The United States' men's national soccer team was quickly remade. Brenden Aaronson's second half goal was wasted, and Cyle Larin's goal lifted Canada to a 1-1 draw on Sunday night.
After missing Thursday's draw at El Salvador, American star Christian Pulisic was unable to return. He also regained his fitness after a COVID-19 positive test.
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Pulisic was energetic and brought some creativity to the Americans, which contributed to the buildup that led to Aaronson's goal at the 55 minute mark.
DeAndre Yedlin, John Brooks and John Brooks were the ones responsible for Larin scoring the goal in the 62nd. The U.S. was eliminated from the first two matches of the 14 game qualifying tournament and now has just two points to go into Wednesday's match at Honduras.
Miles Robinson was the closest to winning, heading Pulisic’s corner kick over injury time's crossbar.
The Nissan Stadium witnessed a 43,023 pro-American crowd that booed at the end of the last whistle.
Mexico (2-0), leads the North-Central American region with six points. Panama (1-0-1) has four. Canada (0-0-2) is third with two points. The U.S. (on total goals) is further back, with El Salvador (and Honduras) further back. Costa Rica (0-1-11) and Jamaica (0-2), trail. The top three countries qualify for the tournament in Qatar next year, while the fourth place nation moves on to a playoff.
The U.S. stopped a string of seven consecutive World Cup appearances and fell one point short in the 2018 tournament. The main reason for the failure was that the Americans failed to win at home against Mexico and Costa Rica.
The U.S. had never lost a qualifying home since 2001. No. No.59 Canada, host to El Salvador on Wednesday night, was without Davis midway through the second period. Canadian soccer has its best team in decades. They are now trying to reach the showcase for the first-time since 1986.
Pulisic was able to return, but the U.S. ranked 10th was still missing Weston McKennie or Giovanni Reyna. McKennie was found to have violated COVID-19 team protocols. This issue also led Juventus to dismiss McKennie, a 23-year-old midfielder, for the Derby della Mole match against Torino.
Reyna injured his right hamstring, and will also miss Wednesday's match.
No. No. 1 goalkeeper Zack Steffen was absent for his second consecutive match after he tested positive for COVID-19. He had been sidelined from the opener due to back spasms. He will also miss the Honduran trip.
Aaronson won a throw in, and the U.S. made several quick passes just as well as it did. Jordan Pefok passed the ball to Pulisic, Tyler Adams and they gave it back to Pefok. He passed it to Kellyn Acosta who sent it wide and to Antonee Robinson. Aaronson crossed in front and he poked the ball past Milan Borjan, the goalkeeper for Aaronson's fourth international goal.
Larin scored his 20th international goal thanks to a sloppy defense, his ninth of the qualifying cycle. Alphonso Davies ran down the left flank, passing Yedlin who was replaced by Dest in the 45th minutes. Davies crossed in front of an open Larin who escaped Brooks and redirected it past Matt Turner.
