USA vs New Zealand

Mikey Varas will look to win his first game as the USA's interim manager on Tuesday when they play New Zealand in a friendly at TQL Stadium, following a dismal performance on Saturday.

In a friendly match against Mexico over the weekend, the All Whites were defeated 3-0, while the Yankees lost 2-1 to Canada.

In their third of the field on Saturday, Mikey Varas's team suffered greatly as a result of two defensive lapses, making it a less than perfect start to his interim leadership of the United States.

After trailing by two goals, his team rallied admirably and pulled one back on 66 minutes, but in the end, it was too much to overcome as they have now lost their past three games in all competitions.

The Americans have only triumphed once in their last five meetings against teams outside of their region (a 2-0 victory over Bolivia), and they have lost their last two games against CONCACAF opponents.

This team has lost their last five games in all competitions, even while trailing at halftime, since their thrilling comeback triumph over Jamaica in the previous CONCACAF Nations League semifinals.

The United States has not lost in seven prior games at TQL Stadium and has kept three clean sheets in Cincinnati during that time.

They have only ever faced New Zealand three times in their history; the Yanks have defeated them twice, with the most recent match being in a 1-1 tie in 2016.

New Zealand gave up after just five minutes and struggled to respond effectively the rest of the game as they were unable to contain the Mexican press from the beginning.

Darren Bazeley's men failed to register a single effort on goal, giving the impression that they were mostly just holding on and trying to limit the harm that could be done to them.

This team had been winning four games prior to that setback, and it was their first loss in regular time since they were defeated 1-0 by Egypt in March.

Against El Tri, the All Whites gave up more goals than they had in any of their previous seven competitive games (two).

They are winless in 2024 while trailing 1-0 and have lost five of their last six games after giving up the first goal.

Since Australia defeated New Zealand in a friendly match in October 2023 (2-0), and Greece triumphed by the same score a month later, the country has not lost back-to-back competitive matches in almost a year.