The United States men continued its dominance of the Concacaf Nations League — and its regional rivals Mexico — with a 2-0 win and a third title in a row in the competition at AT&T Stadium in Dallas on Sunday night.
Tyler Adams scored a first-half thunderbolt and a Giovanni Reyna added a second after the break with a difficult volley to give the U.S. the win with a famous “dos a cero” scoreline and a measure of redemption after an uninspired win over Jamaica in the semifinals of the Nations League on Thursday.
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“I’m not scoring goals like that all the time, but I’m happy I can hit one like that today,” said Adams, who was substitute at half-time as a precautionary measure. “I always get up for big games.”
The result sees Gregg Berhalter’s team retain its Nations League crown, having won the first two editions of the competition in 2021 and 2023, and stretch its unbeaten run against Mexico to a record seven games.
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Adams, making his first start for the U.S. in 475 days, turned the game on its head at the end of the first half, unleashing a stunning strike from distance to beat Guillermo Ochoa and give the Americans a narrow lead at half-time.
With Mexico fighting to get back in the game, Reyna pounced on a poor clearance in the penalty area and snapped off a volley that flew past Ochoa at his near post to double the USMNT’s lead.
Reyna’s goal came after a sequence in which captain Christian Pulisic, who played 120 minutes against Jamaica in the semis, hurdled his defender near the endline and shot a low cross into the six-yard box that bounced around and eventually fell to his teammate.
The referee halted the game shortly before full-time and then again in added time in line with step 2 of Concacaf’s anti-discrimination protocol after an anti-gay chant was heard from the crowd repeatedly when U.S. keeper Matt Turner took his goal kicks.
Both the U.S. and Mexico will now begin gearing up for this summer’s Copa America, which will be played in the United States between June 20 and July 14.