U.S. men's soccer team loses, advances anyway in World Cup

U.S. men's soccer team loses, advances anyway in World Cup
(Image credit: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

The U.S. men's national soccer team lost to Germany 1-0 on Thursday — but still snuck into the knockout round of the World Cup thanks to a little help from Portugal.

The U.S. would have advanced outright with a win or a draw. They got neither. Yet Portugal topped Ghana 2-1 thanks to a late goal from Cristiano Ronaldo, earning them three points and tying them in the standings with the U.S. Though Portugal and the U.S. both finished Group G with four points, the U.S. held the edge in goal differential — the first of several tiebreakers — so they moved on.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Jon Terbush

Jon Terbush is an associate editor at TheWeek.com covering politics, sports, and other things he finds interesting. He has previously written for Talking Points Memo, Raw Story, and Business Insider.