USMNT breathe a sigh of relief as Ricardo Pepi, Antonee Robinson, and Gio Reyna score to beat Trinidad & Tobago 3-0... taking an advantage into a must-win away leg with a Copa America berth on the line

A frustrating 90 minutes from the United States finished with a flurry of goals at the right time as the USMNT beat Trinidad & Tobago 3-0 in Austin, Texas in the CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinals.

The Americans were unable to break Trinidad’s low block that stifled any offensive chances dead in their tracks.

Just days after Gregg Berhalter said that his team needed to respect their opponents, he trotted out a formation that had hardly been used by them before, played Kevin Paredes in his first start, and put Malik Tillman on the wing in the absence of other wingers.

Those changes proved unfruitful in a first half that saw the United States fail to register a single shot on target despite holding 76 percent possession for that half.

This was despite the Soca Warriors being brought down to ten men after a reckless tackle by Noah Powder on Weston McKennie.

It left McKennie in visible pain as Powder, who was already on a yellow card, went in too hard and incredibly late.

The second half brought no changes as referee Oshane Nation waved off two penalty shouts in the final 45 minutes.

First, McKennie was taken out from behind by Daniel Phillips - who went in with both feet on the midfielder who never had any chance of seeing the defender.

After initially pointing to the spot, Nation was told to go to the monitor for a review - showing that Phillips got a touch on the ball. Apparently, that touch was more than enough to ignore the obvious danger in the tackle and Nation waved off his own decision.

Later in the game's stoppage time, the referee ignored Folarin Balogun being taken down from behind and played on.

Despite being in need of a substitution, Berhalter didn’t turn to his bench until minute 65 - taking off the ineffective Paredes and Tillman for striker Ricardo Pepi and Brenden Aaronson.

Pepi joined Balogun at the top of an awkward 4-2-2-2 while Aaronson was a direct wing replacement for Tillman.

The PSV Eindhoven striker Pepi had an immediate impact on the contest - putting up some dangerous shots and getting on the end of some interesting crosses.

Yet the United States seemed at times to be more preoccupied with finding the final pass rather than shooting the ball.

Credit must be given to Trinidad’s Denzil Smith - who put up a phenomenal performance while the Americans peppered him with chances in the second half. All told, Smith finished the night with five saves.

The breakthrough finally came in minute 82 - when Pepi got on the end of a second chance ball from Antonee ‘Jedi’ Robinson. Pepi caught the cross with the outside of his boot and re-directed it into the back of the net.

It’s familiar territory for Pepi - who bagged two goals in World Cup qualifying against Jamaica in October of 2021.

Jedi got one of his own just four minutes later. After Gio Reyna’s cross was deflected away and found Robinson at the top of the box. He fancied his chances and struck it with his left boot going into the top left corner for the second of the night.

Once it rained, it poured for the USA - as Reyna played a perfect one-two pass from Folarin Balogun and hit a perfectly placed shot to give us our final score.

Now the United States heads into Port-of-Spain, Trinidad with a comfortable 3-0 advantage in this two-legged fixture.

A win over the two legs will grant the United States an automatic spot in the upcoming 2024 Copa America.

While the United States is in fact hosting the tournament, South America's football federation CONMEBOL decided not to grant the USMNT a spot for being the hosts.

They had done that in the past when America hosted the 2016 Copa America Centenario.