The final tune-up before the World Cup couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start, but a resilient United States Men’s National Team found the equalizer only for Leroy Sane to score the deciding goal for Germany in a feisty 2-1 win at Soldier Field in Chicago on Saturday.
Kai Havertz scored two minutes into the match for Germany but a brilliant strike by Antonee Robinson in the 37th made it 1-1 before a goal by Sane in the 57th minute from an Havertz assist gave the No. 10 team in FIFA’s rankings their ninth straight win.
The stadium was rocking with players from the 1994 team — the last time the World Cup was held in the U.S. — in attendance, the fans waved red, white and blue flags and the national anthem was rowdy.
Then the match started.
Just 1:45 after kickoff, Havertz got his head on a bending free kick by captain Joshua Kimmich. The sequence began with a Tyler Adams foul on the edge of the penalty area.
On the restart, Havertz slipped behind Miles Robinson and directed the ball past Matt Freese, who was slow to react.
Equally stunning as the Germany goal was the thunderous left-footed strike by Robinson for the equalizer.
Christian Pulisic sent a right-corner into the box where it was cleared to the top of the arc. Robinson met the looping ball with a fastball past goalkeeper Oliver Baumann and followed with a pair of back flips.
“It was a real shoulders-back-and-smash-it kind of moment,” Robinson said on the broadcast after the match. “I just seen the ball looping. I thought, ‘Just commit, hit it, look down and try and hit the target.’ Luckily, it went in, and yeah, it was a great feeling.”
It was emblematic of the resurgence after the early setback, and the U.S. finished the first half leading in corners, 8-1.
But on the winning goal, Sane’s shot from near the top of the box was deflected slightly and went to the left corner past a diving Freese.
Baumann preserved the lead with a reactionary save of an 18-yard liner by Brenden Aaronson.
“Ultimately we saw what we wanted to see in this game,” Adams told TNT Sports after the match. “To concede that early in a game like this is always going to make it difficult but the character we showed, the energy, the resilience – I mean, guys were going at it like it was a World Cup final and that’s what we want to see.”
U.S. coach Mauricio Pochettino fielded what could be his starters for the first match of the World Cup with the exception of injured defender Chris Richards.
Whether the match showed the U.S. is ready or not, the World Cup begins for them Friday in Inglewood, Calif., vs. Paraguay.
–Field Level Media
