World Cup Qualifiers: USMNT wins, Matt Turner freezes

They actually played a soccer game in Hoth on Wednesday as the United States Men’s National Team defeated Honduras 3-0.

Set pieces were the name of the game as Weston McKennie and Walker Zimmerman found the back of the net off of free kicks.

New England Revolution goalkeeper Matt Turner also had the game from hell in between the net. It wasn’t because of his play, he just nearly froze to death.

Turner didn’t get a lot of action and was forced to run around just to stay warm. Honduras didn’t test him at all and he basically froze to death on the pitch.

McKennie was the winner of the qualifying cycle as he had a fantastic performance in the three games. This was highlighted with his performance against Honduras where he scored a goal and was extremely confident out on the pitch. It’s been a long journey from him getting tossed out of camp due to violating team rules to now being a leader for the squad.

It was also a big game for Christian Pulisic who came off the bench and scored the third goal of the evening. For a player who was struggling like Pulisic, that goal injected life into his game. Hopefully that will continue as he goes back to Chelsea and when World Cup Qualifying concludes in March.

While Gregg Berhalter’s decision to use Pulisic as a sub seemed to pay off, he still managed to anger people with his antics towards the end of the game.

Yes, that is Berhalter taking a picture with fans during the game. It’s harder to be more disrespectful to your opponent than that.

But let’s get to the real villains of the night. The United States Soccer Federation should be ashamed of themselves for playing this game in these awful conditions to try and get a “competitive edge.”

I hope the players stand up for themselves and file grievances. These athletes are human beings and shouldn’t have been exposed to these inhumane conditions. The decision to play this game was evil, vile, and malicious.

The USSF knew that this was a possibility but they chose to play a game in Minnesota just to gain a competitive advantage. It shows that United States soccer has a long way to go.

Fans don’t see footballing giants such as England, France, Brazil, and others playing games in extreme conditions just to win games. They have the talent to win games on their own.

So while the USMNT secured three points, the state of soccer in the country and the USSF took a massive L.