USMNT reaches CNL and Copa América semi-finals despite Dest’s ‘inexcusable’ red card

The Yankees survived this time, taking advantage of the 3-0 advantage they gained in the first leg in Austin on Thursday night to win the series 4-2 on aggregate and advance to the CNL semifinals, all by qualifying for next summer’s Copa América 2024. despite Soca Warriors’ 2-1 victory in Port of Spain.

But it is a red card which is likely to remain in the collective memory for a long time.

“We achieved the objective of this camp, which was to qualify for the Copa América, for the semi-finals of the Nations League. However, it’s not the way we wanted, said head coach Gregg Berhalter after the match.

“It’s worrying because that’s not what we want to represent. That’s not who we are as a band. We pride ourselves on staying mentally disciplined, fighting against any kind of conditions, whether it’s good or bad decisions, we’re supposed to keep going,” he added of what he called of Dest’s “surreal” sequence. “It was obviously not the right answer from Sergiño. He apologized to the group, he said it wouldn’t happen again. As a team, players, staff, we have to hold him accountable. Because it’s inexcusable. It really is.”

With real stakes at stake, Dest’s moment of madness put extra work and stress on his colleagues in sweltering Caribbean conditions. The destabilizing effects of the ejection clearly played a role in the USMNT conceding the equalizer via a scratched shot at the near post from Reon Moore a few minutes later.

And when goalkeeper Matt Turner couldn’t deal with a viciously struck free-kick by Alvin Jones – the same Alvin Jones who blasted the winner past Tim Howard at Couva in 2017 – in the 57th minute, even the aggregate score can not. calming the nauseating sense of deja vu bubbling in the guts of so many Yankees faithful back home.

“When you’re down to 10 men, it’s basically about doing whatever you can to get out of there. Obviously we know what the score has to be,” said captain Tim Ream, who blasted “the complete lack Dest’s respect for the guys.” on the bench, on the field” in his post-match remarks to the media.

“When the second goal was scored, I just tried to grab the guys, bring everyone in and tell them, we need to do more, not less. We’re down to 10, but everyone has to work even harder. So yeah, it’s just about keeping the guys mentally focused, not getting too down on anything negative, bad things happening, whether it’s a goal, whether it’s a mistake, whatever it is.