CINCINNATI — This may be a generation of young U.S. players the likes of which we’ve never seen. It's ambitious, fearless and committed to its manager Gregg Berhalter’s stated mission “to change the way the world views American soccer.”
But it still has an enthralling and timely appreciation for the classics.
It’s the score made famous by their predecessors, the ones who pulled the U.S. men’s national team even with and often past their archival and long-time tormenter, Mexico. It became a slogan, an appellation and a call to arms: “Dos a Cero.” It was the score when the Americans bested El Tri at the 2002 World Cup and when they established a long-sought home-field advantage in nearby Columbus, where they won four straight World Cup qualifiers by that exact margin.