USMNT escapes Qatar 1-0 to advance to Gold Cup Final

An 86th minute goal from Gyasi Zardes slotted away a pass inside the box to give the United States Men’s National Team a 1-0 win in the Concacaf Gold Cup semifinal.

The USMNT will face the winner of Thursday night’s Mexico-Canada match in Houston on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas.

Zardes was a 63rd minute substitution for Daryl Dike, and linked up with 83rd minute sub Nicholas Gioacchini to make the difference.

While it was enough to advance, it was mostly a pedestrian performance for the USA against the 2019 Asian Cup champions. Qatar outshot the Yanks 15-5, but did have 58% of possession despite several effective counters from the Qataris until the goal was scored.

The other difference was a bit more luck, as Qatar’s Hassan Al Haydos skied a penalty in the 61st minute after VAR correctly charged James Sands for a poor tackle in the box of Akram Afif that did get a fraction of the ball, but far more thigh and shin.

The USA is 6-5 all time in Gold Cup Finals, having only missed the last game four times in the history of the 30-year-old tournament.