{"id":2893,"date":"2022-12-16T10:26:42","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T15:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/?p=2893"},"modified":"2022-12-16T10:26:43","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T15:26:43","slug":"united-states-mens-national-teams-group-stage-antics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/united-states-mens-national-teams-group-stage-antics\/","title":{"rendered":"United States Men\u2019s National Team\u2019s Group Stage Antics"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jason Benedek, Sports Editor, and Ellie Goldberg, Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After disappointingly not qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the United States Men\u2019s national team has qualified this year, and looked to make a huge comeback in the tournament  to show the world what American soccer is all about. In the group stages, The United States was in Group B with Wales, England, and Iran. The top two teams with the best record are the ones who make it out of the group stages and advance to the knockout stages, where it\u2019s win or go home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On November 21st, The United States debuted their 2022 World Cup appearance with a match against Wales. Timothy Weah opened up the scoring with a beautiful goal in the 36th minute, but with a late game tying goal, Gareth Bale spoiled the United States lead in the 82nd minute, resulting in a 1-1 tie at the end of the game. Senior Nathan Osheroff claims, \u201cThe United States was able to uphold a strong defensive line and I\u2019d say the final score reflects that.\u201d Although it was a very winnable game for the United States, the result could have been a lot worse against the very experienced Welsh team led by Gareth Bale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the 25th of November, the United States played England in a tight battle. England was predicted to win, considering their previous game against Iran where they won 6-2. With England\u2019s stellar midfielder Bukayo Saka, United States fans were worried about his possible offensive skills. The game, however, resulted in a 0-0 tie, despite many Americans believing the United States outplayed England. River Hill Soccer alum Noah Hanson reflects, \u201cI\u2019m not mad with the result, but we definitely controlled the game. Our ball handling definitely gave hope for the Iran game.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

United States midfielder Christian Pulisic earned the Player of the Match award after the England game. His fiery shot to the crossbar and three other shots on the goal brought him to this accomplishment, and proved that the United States has great offensive potential for future games. \u201cI thought his shot was going to go in, and I was extremely disappointed when I saw it hit the crossbar. Pulisic might help the U.S. exceed the group stage,\u201d Senior Mary Urban declared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 0-2-0 United States faced a 1-0-1 Iran on the 29th of November. Prior to the game, Senior Bob Lovell noted, \u201cI\u2019m going to give it 100% to the United States, there have been many times where the United States had great competition and prevailed.\u201d In the 38th minute, Christian Pulisic scored off of Sergio Dest\u2019s header. Pulisic, however, had a rough collision with the goalie and fans were both disappointed and worried to see his absence on the field coming into the second half, later explained to be due to an abdominal injury. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the second half progressed, the United States upheld a solid defense, preventing any Iran ball from reaching the back of the net. With Iran having the majority of possession towards the end, \u201cI literally couldn\u2019t watch. I felt like I was going to have a heart attack,\u201d junior Greta Sue Hanson exclaims. Although it was a glorious victory for the United States, not everyone at River Hill is happy. Senior Anita Mosbriantanha, who is of Iranian descent claims, \u201cI feel like Iran missed a lot of golden opportunities. It was a really good run. I\u2019m still proud of that team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that glorious victory, the United States Men\u2019s Soccer team advanced to the knockout rounds. They had an impressive run, but unfortunately, their first knockout game against the Netherlands didn\u2019t go their way. The United States ended their 2022 campaign with a crushing  3-1 loss. Haji Wright\u2019s solo goal in the 76th minute wasn\u2019t enough to come back from all 3 Dutch goals from Memphis Depay, Daley Blind, and Denzel Dumfries. The United States still held their heads high, coming off of an incredible run, even though they didn\u2019t get the result they wanted.
Although the United States Men\u2019s National Team didn\u2019t bring home a World Cup Championship, the nation is still extremely proud of the team. They still proved to the world that United States Soccer is on the uprise. Regarding the next World Cup, Dillon DeMasi stated, \u201cI can\u2019t wait for the 2026 World Cup. I know the US is going to come back hungrier than ever, especially because we\u2019re going to be hosting it.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jason Benedek, Sports Editor, and Ellie Goldberg, Staff Writer After disappointingly not qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the United States Men\u2019s national team has qualified this year, and looked to make a huge comeback in the tournament  to show the world what American soccer is all about. In the group stages,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":2897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/unnamed-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2893"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2898,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2893\/revisions\/2898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/riverhillcurrent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}