the team played.

 

Like you I didn't see the 3-0 over Argentina, but it has to be up there, and some of these, including that one, had added nuances....for instance, I knew the players went on strike in the lead up to that tournament (Copa America '95), but I didn't know they didn't practice all week before the tournament opener and apparently locked up a deal like 12 hours before their first game. So now consider how impressive it was?

For me:


0-1 against Italy in 1990 after the 1-5 loss to Czechoslovakia with Italian media predicting 10-0, had a goal cleared off the line.

2-1 over Colombia is there, slightly mitigated by the fact that narcoterrorists were actively threatening the team anonymous phone calls, stuff over the tv etc, especially after they lost their opener, but still, my gosh that was incredible.

3-2 over Portugal, after Portugal felt they were robbed of a Finals appearance at Euro '00 and had won the UEFA group of death.

0-1 against Germany in the Quarterfinals where we were by far the better team....

1-1 against WC Winners Italy while down 2 men, including a game winner controversially ruled out for goalie interference.

3-0 against Egypt when we had to win 3-0 to have any chance of advancing.

2-0 against Spain

3-2 second half comeback against Slovenia

What yesterday reminded me of most though was the 5-1 --- kicking we gave Uruguay last November. I know friendlies, and I agree, but that was such a shocking complete and utter demolition, the 5th straight positive result of the fall and a result so brutal Uruguay was wondering if they had to sack their illustrious coach, and Bielsa apparently held a THREE HOUR press conference afterwards. That game was exactly like this one. Just an annihilation.

 

It's a shame that the referee lost his head in that 2023 Nations League match against Mexico, because that had real potential to explode into something far beyond 2-0 or 3-0.

 

I would add one more.

1-0 over Brazil in the 1998 Gold Cup semi.

If only for Romario shaking Kasey Keller's hand after Keller stopped him from point blank range.

 

• Comprehensive? Yes.
• Satisfying? Yes.
• Memorable? Yes.
• Legendary? Yes.
• Impressive? Not as much.

The general consensus at the time was that we had a great shot at beating Mexico. We had done it before. To top this list, it should be by winning a game no one expected us to be able to win against an opponent considered well above us.
[edit to add: I think the loss against Germany in the next game was just as impressive as beating Mexico, if you disregard the scoreline and only rate the team's performance]

 

I also think if we don't clear the corner directly to Beto's foot a couple minutes before half time it could change things too, but when you surrender a goal like that just before half time, you've got to be worrying about giving up another, and making things tight in the second half. 3-0 up, and I bet we would have worked hard to keep it 3-0 to start the 2nd half and if successful, play some moderate version of attacking and defense, but the bad goal given up right before half time probably changed the approach because Portugal of that era could put it on you, as Poland learned a few days later.

 

This is fair. I was just a casual in high school at the time so I didn't know the expectations or context other than weird hours, 2 nations hosting and that Mexico was our daddy. I knew a couple players but no analysis at all. Thanks for the insight.

 

An underrated one: 4-0 over Costa Rica in the Copa 100. That was the Golden Generation that came a penalty shootout away from a World Cup semifinal two years prior and would go on to beat Colombia in their subsequent game. Those Ticos were good, and we totally boat raced them.