90+min: Portugal is not letting up. A breakthrough from Francisco Conceição, but his shot across goal goes just wide.

90min: We’ll have 4 minutes of added time, as Mark McKenzie comes on in place of Auston Trusty.

90min: Auston Trusty is down behind the goal after chasing a loose ball. Noncontact.

89min: Gio Reyna is being very vocal, calling for the ball, but he’s getting nowhere close to it as this now-second-string US side struggles in the build-up.

86min: The uS continues to push for a result, really anything positive at all to close out this window, but Portugal are locking them down. No consolation goal appears to be imminent.

78min: It looks like Gio Ryena, Brenden Aaronson, and Cristian Roldan are coming on. Aidan Morris, Alex Freeman, and Sebastian Berhalter are all coming off.

67min: We are in a hydration break after a long, sustained spell of Portuguese pressure ends in a shot by Ruben Neves, nearly connecting on the volley unmarked in the center of the box. It really should be 3-0 right now.

56min: A well-worked chance from distance from Portugal, who puts it over the bar.

Mauricio Pochettino sounded happy when speaking with TNT after half-time:

“I think it was really good. The performance was good but in small details i think we didn’t manage well. Overall I think [it was] another first half, like against Belgium, that was really good. I think we show intensity, we show capacity to play against a very good team like Portugal. [We were unlucky] in the way that we conceded, we should’ve managed better. But these types of games are about learning. Because to play with this type of team, when they are in the top level, for us it’s a massive opportunity to keep learning and realize the situations we need to improve on.”

Half-time subs for Portugal (there were a lot of them!):

Tomas Araujo, Vitinha, Pedro Neto, Diogo Dalot, Samu Costa, Francisco Trincão, João Cancelo are all off.

Antonio Silva, Ruben Neves, Ricardo Horta, Matheus Nunes, João Felix, Froncisco Conceicao, Nuno Mendes are all on.

Phew!

Half-time subs for the US: Patrick Agyemang, Max Arfsten, and Tanner Tessmann are on. Antonee Robinson, Weston McKennie, Chrisitan Pulisic (!) are off.

So how’s everyone feeling?

Me? I’m feeling low on sugar. And a little hard of hearing thanks to whatever the hell this half-time show is.

45min+: Yellow card for Pulisic, who is played through on goal by Tillman, but ends up in a tussle with Tomas Araujo. When Araujo wins and Samu Costa goes to recover the loose ball, Pulisic kicks out at him. A frustration foul, and worthy of booking.

45min: Chrisitan Pulisic leads a breakaway with Weston McKennie and Antonee Robinson in support, but his play wide is blocked by McKennie, and Portugal clears.

44min: Malik Tillman lets rip from distance on a ball played away after a corner kick. It sails over the bar.

41min: Pulisic is taken down near midfield, doesn’t get the call, then takes out his frustration with a hard foul on Vitinha in the center circle. He gets a talking to from the ref, but no card.

Just like against Belgium, the US falls behind near the end of the first half after a Pulisic miss…

35min: ANOTHER missed chance from Pulisic. Alex Freeman makes a nice run into the box and lays it off to Pulisic, who fires inches wide of the near post from 25 yards out.

Reader Dan gets in touch…

At the risk USMNT sacrilege it seems like the biggest problem for the US in the final third in both games has been Pulisic. He seems way out of sorts on his shooting and out of sync with his passes.

I don’t know of too many US fans that would disagree with you there. Pulisic has had a number of good chances in his more advanced position this game and he just hasn’t connected on any of them well.

From Pablo Iglesias Maurer: The US have started brightly enough, as they did against Belgium, largely matching Portugal going forward and staying calm and composed defensively. One player, though, who is not at his best – and has not been for quite some time – is Christian Pulisic, who has done poorly with a pair of chances, both of them at close range. Earlier in the week Pulisic owned that he feels immense pressure but claimed that he largely doesn’t pay much attention to it. With each of these misses, that weight gets a bit heavier.

23min: Wow, another missed chance from Pulisic. After a very patient, well-worked move from the US, Tim Weah fired in a perfect ball to Pulisic, who was well positioned between the center backs. All he needed was to make solid contact, and he whiffed on the aerial ball. Berhalter fires a follow-up from distance that is saved by Sá.

From Jeff Rueter: For all the aspiring stadium designers or ticket pricers following along …might I recommend not pricing the midfield sections quite so lavishly above the rest of the field? In a very packed house, the only sections with broad swathes of empty seats are the ones that stare back at broadcast viewers.

19min: Chance! Weston McKennie latches on to a long ball from the back, somehow manages to play it back to Tim Weah, whose shot from distance goes over the bar.

17min: Portugal goalkeeper José Sá gets caught in possession with plenty of US players around, but they can’t work a clean shooting opportunity. A shame, but proof that the pressure is working for the US (at least that time).

14min: After a strong start, the US has been pinned back a bit by Portgual, who have found some good momentum attacking down the United States’ left flank.

8min: Save Matt Freese! Joao Cancelo lofts a lovely through ball to Bruno Fernandes, but his effort across the face of goal is palmed away for a corner kick.

6min: Christian Pulisic is snakebitten in front of goal, y’all. Malik Tillman got a good step and launched a US counter that found Pulisic with a window to shoot, but his low effort was blocked out of play.

1min: Already a very positive start for the US, intercepting a Portugal build out of the back for a shot that’s saved by José Sá.

The national anthems are done, the teams are lined up … let’s play some ball.

“Wave your flags” says the PA announcer. And indeed, the fans in attendance wave small flags with the US Soccer logo on them. Feels like maybe regular American flags would have been more inspiring a visual!

It’s very loud. Brad Guzan is yelling at me. Help.

Of the 27 initial selections for Pochettino’s March squad, 18 made one of his starting line-ups. The neglected nine are as follows:

• Patrick Schulte

• Chris Brady

• Joe Scally

• Max Arfsten

• Brenden Aaronson

• Cristian Roldan

• Gio Reyna

• Patrick Agyemang

• Ricardo Pepi

The goalkeepers won’t have expected a start. Arfsten cedes as Antonee Robinson starts back-to-back, understandable as he missed 2025 entirely for the US. Roldan seems poised to be the backup defensive midfielder, and Patrick Agyemang a natural change-of-pace striker from the bench. Aaronson, Reyna, and Pepi will be the ones most sweating their chances come squad selection, as alternatives like Diego Luna and Haji Wright weren’t available for this window.

Jeff Rueter’s analysis

The United States did some good things in a loss to Belgium, but overall they looked disjointed and unrehearsed

Those lowlands!

In the last 12 years of US soccer, defining moments have come against countries like the Netherlands and Belgium, who have outclassed the Americans at key points.

Leander Schaerlaeckens’ column:

From Jeff Rueter: It’s tough to resist rampant speculation on the back of this final lineup before Pochettino picks his squad. Morris and Berhalter, former academy teammates in Columbus, will be desperate to show the requisite bite and midfield moderation to make their cases for World Cup inclusion. Clearly there’s some desperation to get Pulisic back among the goals if he’s serving as a nominal line-leader.

US fans ought to hope Alex Freeman puts in a shift that keeps him in the lineup. Whether he’s right-most of three center-backs or a right back (or wing back), he’s been a staple of the team’s best performances in recent windows.

Via Pablo Iglesias Maurer: It’s about an hour before kickoff and Mercedes-Benz Stadium is already filling in quite a bit. One thing was made abundantly clear on the walk over here – this will be a much taller task for the US in terms of the crowd, which is 50/50 rooting interests at best and perhaps even pro-Portugal. Belgian fans were hard to come by on Saturday, when the US got thrashed anyways.

Via the FotMob lineup builder, this one (not very likely) possibility for how the US could line up tonight.

In Saturday’s game, the introduction of mandatory hydration breaks and a confusing light-on-light kit matchup created a difficult situation on and off the field:

Things are getting interesting in the other big European playoff…..

Meanwhile, in Europe …

Turkey is up 1-0 over Kosovo in the playoff match that will determine the United States’ final group opponent. About 15 minutes left in Kosovo. Follow it here:

Last time out …

Here’s what happened in the United States’ first game of the window, a 5-2 loss to Belgium that put a dent in pre-World Cup momentum