Gold Cup semifinal: Qatar 0 – USMNT 1

The USMNT survived to advance to the 2021 Gold Cup final where they will play Mexico after a 1-0 win over Qatar at Austin’s Q2 Stadium. It took seeing off a motivated Qatar attack that couldn’t get the ball past USMNT goalkeeper Matt Turner in the first-half. Qatar had a chance to take the lead in the 61st minute, but Hassan Al-Haydos sent the ball over the bar. The USMNT made three substitutions in the 63rd minute, bringing on Gyasi Zardes who would make the difference. Zardes took advantage of a scramble in front of the Qatar goal and an incisive pass from Nicholas Gioacchini, scoring in the 86th minute. The USMNT played out ten minutes of stoppage time to take its place in Sunday’s final. Turner made two saves to keep the clean sheet.

“It’s not just me, it’s a whole team effort,” Zardes told FS1. “Nico, he went on a great run, he played a nice through ball, and I just had to crash the box and sure enough there was open space that I attacked.”

In the other semifinal, Mexico scored late in stoppage time to beat Canada 2-1 in Houston. Orbelin Pineda put Mexico up from the penalty spot in first-half stoppage time with Tajon Buchanan equalizing in the 57th minute. Mexico failed to convert a 68th minute penalty with Canada goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau saving Carlos Salcido’s attempt. The referee stopped play in the 88th minute and brought the players to the center circle over discriminatory chanting from the crowd. The game restarted two minutes into stoppage time. Mexico’s Hector Herrera scored nine minutes into stoppage time to send Mexico to the final.

ZARDES GIVES THE @USMNT THE LEAD! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/XAOESayrjh

— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) July 30, 2021

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Match: USMNT vs Qatar
Date: July 29, 2021
Competition: 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup – Semifinal
Venue: Q2 Stadium; Austin, Texas
Attendance: 20,500 (sellout)
Kickoff: 7:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. local
Weather: 90 degrees; partly cloudy

Scoring Summary: 1 2 F
USA 0 1 1
QAT 0 0 0

USA – Gyasi Zardes (Nicholas Gioacchini) 86th Minute

Lineups:
USA: 1-Matt Turner; 20-Shaq Moore (2-Reggie Cannon, 63), 16-James Sands, 12-Miles Robinson, 3-Sam Vines; 6-Gianluca Busio (10-Cristian Roldan, 63), 23-Kellyn Acosta, 17-Sebastian Lletget (Capt.); 7-Paul Arriola (19-Eryk Williamson, 81), 11-Daryl Dike (9-Gyasi Zardes, 63), 13-Matthew Hoppe (8-Nicholas Gioacchini, 86)
Substitutes not used: 18-Sean Johnson, 22-Brad Guzan, 14-Jackson Yueill, 15-Jonathan Lewis, 21-George Bello, 24-Henry Kessler
Head coach: Gregg Berhalter

QAT: 22-Meshaal Barsham; 2-Pedro Miguel, 15-Bassam Al Rawi, 16-Khoukhi Boualem, 3-Abdelkarim Hassan, 14-Homam Ahmed; 10-Hasan Al Haydos (Capt.) (20-Abdullah Al Ahrak, 72), 12-Karim Boudiaf, 6-Abdelaziz Hatim (7-Ahmed Alaa, 88), 19-Al Moez Ali, 11-Akram Afif (9-Mohammed Muntari, 77)
Substitutes not used: 1-Saad Al Sheeb, 21-Yousof Hassan, 4-Mohammed Waad, 5-Tarek Salman, 8-Ahmed Suhail, 13-Musaab Khidir, 17-Ismail Mohamad, 18-Yusuf Abdurisag, 23-Assim Madabo
Head coach: Félix Sanchez

Stats Summary: USA / QAT
Shots: 6 / 17
Shots on Goal: 4 / 2
Saves: 3 / 3
Corner Kicks: 4 / 3
Fouls: 15 / 9
Offside: 3 / 0

Misconduct Summary:
QAT –Karim Boudiaf (Caution) 40th minute
USA – Paul Arriola (Caution) 54
USA – Shaq Moore (Caution) 62

Officials:
Referee: Juan Gabriel Calderon (CRC)
Assistant Referee 1: Juan Carlos Mora (CRC)
Assistant Referee 2: Djibril Camara (SEN)
4th Official: Selvin Brown (HON)
VAR: Barkary Gassama (GAM)
Assistant VAR: Arturo Cruz (MEX)

Photo by John Dorton – ISIPhotos.com