NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Canadian and US men’s national teams have grown rather familiar with one another over the past few years, and that’s added to the already-substantial intrigue around their latest and highest-stakes meeting, Sunday’s Concacaf Octagonal World Cup qualifier at Nissan Stadium (8 pm ET | FS1, UniMas, TUDN).
“In October 2019, I said that it was a team that's on the rise. I think they're one of the most improved teams in Concacaf, good young player pool similar to ours,” USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter said of the northerners in Saturday’s matchday-1 press conference.
“The game's going be tight. We played them last month in the Gold Cup, we talked about it being a tight game and it was. And it will be a tight game tomorrow as well.”
Berhalter was joined in the availability by John Brooks, generally a strong sign that the commanding center back will start on Sunday after being rested in Thursday’s scoreless draw at El Salvador. The biggest tactical question is whether Brooks will slot into the 4-3-3 shape used in that match, or anchor a shift to a three-player backline like the ones the United States used in their recent clashes with Canada, who have generally thrived in variations of a 3-5-2 lately.
“My opinion is that we have to focus on ourselves. So don't look that much to what Canada does,” said Brooks. “If they play five in the back, OK, then they play five in the back. If the coach tells us to play five in the back, we play five in the back. I think we have the ability to play a lot of formations, we have a lot of players that can play a lot of positions good. So we’ll see.”
That cagey response epitomizes the fast-rising cautiousness across the board as the nerve-jangling intensity of the qualifying process sets in.
Canada elected not to practice at Nissan Stadium on Saturday, instead opting for “off-site training” that suggests coach John Herdman and his staff prioritized secrecy over the chance to get acquainted with the pitch ahead of gameday. Somewhat ironically, some Honduran media outlets accused Les Rouges of using a drone to spy on their training sessions ahead of their match on Toronto last week.
Berhalter seems to have adopted a comparable tack when asked about the availability of his star creator Christian Pulisic, who skipped the trip to Central America to remain in Nashville and build his fitness after a quarantine period brought on by his case of COVID-19 last month.
“He’s made some progress and we have to see if it’s enough to actually include him in the game-day squad,” said Berhalter, who also revealed that goalkeeper Zack Steffen remains sidelined by back problems, hinting at another start for Matt Turner.
“We’re trying to see what he can tolerate, see what type of workloads he can do. I think that’s the first step,” Berhalter later added of Pulisic. “To be out for 10 days and have COVID isn’t the easiest thing to get over. So for us, it’s about really seeing how he can come back in a safe way. That’s the most important thing. We’ve been having conversations. We’ve been asking him about how he’s tolerating loads and everything and we’ll see if he’s ready.”
It’s the two sides’ first qualifying clash in nearly a quarter of a century. But they faced off twice in Concacaf Nations League play in the fall of 2019, each winning on home soil – the CanMNT’s 2-0 victory in Toronto ending a 34-year winless skid against their southern neighbors before the Yanks responded with a 4-1 rout that assured them of advancement to the CNL semifinals.
“What I remember was a good game from us. We played as a team, I think we did everything what the coach said,” Brooks said Saturday when asked about that match. “What was the score again? 4-1? Yeah, that’s all I have to say.”
The nascent rivals dueled again in the group stage of this summer's Gold Cup, where Les Rouges dominated the run of play but could not overcome Shaq Moore’s game-winning goal just 20 seconds after the opening whistle. The 1-0 win pushed the Yanks atop Group B, setting up their eventual memorable win over Mexico in the continental championship final.
The Canadians can call on more weapons this time, star wide man Alphonso Davies and striker Jonathan David in particular, and could use a positive result after settling for a frustrating 1-1 home draw with Honduras in their Octagonal opener. Whether they take that as a cue to attack the USMNT more aggressively or sit back and try to frustrate the hosts remains to be seen.
As does the tactical cat-and-mouse game between two cerebral coaches with so much on the line.
“We showed that we can have adapted defensive shapes, we showed that we can move around depending how the opponent's playing,” said Berhalter when asked about Canada’s adaptability. “So for us, it's just about having a structure, being able to adapt that structure based on what we're seeing on the field. I think it's something we've been working on, something we've been reasonably comfortable with, we've had a good defensive record with it.
“We still want to do what we can do, and that's be attacking, be aggressive, get forward, controlling the ball, moving the ball from side to side. That's still going to be important factors of our game.”
