Celtic man impresses again as ex-Rangers star dismantles rivals on record breaking night

Trusty’s performance in the 1-0 defeat by Rangers before the international break came under scrutiny, with the American deemed not to have reacted quickly enough when Ryan Naderi slammed home the game’s only goal. However, the 28-year-old has responded well on international duty, putting in a series of strong performances for Mauricio Pochettino’s side.

After picking up an assist in the 4-1 win over Peru last week, he was back in the starting XI for the United States as they took on Mexico at the State Farm Arena, and he produced another impressive defensive display as they made it back-to-back wins against Rafael Marquez’s team.

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Despite starting the game on the back foot, the home side opened the scoring through teenager Julian Hall in the 28th minute. A fine ball over the top from Middlesbrough’s Sebastian Berhalter found ex-Rangers loanee Malik Tillman, whose disguised pass towards the byline found Giovanni Reyna. Forcing Raul Rangel into a fine save, Hall pounced on the rebound to tuck home.

Shortly into the second half, 17-year-old winger Cavan Sullivan made history by becoming the youngest goalscorer in the nation’s history. The Philadelphia Union star is reportedly on the verge of a major move to English Premier League giants Manchester City after catching the eye of head coach Enzo Maresca with a series of glittering displays in the MLS.

Shortly afterwards, the visitors were reduced to 10 men when Mateo Chavez charged through to the back of Yunus Musah, before becoming embroiled in an altercation with Berhalter, who had come across to intervene after the foul on his teammate. The Mexico substitute, who had only been on the pitch for just over 20 minutes, then appeared to strike the Middlesbrough player in the face, leaving the referee no choice but to issue a straight red card. Tillman then completed the scoring when he bagged his second goal in as many games five minutes from time.

Following the game, Celtic centre-back Trusty was praised for his performance at the heart of the defence. Playing the full 90 minutes, he recorded a 90 per cent passing accuracy rate, won all eight of his aerial duels and made three five clearances during the clash.

“I think that this, overall, was a great opportunity to discover ourself, to see ourselves in a difficult game with a very good team. Again, Mexico is a great team," said Pochettino after the result. "Yes, I think two different maybe halves. The first half I think Mexico started really well. They forced us to play back. We never connected. We were losing all the duels. And then we start to grow after 15, 20 minutes. And I think it was a good lesson the first half because it was the sense of work all together, suffer together even when you are not playing well in the way that you plan to play."