Concacaf Nations League resumes on Thursday night when the United States men's national team look to extend their undefeated streak over Mexico to a whopping six straight games. While historically these are evenly matched teams, lately the United States has had the upper hand with El Tri not winning a contest since 2019. It's a run that has seen the Red, White, and Blue capture silverware twice, and defeating Mexico again would put them on the road for more. You can see all the action only on Paramount+.
On any other night the main story of the match would be the chances that striker Folarin Balogun makes his USMNT debut. Arsenal's young striker, who spent last season at Reims where he scored 21 goals, officially declared for America earlier this month, foregoing a chance to play for England. He immediately becomes the USMNT's most talented started and unless things go horribly wrong, one of the first names on the team sheet.
The United States will also have a different manager in charge for this match as their second interim manager in a row, B.J. Callaghan will take the reigns for the time, but that doesn't change the team's preparation after Anthony Hudson's departure. Defender Antonee Robinson stressed that "not much has changed from a player side." It's important to remember that while Callaghan may be the second interim manager since the World Cup, both he and Hudson were on Gregg Berhalters staff as assistants and know the team well. This isn't to say that the duo are necessarily the same type of manager as Berhalter, but it does make the transition easier for players who await the appointment of a permanent head coach after the Gold Cup.
While awaiting that, the goal here is clear. Defeat Mexico. Here are our storylines, how you can watch the match and more:
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How to watch and odds
- Date: Thursday, June 15 | Time: 10 p.m. ET
- Location: Allegiant Stadium -- Las Vegas. Nevada
- Live stream: Paramount+
- Odds: United States +130; Draw +205; Mexico +220 (via Caesars Sportsbook)
Listen below and follow In Soccer We Trust: A CBS Sports Soccer Podcast where your three favorite former USMNT players cover everything you could possibly want to know about the beautiful game in the United States.
Storylines
United States: Despite the teams dominance over Mexico, the United States recognizes the challenge at hand and that they can't get too ahead of themselves before the game. Folarin Balogun's addition to the squad will help the attack but Robinson spoke on the mindset of coming into the rivalry match.
"It's not that we've got to be better than Mexico per se. Obviously, we want to win on the day and for every team we go out to play the goal is to win.," Robinson said in the lead-up to the match. "They're just a team at the moment standing in the way of us getting to a final to win another trophy. So on the day, we're going to have to try our best to be better than them. But if we don't perform to our standards it's a knockout tournament. we've got to find a way to win and dig and sometimes it has to be like that."
While it might be more fun to watch a swashbuckling attacking side at all moments, there are times to want a soccer team to go in and try and win a match, but a balance also needs to be struck and playing not to lose is part of it as well. This is where Robinson's experience with Fulham begins to show. because he's right, since it's a knockout tournament, the USMNT need to find a way to win and it certainly may not be pretty but that won't matter as long as they advance to the final.
Mexico: El Tri has been playing friendlies to get ready for this match due to most Liga MX players needing to regain fitness as they're in their offseason. They had clashes against Guatemala and Cameroon this week. Undefeated in both of those, Cocca is showing that Mexico can put the ball in the back of the net now, but the team still hasn't settled on a formation which can give the United States room to exploit in the match. Mexico still builds out of a back five, but things are a little different in attack and the midfield depending on who is called upon, but two names that Cocca won't have are Raul Jiminez and Hirvilg Lozano.
The duo have left the squad to return to their teams, as have a number of other members of the roster which certainly gives Cocca a tougher job to do when Mexico are expected to win this tournament, and getting past the United States and Canada has never been a taller task than it is right now.
Prediction
The United States will keep their unbeaten run going as Balogun opens his scoring account for the national team in the best way possible by sinking their top rivals. Pick: United States 1, Mexico 0
