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Orlando, March 28 (BUS): Christian Pulisic scored his first international hat-trick, leading the United States to the brink of a return to the World Cup with a 5-1 victory over Panama on Sunday night.
Pulisic converted two penalties during a four-goal blast in the first half that also saw Paul Areola and Jesus Ferreira score, then cemented his lead to 5-0 with a memorable goal with two superb touches that let go of a pair of defenders, The Associated Press reports.
With fans still anxious after the Americans failed to reach the 2018 World Cup, the United States took the lead in qualifying for the November tournament in Qatar.
Just losing six or more goals Wednesday night in the qualifying final in Costa Rica would cause the Americans not to finish among the top three countries in North, Central America and the Caribbean and claim the automatic spot.
Pulisic, the 23-year-old who last year with Chelsea became the first American to play and win the Champions League final, increased his total to 21 international goals, including 12 in World Cup qualifiers. He scored in the 17th minute and the fourth minute of stoppage time in the first half, both after a mistake by Anibal Godoy, and improved to 6-6 on penalties in his career with the United States.
His goal in the 65th minute was a remarkable achievement. After Luca de la Torre and Anthony Robinson exchanged passes twice, Robinson’s cross. With his back to the goal, Pulisic touched his left leg, rolled around Fidel Escobar, passed the ball with his right foot, directed the ball with his right foot through the legs of Andres Andrade and slashed the ball over the goal. The left leg of goalkeeper Luis Mejia.
Pulisic’s only previous Premier League hat-trick was against Burnley in October 2019.
Godoy scored Panama’s goal in the 86th minute with a header from Eric Davis’ free kick that beat Zach Stephen.
Canada has 28 points and took its first place since 1986 with a 4-0 victory over Jamaica, the United States is in second place, 25 points behind Mexico on goal difference, and Costa Rica is fourth with 22 points.
While the US has never won in Costa Rica, the goal difference is the first tiebreak, and the Americans are plus 13 for 3 players in Ticos. The United States also had the second tiebreaker of total goals, 21 to 11.
Fourth place advances to a playoff in June against the Oceania champions, most likely New Zealand.
After reaching the World Cup for the first time in 2018, Panama was eliminated.
The United States learned during the national anthem that Costa Rica had won 2-1 over El Salvador, depriving the Americans of the opportunity to wrestle against Panama. The United States then scored four goals in the first half of the playoffs for the first time since their 5-2 victory over Cuba in 1949.
Salvadoran referee Evan Barton awarded the first penalty kick after checking in with Mexican VAR assistant referee Marco Ortiz, and the video showed Godoy pushing his Nashville teammate Walker Zimmerman in the face.
And Pulisic helped score the second goal in the 23rd minute, as he ran a long ball from Zimmermann and hit it to Anthony Robinson, who sent a cross. Areola, at 5-foot-6, outperformed the 5-foot-11 Davis to score his ninth international goal – only the second header in his professional career.
Ferreira, who last weekend at the age of 21 became the second youngest American to score a hat-trick in Major League Soccer, made it 3-0 in the 29th minute with a right-footed shot from 4 yards that beat goalkeeper Luis Mejia. Ferreira’s third international goal was capped off by a flowing accumulation featuring Chuck Moore (four touches), Younes Moussa, Areola (two touches each) and Luca de la Torre.
Moore was a late addition as the fourth-choice right-back after Sergino Dest injured a thigh, and DeAndre Yedlin was suspended for a yellow card pile-up and Reggie Cannon tested positive for COVID-19.
Godoy’s second penalty came due to a light shot from Miles Robinson. Ferreira initially had the ball before both penalties but he faked both times and laughed as he handed the ball to USA captain Pulisic.
Luis Mejia jumped to the left, Pulisic went to the top right of the goalkeeper on the first kick. Mejia guessed the left right in the second, but Pulisic’s push was too hard and too close to the post for the keeper to reach. After his second goal, Pulisic celebrated with a pair of push-ups.