The United States men’s national team suffered its first home loss to Canada in 67 years, continuing its struggles since this summer’s Copa America in a friendly match on Saturday in Kansas City, Kansas.
In their first game since being eliminated from the Copa América in the group stage and the subsequent dismissal of Gregg Berhalter as head coach, the USA were clearly defeated by their northern neighbors.
The 2-1 victory was Canada’s second win over the USMNT on U.S. soil in 27 games and the first in St. Louis since 1957.
While Mauricio Pochettino is expected to be announced as Berhalter’s high-profile successor shortly, the US national team was under the interim leadership of former assistant coach Mikey Varas, while Canada continued its upward trend under another former US assistant coach and former candidate for the US head coach position, Jesse Marsch.
Canada, which reached the semifinals of its first Copa in July, was dominant, especially in the first half. Jacob Shaffelburg scored the first goal in the 17th minute and Canada could have been more than a goal ahead of its listless opponents by halftime.
A deserved second goal for Canada came from striker Jonathan David just before the hour mark. Although the Americans played better after halftime and Luca de la Torre’s first international goal in the 66th minute halved the deficit, it was not enough to prevent a third consecutive defeat for the USMNT.
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The USA’s next game is against New Zealand in Cincinnati on Tuesday.
The USMNT’s 23-game home winning streak against Canada was the longest such streak against any opponent, but it was not evident as Canada had more shots on goal in the first half than the underperforming USA, leading 11-1.
Columbus goalkeeper Patrick Schulte made his second international start, replacing Matt Turner, who had not played a club game since April 2. Tim Ream started after moving to Charlotte from Fulham.
In the previous six games, no MLS player had been in the starting lineup, and in the 18 games for which the entire squad has been available since the 2022 World Cup, only eight of 198 starting positions were filled by MLS players.
Canada took the lead when Schulte held on to a back pass and played it wide to Ream, whose pass forward to Johnny Cardoso bounced off the midfielder and was picked up by Stephen Eustáquio. He played the ball to David, who played a direct pass to Shaffelburg. He received the ball and slotted it past Schulte’s left hand, giving him his fourth goal in 17 international matches.
Canada scored the first goal against the Americans for the first time in 19 games since 1985.
David scored the goal after taking advantage of Ream’s free throw and passing to Cyle Larin. Kristoffer Lund’s tackle knocked the ball to David, who beat Schulte at the near post from 6.5 meters. David’s 29 goals tied Larin as Canada’s all-time leading scorer.
Six US players were retained from the Copa América loss to Uruguay: Ream, fellow defenders Chris Richards and Joe Scally, midfielder Yunus Musah and strikers Folarin Balogun and Christian Pulisic.
Information from The Associated Press and ESPN Stats & Information contributed to this report.
