2022 Concacaf Nations: USA 5-0 Grenada - four goals for Jesus Ferreira in a resounding USMNT win

While the USMNT will have a tough group for the World Cup, it does have something that England does not have: it came home twice last summer and hasn’t been anywhere near England in almost 60 years. The USA began its defense of one of the pieces of hardware it earned in 2021 by starting group play in the Concacaf Nations League by taking on Grenada.

It did so with a lineup... just 11 guys listed in numerical order. Presumably the players were in a formation but this didn’t help much in determining that.

Grenada went out in a 4-2-3-1 - so it was a tough start for the USA since they were down 0-1 in the lineup graphics department before the ball was even kicked.

In the end, it would be a tough start on the field also as Grenada showed they were no pushovers and held the USA scoreless almost through the first half. A goal before the break and then an onslaught of scores in the second 45 gave the Stars and Stripes a resounding 5-0 win as the overall quality of the team out-shinned their opponents.

Gifs of Jesus Ferreira scoring a bunch of goals

Grenada proved that they were going to put up a fight for the Americans in the first half hour. The team was compact on defense, did plenty of kicking players in white shirts, and weren’t afraid to push forward with numbers in possession. Jordan Morris had a couple shots in the first 20 minutes and before the half hour mark Jesus Ferreira ht one over the bar. The team did try a screen pass on a corner, but the Grenada defense was not fooled by it.

The orange slices in the hydration break may have worked because after that, Ferreira was played through by Kellyn Acosta, but his effort was underpowered and easily saved by keeper Jason Belfon.

It took 43 minutes for the USMNT to score a goal against a bunch of guys from Braintree Town, Camerhogne, and Wealdstone. Welcome to Concacaf. That’s when Paul Arriola danced through the 18 past a few Spice Boys and fired a shot that was saved into the path of Ferreira. The striker no doubt felt a sense of relief after having no joy in front of goal in his recent USMNT appearances and watched his shot go into the net to make it 1-0.

That said, the US was dominating with 12 shots, four on goal and 68% possession at the half compared to zero shots for the away team at the half.

The second 45 began and all the sudden THE HORSES WERE OUT OF THE BARN. Another throughball found Ferreira and this time he didn’t miss and the score became 2-0 in minute 54.

Definición indeed. And just for good measure, JF9 finished his hatty two minutes later.

At the hour mark Gregg Berhalter went to the bench to bring in George Bello and Cristian Roldan for Jedi and Jordan Morris. Two minutes later the USA scored again. This time, Luca de la Torre sprinted through midfield and dished to his left finding Arriola at the 6 yard box. The winger fired his shot into the net to make it 4-0.

Things calmed down a bit and the Americans stopped scoring every three minutes and in the 71st Brenden Aaronson came in for LDLT. It was simply not fair to bring Aaronson into the game, the new Leeds man played a Grenada defender off his feet and nearly lofted an open shot to the far post, but it went inches wide. After the hydration break Aaronson would assist Ferreira who seemingly turned one goal into four so that all could share in the abundance of scoring.

It was so miraculous that the USMNT Twitter account was redeemed from its past transgression in the lineup list.

A true miracle. Alas, there would be no fifth temptation for Ferreira as his tally for the night would settle at four and the USA came away with the 5-0 win.