Two weekends, two trophies for Christian Pulisic, who captained the US Men’s National Team tonight to victory in the first ever CONCACAF Nations League final, scoring the winning goal as well.
I’m not sure it was “good” football, but it was certainly entertaining for the most part, and there were 120 minutes, and close to 30 minutes of added-on time in total, of it! We might be here all week if we were to recount all the hilarious nonsense that happened in this most CONCACAF-y final between the two big powers in the region in a competition that really isn’t much more than a friendly tournament (akin to the UEFA Nations League). I’m sure Stars and Stripes FC have it all covered.
Mexico scored inside of 70 seconds, had a second goal ruled out by VAR (in use for the first time in a CONCACAF final), then the US equalized (Gio Reyna!), then Mexico took the lead again late on, then the US equalized just minutes later (Weston McKennie!), then we went into extra time, then Pulisic won a dubious penalty, awarded by VAR, which he converted with ice cold precision, then Mexico got an ever more dubious penalty, awarded by VAR, which substitute goalkeeper Ethan Horvath saved (Man City’s Zach Steffen started, but appeared to hurt his knee in the second half), and then we had nearly 11 minutes added on at the end of a 15-minute half of extra time … but eventually the final whistle blew and there was much rejoicing. (Well, some, considering the not-so-home-field advantage.)
