Key events
A lively return to life without a home World Cup, with Pochettino’s charges staying in control of the match’s tempo for the duration by keeping 70% of the ball. The US outshot Peru 16-5, placing six shots on target to the visitors’ 2.
Next up for the United States: Chile on Tuesday, with kickoff in St. Louis slated for 7:00 pm Central. Mexico and Canada to follow before this extended Fifa window slams shut.
Check out Pablo’s match report for more – that’s a wrap on live-blogging from Saint Paul. Thanks for following along!
Standouts today include Malik Tillman, still relishing in his freer playmaking role; George Campbell and Auston Trusty for a largely composed shift at center-back; Diego Kochen for a goalless debut half with the national team; Mathis Albert for unsettling the Peru defense; Sebastian Berhalter for his linking play and bombastic finish; and Yunus Musah for a more polished shift than he’d previously put forward for Pochettino.
Good movement and connections by goalscorers Justin Ellis and Julian Hall, too.
Full time: USA 4-1 Peru An inverse of that haunting last-16 result, with Mauricio Pochettino giving 11 players their senior debuts from a possible 13.
90 min Suffice it to say that Sebastian Berhalter is here to stay, especially with Mauricio Pochettino staying in the role. He’s made a swift acclimation to life with Middlesbrough, and offers the kind of box-to-box game with considerable final product which ought to make him a valuable part of the core throughout the 2030 cycle. Adri Mehmeti gets the assist minutes after entering the game.
Midfield looking like a real area of strength this cycle. Pick your combinations from Tyler Adams, Berhalter, Weston McKennie, Yunus Musah, Gio Reyna, Malik Tillman, Aidan Morris, Tanner Tessmann, Gianluca Busio, Adri Mehmeti…
GOAL! USA 4-1 Peru (Berhalter 90′) How’s that for an exclamation mark! Sebastian Berhalter with a sublime hit from beyond the box that curls over Gallese’s reach and into the far side of the net.
Sebastian Berhalter celebrates after scoring the United States’ fourth goal against Peru. Photograph: Taylor Banner/USSF/Getty Images 87 min Two more teenage debuts for the US after a few minutes of delay.
Adri Mehmeti replaces his role model, fellow New York academy product Tyler Adams, while Neil Pierre checks in for George Campbell after a steady shift at center-back. Mehmeti all smiles as Adams jogs towards him to slap hands and let the 17-year-old make his debut.
85 min A really composed claim by Kochen to get onto the ball before Peru can connect on a cross. For a program that’s lacked for top-level netminders since Tim Howard left Everton in 2016, Kochen’s emergence in net is a promising development.
84 min Mathis Albert is everywhere, attempting a shot with some power which takes a deflection to earn another corner. What a tricky player he’s proving to be.
82 min Two more changes for Peru: Marcos López and Oliver Sonne off, César Inga and Marco Huamán in.
80 min The announcer calls this game a sellout, stating attendance of 24,278. Renzo Garcés draws Peru’s fifth yellow card of the half; ten minutes remain…
(Not to be pedantic, but the stadium’s listed capacity is 25,527.)
78 min So, likely more of a 4-3-3 for the USMNT during this next interval, with Raines and Berhalter operating just upfield from Tyler Adams.
77 min Two more debuts for the United States.
Frankie Westfield replaces Alex Freeman at right back, with Freeman getting an ovation from his local fanbase, while Brooklyn Raines checks into midfield for Malik Tillman.
76 min Peru substitutions at last
Jairo Vélez, Yoshi Yotún, and Jhonny Vidales exit, replaced by Rodrigo Vilca, Oslimg Mora, and Jairo Concha.
75 min Ah, it’s one of those (good and smart) new rules at play: a Peruvian was tardy in exiting the field, so his corresponding replacement must wait a minute before taking the field.
72 min …with Berhalter’s service looping beyond every Peru defender to Julian Hall at the far post. The New York striker places it beyond Pedro Gallese, and the in-stadium DJ spins the team’s preferred remix of Freebird for a third time today.
Peru trying to make a change or two, delaying the restart, but it seems they’ll have to wait.
GOAL! USA 3-1 Peru (Julian Hall 72′) Both debuting strikers have opened their accounts! First Justin Ellis, now Julian Hall.
Julian Hall celebrates after scoring the United States’ third goal against Peru. Photograph: Taylor Banner/USSF/Getty Images 72 min A Sebastian Berhalter corner finds Gozo at the edge of the box, whose shot is blocked all the way back to Antonee Robinson at the edge of the attacking half. Berhalter’s ensuing cross is quite nice…
70 min Pochettinos’s changes ten minutes ago have allowed the US to play more directly, with fewer facilitators and more direct options like Albert and Gozo.
Tillman looks mighty comfortable serving as chief string-puller. Finding the best way to maximize his threat when other ball-dominant options like Reyna are on the field will be crucial in the coming months.
67 min An unattributed assist to Sebastian Berhalter, who played decoy holding the ball on the spot as Peru vented their disdain towards him and the referee. Gallese guessed correctly and dove to his right, but Malik Tillman’s placement was too precise for him to parry it wide.
Tillman becomes the first player to score in three straight games for the US since Clint Dempsey in 2016 at the Copa América Centenario.
PK GOAL! USA 2-1 Peru (Malik Tillman 67′) Peru aren’t happy about where the referee deemed the contact to be, but that’s no matter to Tillman for his sixth US goal!
Malik Tillman of the United States celebrates scoring his team’s second goal. Photograph: Rich Storry/Getty Images 64 min PENALTY! Mathis Albert’s scouting report lauds his dribbling pace, and he uses it to bait an opponent into committing a foul right at the edge of the box. The referee initially calls it a penalty, although it looked to be a few inches beyond the line, but up steps Malik Tillman to take…
Who is Zavier Gozo?
The Crystal Palace winger parlayed an early breakout in MLS into a Premier League move. Here’s how he did it:
60 min Five subs for the United States, with debutants indicated by an asterisk. All relatively like-for-like, so still the base 4-2-3-1.
Coming out: Yunus Musah, Peyton Miller, Gio Reyna, Justin Ellis, and Cavan Sullivan. In their respective places: Sebastian Berhalter, Antonee Robinson, Mathis Albert*, Julian Hall*, and Zavier Gozo*.
57 min Peru with their first trio of changes.
Coming out: Wilder Cartagena, the goalscorer Gianluca Lapadula, and Piero Magallanes. In their respective places: Jesús Pretell, Álex Valera, and Bassco Soyer.
55 min Peru again comfortable being the passenger ten minutes into the second half, with the US’s possession share now up to 71%.
Even more encouraging from a US perspective: their 21 touches in the Peru box dwarf the visitors’ pair of prods in the US box. Now, the small matter of turning those close-range touches into dangerous shots…
Pablo Iglesias Maurer
53 min Kochen makes the fourth US player to earn his first cap in this one.
If you’re wondering, we won’t be breaking any records there today — eleven players (Diego Luna among them) debuted in a 1-0 loss to Slovenia in 2024. And guess what: that isn’t even the record — TWELVE players made their debut in a 1973 match against Poland… and another dozen debuted against Guatemala 15 years later. Sheesh.
52 min A connection budding between Yunus Musah and Cavan Sullivan, as the duo have had some success operating one-twos up the right side of the field against Peru. Musah draws a free kick after one such exchange, but the ensuing service is again claimed by Gallese.
48 min The US wrings a corner kick from a low-danger scenario, but Malik Tillman again sends it short and the hosts fail to turn the chance into a shot.
46 min The lads are back to trotting as the second half gets underway.
Halftime sub: Diego Kochen will make his US debut for the second half, coming in to replace Matt Freese. The Barcelona academy product is all smiles as he waits to trot onto the pitch, donning the 24 shirt and a thin red headband. An especially meaningful opponent for his milestone occasion, as his mother is Peruvian.
No other changes as we ready for the second half to kick off.
Mauricio Pochettino tells the broadcast that he’s pleased with Justin Ellis’ debut goal, saying he’d told the 19-year-old that he’d score his second-ever goal at his home Inter.co Stadium today before the game.
Sure enough, Ellis has now logged as many US goals here as he has for Orlando.
“They’ve got to start marking players instead of marking space,” as DaMarcus Beasley concisely summarizes in his halftime analysis. Peyton Miller will wish for a redo on the equalizer, as he was far to the wrong side of Lapadula as the cross came in. Other nervy moments have seen the team try to get into zonal positions, but that’s to be expected with such an untested collective.
Cavan Sullivan’s opening 45 minutes kept him busy, as he had the joint lead among all players with five touches in the box.
19/20 passing
1 chance created
1 shot (blocked)
26 touches
1 ball recovery
1 foul committed, 1 yellow card shown
HALFTIME: USA 1-1 Peru …which Tillman takes short to the referee’s disgust, who blows for halftime before Cavan Sullivan can collect the close-range service.
45+3 min Sullivan seets up one more US sequence, ending with a Tyler Adams shot. It caroms off of a Peruvian forehead for a corner…
45+2 min A bit funny that, with all of the fresh faces involved and plenty of notable current and ex Orlando players on the pitch, the broadcasters close out the half by discussing the impact of wholly uninvolved Antoine Griezmann on the local MLS branch.
45 min Three minutes of stoppage time remain as Malik Tillman’s through ball rolls just beyond Ellis and into Gallese’s grasp.
42 min “USA USA USA” say the home faithful in Orlando as the US continues to do most of their work in the attacking half. Gio Reyna shown a yellow for trying take the ball back from another Orlando player, Wilder Cartagena, but going through the back of his leg.
39 min THORNY! The US works a quick break starting with Yunus Musah, whose cross to the left wing pulls Gallese out of his box. Cavan Sullivan got onto the ball and dribbled to the endline for a cutback cross, but he’s unable to find a target before Gallese is back at his station.
A really lively half here in Orlando, with the US desperate to entertain and Peru holding their own.
37 min The US back to a sustained stretch in the attacking half, with Sullivan dishing wide right to Yunus Musah before darting toward the near post. Musah’s ensuing cross goes well over Sullivan but is headed out for a corner, which Malik Tillman sends in and Peru clears away with ease.
32 min Peru finally have a sustained sequence end in a shot, as Burnley defender Oliver Sonne gets on the end of a cross to the far post. His header falls right into Matt Freese’s bread basket for a comfortable catch. Still, signs that this more veteran side is finding a way into the match.
30 min Refreshing: a USMNT game without a hydration break, as the lads will play a full half before sipping water and looking at laptop still-frames.
28 min A lot of string-pullers on the pitch for Pochettino – Reyna, Tillman, Sullivan, even Miller from wide areas – but very few proven finishers, leaving sequences frustratingly stalled out at the edge of the box. Still, a lot of lateral movement that’s keeping Peru from establishing a staunch deep defensive block.
26 min The United States have comfortably maintained the bulk of possession, holding a 67% share of the ball. Peru are getting better at limiting their avenues into the final third, leaving the US to shuffle from side to side with Gio Reyna and Malik Tillman roaming to keep the ball moving along.