On the Pitch
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On the Pitch
26 USMNT Moments, Past to Present: A Summer of Triumph
The USMNT wins the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup and 2019–20 Concacaf Nations League titles two months apart
By: Adam Jasper
This is 26 USMNT Moments: Past to Present, a U.S. Soccer content series that covers 26 defining moments in U.S. Men's National Team history. From inspired victories to stunning goals, and the stars and hidden heroes who made them possible, each chapter reminds us that our dreams on the pitch are worth chasing. Together, they’ve built toward the biggest moment yet: the 2026 World Cup on home soil.
It was one of those runs you’ll never forget, one where not everything went right, but everything ended up right. It was a run where unlikely heroes shined. It was one of the most decorated stretches in U.S. Men’s National Team history.
From the months of June through August 2021, the USMNT went on a heater. Two trophies via two wins over their most heated rival in finals — a win in the inaugural Concacaf Nations League was followed up by a Gold Cup trophy, both coming in dramatic fashion against Mexico.
In the aftermath of their second trophy celebration in three months, fullback Reggie Cannon summed up the run pretty well:
“Two trophies in two months against Mexico, what more [could] you want?”
Taking a look back at how they unfolded, you see two matches of wildly different complexions. One featured the latest of winners as the lone goal, the other a feisty, fight-filled, high-scoring affair. They showcasedthe 2021 USMNT with many different players, in many different lights, proving they could conquer their continent in different, yet equally memorable ways.
The USMNT wins the 2019–20 Concacaf Nations League
The Nations League final, even for USA-Mexico standards, was a ferocious battle for 120 minutes — the scoring opened in the 2nd minute and closed in the 114th. It was also full of VAR controversies that made for long pauses and hysterics that could only unfold when two rivals locked horns. In many ways, it was everything you want from a football match.
Jesús Corona got things going right from the off, capitalizing on a mistake at the back and squeezing a strike in from a tight angle in the second minute. Gio Reyna opened the scoring for the U.S. in the 27th minute, just a minute after a second Mexico goal was ruled out by VAR for offsides.
A chippy midsection of the match turned unfortunate for the Stars and Stripes in the 68th minute, as starting goalkeeper Zack Steffen was forced off the pitch with an injury. In came Ethan Horvath, a Denver native playing at Mile High Stadium in the biggest international match of his life.
In the 78th minute, Diego Llainez’s furious run and shot put Mexico ahead again, but Weston McKennie had the swift reply ready just two-and-a-half minutes later to make it 2-2. The midfielder had a couple of great headed chances on the night, but this one was the first to find netting.
A late slide tackle challenge on Horvath at the very end of regulation sent tempers flaring in a match that was already boiling over. Extra time beckoned, and it was a fitting conclusion to a match with so much action yet so little to separate the sides.
In the 107th minute, Christian Pulisic did what he does best, driving the ball into the box and drawing a foul. At this point, the match was nearly fully off the rails, and a lengthy VAR check and an even lengthier clearing of the box meant Pulisic’s spot kick didn’t even take place until the 114th minute.
As the captain stepped up to the kick against veteran goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, he had zero doubt in his mind where to put it. Ochoa dove the right way, but Pulisic’s strike was about as upper 90 as it gets, roofing the ball for 3-2. The celebration remains one of the most iconic in USMNT history, as the winger ripped his shirt off and ran to the corner flag, shushing the Mexico fans in attendance. As his teammates mobbed him, beer showers from the crowd rained down on them.
Mexico would’ve spoiled that all-time moment if not for the man who wasn’t even supposed to be in the match. After an unfortunate handball in the box in the 118th minute — and another painstakingly long VAR review — El Tri were awarded a penalty kick. Andrés Guardado ran up to his kick in the 123rd minute, and his strike was pure towards the bottom left side of the goal.
But Horvath met it. A stunning dive parried the ball away, and after 130 minutes were played, it was the Americans storming the field in celebration.
"I'm so proud of this group,” Pulisic said after the match. “We needed everyone today, and it was a phenomenal performance."
Pulisic may have captained the side and scored the winning goal, but there was no doubt as to who the celebrations at full time began with. Players and coaches swarmed the Mile High kid Horvath in a dogpile, who could help but feel all the emotions of the championship victory in his hometown.
"Me and Zack have been on the national team since we've been 14-years-old together,” Horvath said after the match. “He just said everyone believes in me and just do me.”
The USMNT wins the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup
The Nations League victory was about as chaotic as a soccer match can get, but the Gold Cup triumph was more a game of patience.
Now, that doesn’t mean there weren’t chances. Both teams were playing daring football in Las Vegas, but neither could find that elusive first goal. Matt Turner had a masterclass in the net to keep Mexico off the scorer’s sheet, and Paul Arriola had a couple point-blank range looks get away from him.
“They had a lot of good chances,” Matt Turner said post-match, “but true to this team, true to the way we’ve been playing this whole tournament, we stuck together through the good times and the bad.”
Then, in the 116th minute of extra time, the U.S. won a set piece. They had become a real strong suit of the Stars and Stripes that year, having scored all three goals in the Nations League final on set pieces. Surely lightning wouldn’t strike again, would it?
Kellyn Acosta combined with Miles Robinson, and indeed it did. Acosta’s curling ball was picked out perfectly to the running Robinson. The center back’s scuffed header bounced into the ground before reaching the goal line, but it was online all the same to finally put the U.S. after 117 minutes of play.
That was all she wrote, and the U.S. had officially done the double over Mexico.
“I don’t really remember much, I kind of blacked out,” Robinson said after the match. “All I know is we’re champions.”
Both matches were eternal in their own rights, but their significance together is what makes that Summer of 2021 one that the U.S. will find hard to forget. Two wins over Mexico spelled a special kind of Dos a Cero, kicking off the decade with a pair of silverware.
