USMNT's Jesús Ferreira scores four goals in bid for striker job
By Laken Litman
FOX Sports Soccer Writer
AUSTIN, Texas — Has Gregg Berhalter finally found his starting striker for the World Cup?
While a final roster likely won’t be unveiled until closer to November, Jesús Ferreira gave his manager something to think about Friday.
The United States Men's National Team beat Grenada 5-0 in a CONCACAF Nations League match Friday, and Ferreira scored four of those goals. In doing so, the 21-year-old became just the fifth player in U.S. history to score four times in a match, joining Archie Stark (1925), Aldo Donelli (1934), Joe-Max Moore (1993) and Landon Donovan (2003).
Ferreira, who has started all three matches in this June window, had surprisingly missed countless chances to score, most recently against Morocco and Uruguay. Ferreira has been dominant playing striker for FC Dallas and currently leads the Golden Boot race in MLS with nine goals in 14 games, so his national team scoring drought naturally raised some questions.
"Lately, I’ve been [working on] my mental toughness," Ferreira said after the game. "I’m trying to work on my mind knowing that I haven’t been performing at the level that I’m supposed to. I have a lot of people around me that support me and let me know what I bring to the table. I’m trying to focus more on having a good game and making sure that my first touch is good and helping my teammates any way I can and [knowing that] the goals will come.
"Today, I showed that I focused more on the touches and the runs [rather] than scoring goals, and we saw the result."
One of those people in Ferreira’s corner is Berhalter, who said he talked to his striker after sensing his stress.
"Any time a player is under pressure, you look for how they respond, and that’s important," Berhalter said. "I told him that we don’t judge him based on goals. I said, ‘Go out there and relax and play your game.’"
The first half looked like more of what we saw the previous two games, however. Ferreira had quality chances and solid looks and was consistently applying pressure, but he couldn’t convert anything.
Then, in the 43rd minute, he had that breakthrough moment when he collected a ball that ricocheted off a Grenada defender, controlled his first touch and finally found the back of the net.
It was a huge sigh of relief — not just for Ferreira but collectively for the whole team minutes before halftime.
"I think the team's mentality [changed]," Ferreira said. "In the first half, we saw they were a bit tough to break down. Once the first goal went in, we saw how we could break them down, and we took advantage of that. Our team was mentally focused and mentally strong."
Ferreira got hot and scored three more goals in the second half. His FC Dallas teammate and workout buddy, Paul Arriola, added another.
"I’d rather he didn’t play," Grenada manager Michael Findlay joked about Ferreira, noting he thought his team handled the striker well in the first half but couldn’t contain him once he found space in the second.
While Grenada is neither World Cup-bound nor the caliber of opponents such as Morocco, Uruguay or any other team the U.S. will face in Qatar, Ferreira seized this opportunity and had a career performance while playing a full 90 minutes.
So what does this mean for him and other players vying for the No. 9 spot on the USMNT’s final 23-man roster for Qatar? Does a night such as this one make Ferreira think, at least in the back of his mind, that he could be the starting striker in the World Cup?
"I don’t really want to think that much ahead," Ferreira said. "What I want to do is just keep focused and working hard to earn more minutes and show what I can do for the team. I don’t want to think that much ahead. I just want to stay in the present."
This was the USMNT’s final match on U.S. soil before the World Cup. They’ll play on the road against El Salvador on Tuesday, then won’t convene again until September in Europe. Berhalter said after the match that Haji Wright, who was called into this training camp about six weeks ago and earned his first cap against Morocco, will start against El Salvador, which means this might have been Ferreira’s last chance to prove himself.
Did Ferreira do enough? With less than six months left before the start of the World Cup, we'll know soon enough.
Laken Litman covers college football, college basketball and soccer for FOX Sports. She previously covered college football, college basketball, the U.S. Women's National Soccer Team and the Olympics at Sports Illustrated, USA Today and The Indianapolis Star. Her first book, written in partnership with Rizzoli and Sports Illustrated and titled "Strong Like a Woman," was published in spring 2022 marking the 50th anniversary of Title IX.
