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World Cup Qualification: The Final Two Months

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El Salvador v USA.  

Saturday September 5.
Rio Tinto Stadium, Sandy, Utah.  
8PM EDT, 5PM PDT, etc.
With four matches remaining in the final round of World Cup qualification in the CONCACAF region, it’s instructive to take a look at the current table:
Costa Rica 12
Honduras 10
USA 10
——————-
Mexico 9
——————-
El Salvador 5
T&T 5
Note: the top three sides qualify for the World Cup, the fourth place side has to play a home-and-away playoff against the 5th place side in the CONMEBOL region (i.e. South America, who have a decent side or two that you might have heard of).  While that side is currently Ecuador, who don’t quite suck, it could be any of a number of sides . . . including Argentina, who really don’t quite suck.
It’s tighter than I think it ought to be at this stage in the game.  With both Mexico matches out of the way, this should be easier for the US.  We have a solid record at home, even if we’re a bit hit and miss away.  The US MNT schedule from here on out:
September 5 El Salvador Utah
September 9 Trinidad & Tobago away
October 10 Honduras away
October 14 Costa Rica RFK
Given that the El Salvador match is in the USA, considering El Salvador’s place in the table, and what we have coming up down the road, I’d suggest that we need all three points out of this one.  If we drop points, the pressure will be on for the Honduras match (and while T&T are at the foot of the table, they’re not all that bad — they did qualify for 2006 Germany by beating the 5th place South American side).  What we want to avoid is a scenario where automatic qualification comes down to that final match against a rather decent Costa Rica side.  
There are a few injury problems confronting the US going into this match against El Salvador.  Jay DeMerit, who impressed in central defense during the Confederations Cup, looks out with injury (although he did play a full 90 in Watford’s 1-1 draw away to Swansea City this past Saturday), which is a blow, and coupled with Oguchi Onyewu’s suspension due to the current size of his deck of yellow cards, there’s a bit of a hole in central defense.  The only other issue I can see is that Michael Bradley has apparently been dropped by his German side Borussia Mönchengladbach, not even making the bench in their last match.  While Bob Bradley has a policy of playing match-fit players (i.e. those regularly playing for their clubs), look for Michael Bradley to be in the starting XI.
See here for some criticism of the squad chosen for the next two US MNT matches.
While I’ll have more to say about the US MNT in the coming days, I’d like to draw attention to the final of the 2009 US Open Cup (which to the English would be called the US FA Cup final) where Seattle Sounders FC defeated DC United 2-1.
Good job.
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