Review: Most impressive tournament game in USMNT history?

There was also a Kasey Keller game vs Brazil, I think in Copa, that was even better than Howard's display vs Belgium. We were under siege and I think it was a draw. Ooops, that has to be the 1998 GC game.

The 2009 Confed Cup 3-0 win vs Egypt was better than last night, IMHO.

Last night's was close to the most impressive in terms of us being on the front foot and dominating. Though I'd wager thise 1930 3-0 wins were close. And the 3-0 NL win vs Mexico.

But it gets discounted a bit for me by the strength of opponent, the stakes being lower, the fact that we were favored going in, and it was at home.

If I am ranking:
1. 2009 Confed Cup SF 2-0 Spain
2. 2002 WC Rd16 2-0 Mexico
3. 2002 WC GR 3-2 Portugal
4. 1950 WC GR 1-0 England
5. 1995 Copa GR 3-0 Argentina
6. 2002 WC QF 0-1 Germany
7. 2022/23 NL SF 3-0 Mexico
8. 1998 Gold Cup SF 1-0 Brazil
9. 2009 Conf Cup GR 3-0 Egypt
10. 2026 WC GR 4-1 Paraguay
11. 1930 WC Group 3-0 v Belgium
12. 1930 WC GR 3-0 Paraguay.
13. 2007 Gold Cup F: 2-1 Mexico
14. 1994 WC GR 2-1 Colombia
15. 2023/24 NL F 2-0 Mexico
16. 2006 WC GR 1-1 Italy

 

A different perspective. The win against Argentina might be the "most impressive." I played a lot of pick-up soccer back then. And, where I live, pick-up soccer was 70% immigrants/ex-pats (same thing?) Several different people, South Americans, told me "America has arrived." Like they thought that match signaled the US's entry into top tier status. (I was very skeptical). I think my memory is correct on this, forgive me if I have it wrong: Eddie Johnson took a pk in that match. I don't even remember if he converted it. But, in his run up, he looked like a beast. A beautiful thing to behold. Some media source must have been putting this out there, but a couple of guys compared him to Eusebio. (I had to ask who Eusebio was). So, for purely making an impression, that win v. Argentina was riiiiight up there.

Another odd shout, in the Confed Cup final, the first half against Brazil, we outplayed them. We were the better team.

And, the 2002 loss to Germany. We outplayed everyone but Oliver Kahn.

But, for overall most impressive .... that's a hard one. This was by farrrrrr the best we've ever played. For most impressive, I can't pick. The win over Argentina, b/c we impressed hardcorp South American soccer players/fans. Confed Cup, because of Spain's status at that time, we went toe-to-toe with them, and Bradley's brilliant tactics. Or, 2-0, because we won a WC knock-out match and validated it with our play vs. Germany.

 

Good list.

Donovan's goal to open the 2nd half against Slovenia was sooooo bad ass.

 

YMMV, of course.

But I think last night is deservedly in the conversation.

 

this covers most of my list.

for me germany 02 is #1, everything else has caveats.

portugal 02 is probably second for taking as much advantage as possible of a team taking a match for granted, and weirdly for hanging on when a wc favorite gave us everything they had in the second half.

actually, called that tied for second place with spain 09. the competitive level there was to whatever degree...not the world cup, but spain werent going through the motions, either.

mexico isnt super high for me because we had been kicking their ass pretty regularly at that time. i mean, most satisfying? screamiest of all time? maybe. and thats exactly where i am, and imagine these hours later, will "rank" this performance.

paraguay made the unthinkably stupid decision to abandon how theyve played, and in one moment pulisic ended the greatest stretch in a soccer nations history. not only couldnt they recover we simply wouldnt let them.

you can use a lot of superlatives for this win- all time, historic, non-hyperbolic superlatives- but "impressive" isnt quite it for me. this paraguay team isnt at the level nor this match the importance of easily a handful of matches.

1 germany
2 portugal/spain
3 man...it might be the 02 gc final for me
4 maybe this, the dos a cero of all dos a ceros, the 19 gc final

 

This exercise for the most part is what top teams did we beat? How I look at it, while we beat good teams, we upset them by defending and countering. Countering well and scoring well, but I'd like to take a more macro approach and point out our players were decent at ok club teams back then, but our players now are just plain better, more skilled, more talented, proven at better clubs, some top teams and we were all waiting for that talent to match up with the tactics and determination. Spain dominated possession with over 60% and had 11 shots, but Tim Howard kept a clean sheet for the US with 6 saves. We just hung on vs Portugal at the end. This is the first generation to toy with a good opponent and literally for a full 90 minutes of a game, a World Cup Game, dominate possession, defense, every aspect with talent, flair, skill, gameplan, grit, courage. I even doubt the published possession numbers because it wasn't even that close.

 

M

Slovenia match ended 2-2, though that mysterious Edu foul...

 

...and Torsten Frings.
...and Hugh Dallas.

 

Ya, Frings had the match of his life. He also created the foul that was called on Eddie Lewis (a total BS call), that led to the fk that Ballack scored on. And, late in the game, someone - Berhalter, I think - hit a rocket from maybe 10 yards out that Frings blocked w/ a sliding tackle. Frings single handedly (pun intended) stopped two US goals and created the German goal.

Berhalter, had an interesting match. too. We gave up a lot of fk's. Berhalter was responsible for Ballack. And, wayyy overmatched. (almost any CB would be). So, he was draping himself all over Ballack. Iirc, he was on a yellow when Ballack scored, and imo that affected his defense. Again, that's not a knock on Berhalter. Then, at the end of the match, he was that close to tying it up, if it weren't for Frings.

 

Thanks for putting together this list, brought back some good, and bad (screw you Hugh Dallas) memories.

So for me if we're talking most impressive it has to be a win. We're not Canada we do have some pedigree. And it has to be in the World Cup. That is just so much bigger, and more meaningful than any other tournament we play in. So with those filters I can only look at five matches. Columbia ('94), Portugal ('02), Mexico ('02), Algeria ('10) and last night.

I'm only going off of memory and some of these I haven't rewatched in decades, but I think last night was the most impressive. Our ability to absolutely stifle them, while still creating, and finishing chances, was something I haven't seen from the US before. I've seen us defend with gusto and then break out from the back which is my memory of the Columbia, and Mexico matches. And I've seen us control a game against a low block but struggle to score, which was Algeria. Portugal is the closest competitor but my memory is we took advantage of an early goal that absolutely shocked Portugal, then captured lightning in the bottle for the next 20 minutes before ceding control back to them for the remaining 60 minutes or so. Not saying we were hanging on for dear life but I do remember us being under a lot of pressure for long periods. Which never happened last night. Even when we gave up the goal we didn't panic, and finished the match in complete control. I know it's "Paraguay" but they made it through the thunderdome cage match that is South American Qualifying, they earned their right to be here.

I do accept that there could be recency bias, but at the same time the US hasn't won by three clear goals in a W.C. in almost a century. I think the word historic is not out of place.

 

There's a recency bias in this poll. I'm not diminishing last night's game. But I'm not convinced it was the most impressive victory. It was a better performance than Portugal 2002, but it was also against a lesser opponent. And Portugal 2002 was not a complete game. We were just hanging on in that one in the second half. Mexico 2002 was a more emotional game because of the rivalry, but the quality was not on par with last night. The shout outs to Argentina 1995 are interesting and probably worthwhile, but I don't recall that game except for the score. I think you need to give Spain 2009 credit. Maybe I need to watch the highlights again, or maybe the whole game, but I remember that being deeply impressive against a powerful opponent. Was last night's game more impressive than Spain 2009? I'm not sure it was.

 

Completely disagree with the premise you make s to what qualifies. This is hands down the best victory I’ve ever witnessed? Why? Precisely because we are better than Paraguay. We have constantly struggled and scrapped and exhausted ourselves trying to beat the teams we should beat in a World Cup. This time we curb stomped one. Soccer is soccer…teams that shouldn’t win matches sometimes do. The 1 in 10 results (Portugal…Spain…ok that one was 1 in a 100). But this was a “every one of us is better than every one of you ans we’re gonna kick your ass from minute 1 to extra time.

 

So it's really true that before yesterday's match with Paraguay, the USA last won a World Cup match by 3 goals in the inaugural 1930 World Cup?

 

It's helpful to realize how little success the US has had at WC finals. We've played 38 matches as of last night and that was only our 10th win (with 8 draws). We've scored 44 goals across those matches -- an average of 1.16 goals per match.

 

Edit: my kid, who could care less about soccer, and therefor would not normally have anything about soccer in his social media feeds, said it feels like the world is jumping on the US bandwagon. One example "since when did a country that calls it soccer become Spain 2010? I'm here for it."

So, my opinion has changed - not only is it the best a USMNT has ever played - it is right there for the most impressive match a USMNT has ever played.

 

According to https://www.thesoccerworldcups.com/world_cups/1930_group_4.php, the USA defeated Belgium 3 - 0 and also defeated Paraguay 3-0 in the inaugural 1930 World Cup.

HAHAHAHA!

 

Another way to say it is that's the 7th win the in the 9 World Cups that any of us have seen. Grand total of one knockout win ever.

 

One thing about the 1995 Argentina game is that Argentina sent out a scrub lineup, because they were already safely through and just needed a 2-goal loss or better to win the group. When things went bad they subbed in Diego Simeone and Ariel Ortega for guys who never got 20 caps.

 

Yeah, the vast majority of US performances at the World Cup since 2002 have been solid, but decisive wins have been nonexistent with one glorious exception before today.

 

Dude, I agree with you. I was saying that "struggling and scrapping" to beat Mexico in 2002 was not as ~impressive~ as "curb stomping" Paraguay in 2026. I'm not sure what you are disagreeing with

 

Great post! I may or may not still have this match somewhere in a box on VHS, I recorded all of the USA matches and maybe the final. I think I need to dig it out and rewatch (and yes, I still have a VCR connected to my flatscreen)

 

Agree very much with this, particularly because of one obscure fact, which I confirmed by watching a tape of that game several times, after having realized it and thought "This can't possibly be true." But my re-watchings confirmed that it was true:

The play on which Brian McBride scored the opening goal in the eighth minute was the only time in the first 36 minutes that any American player touched the ball inside the Mexican penalty area. Given that, I think it's hard to think of this game, as memorable as it was, as a dominating performance.

 

My post came off way more aggressive than it was meant to be. What I was disagreeing about was your point “ to make the list it should be a victory against someone nobody expected us to beat “(paraphrased). My point…those things happen. I’m more impressed by stomping a team were better than rather than winning in an exhausting nail biter or worse…walking away with a point.

 

That Spain team we beat was one of the best of all time.

sigh…if only we held on against Brazil.

 

I voted for 2009 vs Spain. But if this team continues to play as well, to be as watchable and fun through this tournament, I think the performance in the Paraguay match will become more impressive, as a surprising introduction to what the USMNT can be.

That is, for me, it will be more impressive if we prove it wasn't a one-off sort of fluke. Given the stats and eye test, that seems unlikely, but maybe I'm a little too guarded in my optimism.