For the U.S. men’s national team, Monday’s decisive Copa América match against Uruguay is the most important game in its history under head coach Gregg Berhalter. For Uruguay, it’s a Monday.
Sure Uruguay, the tiny country that became a soccer giant, needs a win or a draw over the U.S. to win Group C and prepare for a quarterfinals match, but the USMNT have shown no indication they are on the same level as La Celeste. Uruguay has cruised in its two group stage matches so far, crushing Bolivia 5-0 and Panama 3-1.
The Americans opened their tournament with a 2-0 win over Bolivia, arguably the worst team competing at the 2024 Copa América, and lost 2-1 to Panama with 10 players after Tim Weah was shown a red card for a boneheaded foul early in the match.
Weah’s ejection makes things even more difficult for the USMNT, as he’s been suspended two games and will miss Monday’s match. So now the USMNT faces basically a must-win scenario against Uruguay in order to move on to the quarterfinals. Anything less than three points Monday night, and the U.S. will have to rely on having a better result than Panama in its simultaneous match against Bolivia. It’s a long shot, but the U.S. does have a chance, albeit unlikely, chance at keeping its tournament run alive.
Follow along with live updates and highlights as the match gets underway:
Live52 updates
Halftime: U.S. 0-0 Uruguay
It’s been a pretty good U.S. performance. But, as it stands, not good enough.
With Panama winning, the Americans will need to find a goal from somewhere. For a while, they looked capable. But then their best goalscorer, Folarin Balogun, exited the game with an injury.
They’ll also have to match Uruguay’s physical output for 90 minutes, which is a tall task.
I’m doing my best refereeing the soccer game. It’s my first day. Sorry. Sorry.
After a strong opening 30 minutes from the U.S., and after injuries disrupted the game a bit, Uruguay’s quality is beginning to rise to the surface a bit.
Still a relatively balanced game, though.
Nearly halftime, still 0-0 here, and 1-0 Panama in Orlando — meaning, as it stands, the U.S. would be eliminated.
45′ ONLY 5 minutes extra time added
So far the seemingly good move to bring Musah into midfield has been a disaster, because Musah has been a disaster
Making simple mistakes, like allowing advantage after he’d pulled out a yellow card… and now, he blew the whistle for a Uruguay hand ball even though the U.S. had a clear advantage, with Christian Pulisic breaking down the right wing.
41′ Ricardo Pepi subs in for Folarin Balogun
Balo is coming off injured
Folarin Balogun seems to be favoring his left leg, after two recent collisions that left him on the grass, one requiring extended treatment.
And… now he’s down.
Ricardo Pepi replaces him. Real shame, after Balo scored in each of the first two games.
Massive moment for Pepi, though.
Wild game
Three injury stoppages in the last 10 minutes.
Crunching tackles, curious refereeing, general chaos.
The USMNT is hanging with Uruguay so far, perhaps more so than many would expect.
The referee has already lost control. Looks like he was stuck in between two minds.
He blew the whistle, wanted to give a yellow but as he’s giving the yellow he let Uruguay play quickly meanwhile the US and Richards was processing their booking.
Richards booked, but in the middle of showing yellow card, play is allowed to continue and Ream clears dangerous cross. Crazy that the free kick was allowed to be taken when yellow being shown. #usmnt
Man, this is a physical, physical game. Maxi Araújo leaves on a stretcher, Tim Ream hurt a few times, Flo Balogun now down. Rochet also was down. Both get up but goddamn, I guess this is what they call fighting fire with fire.
— Luis Miguel Echegaray (@lmechegaray) July 2, 2024
Clash of heads between Ream and Maxi Araujo. Araujo stretchered off. Scary situation. #usmnt
