St. PAUL, Minnesota, USA. —
Folarin Balogun scored in the 13th minute, Brenden Aaronson scored from a free kick in the 60th and Ricardo Pepi added a goal in the 79th as the United States beat Oman 4-0 in a you were friendly on Tuesday.
The American team thus won its two warm-up games, marking the return of Gregg Berhalter as its coach.
Khalid Al-Braiki scored an own goal in the 81st minute to complete the rout. He deflected a center from defender Kevin Paredes, who came on minutes earlier to make his Stars and Stripes team debut.
Three days later, the United States suffered another loss, 3-0 to Uzbekistan.
“These types of teams, Oman and Uzbekistan, could be in our World Cup group. “They are the teams we have to watch,” considered midfielder Weston McKennie. “With other teams, you feel that you know how they play, like in the case of Germany.”
In fact, the next friendly for the Americans will be against the Germans on October 14 in East Hartford, Connecticut. Three days later they will face Ghana in Nashville, Tennessee.
“We just want to win games and settle them well, not beat people 1-0. “We want to win and be convincing,” said McKennie.
Berhalter was hired after the United States failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. He guided the team to the round of 16 in last year’s competition in Qatar.
At that time, they were eliminated 3-1 against the Netherlands.
A series of interim coaches replaced him while the US Soccer Federation investigated a domestic violence incident reported by the family of national team player Gio Reyna.
Then, he was rehired.
Located in eleventh place in the FIFA ranking, the United States is guaranteed to participate in the next World Cup, as co-host. The competition will be expanded to 48 participants.
Oman and Uzbekistan have never qualified for a World Cup.
