NU STADIUM (Miami) \u2014<\/strong> In its first competitive match since the 2026 World Cup \u2014 and its penultimate game with Mauricio Pochettino as the coach before the Argentine takes over Manchester United \u2014 the U.S. men\u2019s national team\u00a0trounced Haiti on Saturday in the opening leg of the Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal.\u00a0<\/p>\n Center back Auston Trusty opened the USA\u2019s account in the first half when he redirected a Sebastian Berhalter free kick past Les Grenadiers keeper Alexandre Pierre, Christian Pulisic scored twice and 18-year-old striker Julian Hall converted his fourth goal in five games since making his debut in September. Midfielder Weston McKennie added the fifth before striker Folarin Balogun came off the bench to complete the scoring with about eight minutes of regular time remaining.<\/p>\n Saturday\u2019s contest was played in front of a heavily pro-Haitian crowd in South Florida; the Caribbean country was given permission by Concacaf to host its “home” leg at Inter Miami\u2019s recently opened 27,000-seat venue because of security issues in Port-au-Prince, the nation’s capital. The Miami area boasts the largest Haitian ex-patriot population in the U.S.<\/p>\n The teams meet again on Tuesday in Cincinnati in the back half of the aggregate-goals-wins series, with the Stars and Stripes now all but certain to advance to March\u2019s final four in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n Here are my takeaways from Saturday\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n 1.<\/p>\n In August, U.S. soccer and Mauricio Pochettino (middle) had agreed to a four-year extension through the 2030 World Cup. His move to Manchester United will nullify that agreement. (Photo by Leonardo Fernandez\/USSF\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n The USA kicked off preparations for the opener under a cloud of speculation. Before all 25 of the players Pochettino summoned had even reported to U.S. Soccer\u2019s training center in greater Atlanta, there were reports that the former Chelsea, Tottenham and Southampton boss could be bound for Old Trafford. Veteran defender Antonee “Jedi” Robinson admitted that he and his teammates were aware of the news, but that it would be business as usual until the 54-year-old\u2019s departure was confirmed. Other players said the same in the days that followed, though by Thursday the sense of inevitability had become obvious. Pochettino told his players that morning.<\/p>\n On Friday, both U.S. Soccer and Manchester United made it official.<\/p>\n The American players handled the situation professionally during the week, but Saturday was always going to tell the real story.<\/p>\n And to their credit, there was no sign that the roller-coaster of emotions they\u2019d experienced in the days prior had any impact on how they performed. Not negatively, anyway. Against a notoriously physical and stingy Haiti team, which played in the World Cup for the first time in more than five decades earlier this year, the U.S. was sharp and committed. It\u2019s clear they want to send Poch off on a high note. After 90 minutes, they\u2019re halfway there.<\/p>\n 2.<\/p>\n Forward Christian Pulisic scored two of the U.S.’s six goals on Saturday. (Photo by JC Ruiz\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Heading into the final FIFA window of 2026, the 28-year-old had been enjoying a career year. With just five caps to his credit beforehand, the left-footed center-back parlayed a strong March camp into a World Cup roster spot, then scored against T\u00fcrkiye in the tournament co-hosts\u2019 final group stage match.<\/p>\n He and Chris Richards anchored the USA\u2019s back line last month in a 3-0 victory over Mexico in front of a huge pro-El Tri crowd in Arizona.<\/p>\n But Trusty and his family suffered a tragedy a few weeks later, when his father, Walt, died. The Philadelphia area native took a leave from Celtic, his Scottish club, and hadn\u2019t played at all in almost a whole month, since Celtic\u2019s 4-1 Europa League loss to Benfica on Oct. 15.<\/p>\n He scored less than 10 minutes into his return, a strike he\u2019ll no doubt dedicate to his dad.<\/p>\n 4.<\/p>\n 18-year-old Julian Hall already has four goals for the U.S. national team. (Photo by JC Ruiz\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY NU STADIUM (Miami) \u2014 In its first competitive match since the 2026 World Cup \u2014 and its penultimate game with Mauricio Pochettino as the coach before the Argentine takes over Manchester United \u2014 the U.S. men\u2019s national team\u00a0trounced Haiti on Saturday in the opening leg of the Concacaf Nations League quarterfinal.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}