The reaction after the final whistle in San Jose, Costa Rica was surprisingly subdued. The U.S. men’s national team had lost 2-0, but still sealed qualification for the 2022 World Cup. Yet there was no rush from the bench to celebrate. The players sort of meandered onto the field and found each other near the center circle. They walked together to acknowledge the traveling U.S. fans, then turned back toward the tunnel on the other side of the pitch.
Certainly a loss to Los Ticos in the final match of CONCACAF qualifying wasn’t the way anyone would envision reaching the World Cup. But the reality is qualification is pass-fail. As long as you get to the tournament, few people recall the path there. Teams are remembered for what they do on the sport’s biggest stage, not the climb through the orchestra pit to get there.
In the locker room at the Estadio Nacional, U.S. head coach Gregg Berhalter started to speak about remembering the big picture. He emphasized what they had accomplished as the youngest team to qualify for this World Cup. Before he could finish, though, a champagne bottle popped mid-sentence. Someone — later identified by several teammates as 24-year-old center back Erik Palmer-Brown — had uncorked too soon.
“I was in the flow,” Berhalter would later tell The Athletic, a grin spreading across his face as he made his way toward a team bus that would whisk him away to the airport for a flight to New York City and then on to Qatar for Friday’s World Cup draw. “I was in the flow, then he disrupted it.”
With that one premature cork pop, any lingering tension from the loss fizzled out. The celebration truly started. Right back DeAndre Yedlin, who was on the field when the U.S. failed to reach the last World Cup with a loss to Trinidad and Tobago in Couva in 2017, absolved Palmer-Brown for his over-exuberance.
