Allianz Field has treated the U.S. men's national soccer team right in its three visits there, Tuesday night's 4-0 friendly victory over Oman included.
USMNT finds success at Allianz Field again, defeats Oman 4-0 in friendly
Folarin Balogun, Brenden Aaronson and Ricardo Pepi scored for the U.S. men's soccer team in its first time back in St. Paul since the 2022 World Cup qualifier.
September 13, 2023 at 4:51AM
The Americans have won all three times, dating to a CONCACAF Gold Cup group-play victory over Guyana in June 2019, the stadium's inaugural season.
They've outscored their three opponents without allowing a goal, winning by a combined 11-0.
And on Tuesday they left without frostbite.
"I think the crowd that was here was boisterous and supportive and pro-USA," U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said. "This is a fantastic place to play and an amazing stadium, a great pitch, great locker rooms, great facilities. We love coming here, and we hope the fans appreciate us."
The U.S. team scored a 13th-minute goal — and three more within 19 minutes in the second half that included an Oman own goal.
They did so on a early autumn night when the air temperature was 60 degrees higher than a frigid February World Cup qualifier victory in 2022.
The last time it played at Allianz Field, the U.S. beat Honduras 3-0 on a northern winter's night. The air temperature was 3 degrees, and the windchill 12 below at kickoff.
That game was an announced sellout despite the cold, with more than 19,200 supporters announced.
Tuesday's game was announced at 13,665.
The team played Uzbekistan on Saturday and Oman during this September camp, which ended with Tuesday's second-half goal barrage.
The U.S. team scored in the fourth minute and not again until stoppage time Saturday in St. Louis.
This time, they didn't score until the 13th minute, when 22-year-old, New York City-born striker Folarin Balogun scored on a leftfooted, first-touch sweep of a ball at the 6-yard box edge that Oman keeper Ibrahim Al Mukhaini initially stopped but couldn't contain.
Union Berlin midfielder Brenden Aaronson followed with a goal of his own, coming on as a second-half substitute to score a 60th-minute goal.
A former Philadelphia Union homegrown MLS player, Aaronson scored his eighth international goal on a 24-yard free kick that went through Oman's wall, its deflection eluding Al Mukhaini.
It was the U.S. team's second direct free-kick goal in the past six years and the first since 2020.
"It was pretty lucky, as everyone could see," Aaronson said. "But a goal is a goal."
He entered the game at halftime for star Christian Pulisic.
Berhalter called Aaronson his team's "security blanket" who "we know gives us the extra same effort every time."
Scoring sensation and second-half sub Ricardo Pepi made it 3-0 in the 79th minute, sweeping a shot from the 18-yard box through a narrow opening in Oman defender Khalid Alraiki's legs, finding the net low and left.
The goals by Aaronson and Pepi are the ninth and 10th by the national team this year. That's one short of the 11 scored in 2011. Pepi now has six goals in six games this year, four of them as a substitute.
Two minutes after Pepi's goal, Alraiki scored an own goal committed on a slide intended to stop a goal but scoring one for the opponent instead in the 81st minute.
Tuesday's game was Berhalter's second after he was rehired for his old job in June after a six-month search for a coach that ultimately brought him back after his contract had expired.
On Monday, Berhalter called Minnesota "a great soccer state."
"We have a lot of history here playing with the national team," Berhalter said.
Minnesota started only two strikers against Seattle, leaving Sang Bin Jeong and Joseph Rosales to provide the width behind Teemu Pukki and Kelvin Yeboah.
