A defensive mix-up by Caleb Wiley and Mark McKenzie led to Ben Waine‘s 89th-minute goal, giving New Zealand a 1-1 tie against the United States in a friendly on Tuesday night after Mauricio Pochettino was hired to coach the Americans through the 2026 World Cup.
Christian Pulisic scored in the 69th minute of the second game under interim coach Mikey Varas.
Coming off their first home loss to Canada in 1957, the Americans stumbled near the final whistle and will enter the Pochettino era next month with a four-game winless streak dating to the Copa América first-round exit that cost Gregg Berhalter his job.
Thirty minutes before kickoff, the U.S. Soccer Federation announced Pochettino will take over for exhibitions on Oct. 12 against Panama and at Mexico three days later.
New Zealand scored after Nando Pijnaker played a long ball more than half the length of the field. The ball bounced off a foot of Logan Rogerson, and Wiley tried a headed clearance but instead centered the ball in front of McKenzie. He swung his left leg in another attempt to clear, and the ball ricocheted off Waine and over goalkeeper Matt Turner, who was about 8 yards off his line.
Turner, playing his first match in 10 weeks, put hands on hips and slapped them on his side in frustration. Pulisic stared in frustration when the final whistle blew after almost 10 minutes of stoppage time.
Varas made six changes from the lineup in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat.
Pulisic entered in the 57th minute for his first substitute appearance since February 2022 and scored his 31st international goal, moving past Brian McBride for fifth on the U.S. career list.
His goal following an 11-pass buildup that included Chris Richards, McKenzie, Aidan Morris, Marlon Fossey, Luca de la Torre, Ricardo Pepi and Folarin Balogun. After Pepi played the ball to him, Pulisic took touches with his left foot and his right, then slid an angled left-foot shot under defender Bill Tuiloma and past goalkeeper Max Crocombe.
Pepi appeared to put the U.S. ahead in the 19th minute off a toe-poke feed from Fossey, a right back who made his national team debut. But Pepi shoved defender Liberato Cacace just before the shot and Honduran referee Selvin Brown disallowed the goal after consulting with an assistant.
Fossey, a right-back, made his international debut, one day after his 26th birthday.
No MLS players started for the seventh time in eight matches. Just eight of 209 starting positions have been been filled with MLS players in the 19 games the full pool has been available since the 2022 World Cup.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this story.
