The United States showed promise but no ability to finish in its pandemic-delayed World Cup qualifying opener, drawing 0-0 at El Salvador on Thursday night in the type of Central American stadium that repeatedly has stymied the Americans.
Both teams created few chances before a boisterious yet polite sellout crowd of about 30,000 that started filling Monumental Estadio Cuscatlán, Central America’s largest, about eight and a half hours before kickoff.
The US, trying to rebound from their failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, failed to win their sixth straight road qualifier dating to 2016 (two losses, four draws).
“We can make a lot of excuses about the game, but at the end of the day there’s some positives to take away,” midfielder Tyler Adams said. “We got a clean sheet, we didn’t give up a goal, we’ll take the point and we’ve got to focus on the next game.”
