U.S. Men Survive In Mexico To Get What They Need: A 0-0 Draw

Tonight's game at Estadio Azteca had many things that I hate about soccer (no goals, few scoring chances, tons of fouls, plenty of diving) that won't help it appeal to new audiences but I certainly can't complain about the final result: the U.S. men's national team tied Mexico 0-0. Coupled with Friday's 1-0 win over Costa Rica in the blizzard in Denver, four points in two matches is exactly what the Americans needed.

It was only the second time that the U.S. has earned a point in Mexico during World Cup qualifying, the last time was another scoreless draw on Nov. 2, 1997. The draw in the USA’s third of 10 matches in the final round of 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying moved the Americans to 1-1-1 (4 points) in the Hexagonal and into a three-way tie for second place with Honduras and Costa Rica behind Panama (1-0-2, 5 points) at the top of the table. Mexico (0-0-3, 3 points) is in fifth place and Jamaica (0-1-2, 2 points) sits in sixth. The top three finishers qualify directly to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

In other results tonight Panama blanked Honduras 2-0 at Estadio Rommel Fernandez in Panama City and Costa Rica moved up from last place with a 2-0 victory against Jamaica at Estadio Nacional in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Mexico outshot the U.S. 17-1 and had 13 more corner kicks (15-2) as the Americans played in an Italian style defensive shell that for once, I totally understood and agreed with. Backup goalkeeper Brad Guzan picked up his second straight clean sheet with a few solid saves but truthfully, Mexico wasted all their chances including headers that somehow went over the net or wide from a few yards away.

Center backs Omar Gonzalez and Matt Besler along with fullbacks Geoff Cameron and DeMarcus Beasley were the real stars as they did their best to stay composed despite the fact that they had to play defense basically the entire match. I can't remember one decent U.S. chance that didn't come off a set piece or corner kick.

Their next 2014 World Cup qualifying games are June 7 in Jamaica and then June 11 vs. Panama in Seattle. Hopefully by then, Landon Donovan, Tim Howard, Carlos Bocanegra (maybe?), Steve Cherundolo, Timmy Chandler, Fabian Johnson etc. are in form, healthy and in the lineup or at least on the U.S. bench. There are only so many games like this where you can get a result with the MLS All-Star team. Before that, Jurgen Kliinsmann's squad hosts two quality European teams: Belgium on May 29 in Cleveland and his home country-Germany-on June 2 in Washington DC.

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World Cup 2014 Qualifying: U.S. Men's Soccer vs. Honduras Live Blog

The U.S. starting 11: Howard; Chandler, Gonzalez, Cameron, F. Johnson; Williams, Jones, Bradley, E. Johnson; Dempsey, Altidore

Honduras' starting 11: Valladares; Peralta, Bernardez, Figueroa, Garcia; Boniek, Espinoza, Garrido, Martinez; Bengtson, Costly

This might be the first U.S. men's national team game that the legendary Ray Hudson has commentated for. Exciting for hardcore soccer fans. Former U.S. star Cobi Jones also joins him and

1st minute-Great news already, with Chandler starting that means that now he's CAP tied and a U.S. player (not German) from here on out.

4th minute-Chandler gets burned by Martinez who whips a low cross in. Howard bobbles it but he hangs on.

8th minute-Honduras had a 3-on-1 but they screwed it up by going offside, big break for the U.S. defense. No clue where all the guys went on that play.

15th minute-Haha Honduras' head coach is wearing jeans and a Honduras polo shirt, classy.

17th minute-4th time Honduras has been called offside already, weird.

23rd minute-Espinoza has a shot from outside the box, caught by Howard.

25th minute-the 1st U.S. corner is a good one but Eddie Johnson heads it over. Gotta put that on goal.

29th minute-that was a nice counterattack by the U.S. Eddie Johnson crossed a low ball to Altidore who one touched it barely over the net. The U.S. has picked it up after a slow start.

31st minute-Chandler clears a Honduras pass off the goal line, yikes.

33rd minute-Howard with a strong punch on a quality shot from distance.

36th minute-Jones chips it beautifully to Dempsey who runs onto it and one touches it out of the air. Exquisite goal, 1-0 U.S. 33rd career international goal for Dempsey which moves him up to sole possession of 3rd place in U.S. history.

40th minute-Honduras ties it with an even more brilliant goal. It all started with a corner kick then ended with a bicycle kick by Garcia. You'll see that on highlight reels for years. Nothing you can do about that.

Halftime: U.S. 1, Honduras 1. A fair score since both teams finished their best chance with a flourish. The U.S. would have been in much better shape with a 1-0 lead but they probably didn't deserve it anyway.

No changes for either team to start the 2nd half.

50th minute-Bradley had a chance but his weak shot was deflected out.

52nd minute-Boniek is free down the wing but he puts the shot in the side netting.

55th minute-Bengtson almost takes advantage of Cameron's miscue in the back but he shoots it over.

56th minute-Haha Honduras is offside again, wiping out a goal.

58th minute-Come on Bradley, his corner kick never even went inbounds. That is unacceptable and can't happen at this level, ever. 1st U.S. sub: Maurice Edu is on for Williams.

59th minute-2nd U.S. sub: Sacha Kljestan on for Eddie Johnson.

65th minute-Bradley laid it off for Dempsey, his shot might have been trouble but it was blocked out for a corner before it got on goal.

67th minute-last U.S. sub: Graham Zusi in for Jones. So this is it, the U.S. won't have any more guys come on.

70th minute-Figueroa flashes up for a header but he can't put it on Howard. That was a good chance if he aimed it better.

71st minute-Costly shoots wide from distance.

79th minute-lazy defending leads to a tap-in by Bengtson. Gonzalez and Cameron were the culprits leaving Howard stuck in no-man's land. 2-1 Honduras, crushing goal to allow, especially in that fashion.

84th minute-And Bengtson gets carried off on a stretcher. Haha pathetic, let the stalling tactics commence.

93rd minute-Honduras makes its first sub: Welcome in for Costly.

94th minute-That's about right, the U.S. has one last chance on a corner but Gonzalez heads it over.

Final: Honduras 2, U.S. 1. That was a crappy performance by the U.S. and a blah game as well but you felt like Honduras would find the go-ahead goal at some point if the U.S. didn't take another lead. As always, the U.S. defense is a disaster and they can't find four above average players to put together. Ugh, nothing like a heartless loss by the U.S. to ruin your day. Thanks guys! They had never lost the opener during the final round of World Cup qualifying until today so they've got that going for them.

This was the first of 10 matches (2 against 5 other teams), if the U.S. can't finish ahead of Panama and Jamaica then heaven forbid lose to New Zealand in the final playoff, well then they don't deserve to be in the World Cup. That's a long way off though and a doomsday scenario. Still, the next U.S. game: March 22 vs. Costa Rica in Denver, Colorado now becomes a must-win since the next match is at Mexico and we all know how much they struggle there. Thankfully, the Costa Rica game will be on at a better time (10 p.m. EST and a real network (ESPN). Today's game in Honduras was a B-squad presentation all-around: middle of the day and week, on an obscure network.

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This Is It, Don't Get Scared Now: U.S. Men Set For World Cup Qualifier At Honduras On Wednesday

Nobody has really focused on it, since there have been a million other things going on in the sports world but the U.S. men's national team's final round of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil begins on Wednesday at Estadio Olimpico in San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Luckily for us, the game (4 p.m. EST) will only be broadcast on beIN SPORT which means that most will be following it on ussoccer.com's gametracker and their Twitter account (@ussoccer). Sigh.

This morning, U.S. head coach Jurgen Klinsmann released his 24-man roster for the match. They'll train in Miami today before leaving for Honduras later this afternoon.

From ussoccer.com
“We want to have a sense of urgency right from the start of the Final Round," said Klinsmann. “We have a lot of respect for Honduras, but our message to the team is that we are going there to get three points. One thing we learned from the Semifinal Round is that you have to bring the right mentality to play in the tough games on the road, and I’m confident we are ready to do that.”

U.S. ROSTER BY POSITION (World Cup qualifying Caps/Goals)
GOALKEEPERS (3) : Brad Guzan (Aston Villa - 5/3 SO), Tim Howard (Everton – 22/9 SO), Sean Johnson (Chicago Fire – 0/0)
DEFENDERS (9) : Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City – 0/0), Carlos Bocanegra (Racing Santander – 31/5), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City – 5/0), Edgar Castillo (Club Tijuana – 0/0), Timmy Chandler (Nuremberg – 0/0), Brad Evans (Seattle Sounders – 0/0), Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy – 0/0), Fabian Johnson (Hoffenheim – 3/0), Michael Parkhurst (Augsburg – 3/0)
MIDFIELDERS (8) : Michael Bradley (Roma – 19/5), Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo - 0/0), Maurice Edu (Bursaspor – 9/0), Jermaine Jones (Schalke 04 – 5/0), Sacha Kljestan (Anderlecht – 12/0), Jose Torres (Tigres – 9/0), Danny Williams (Hoffenheim – 4/0), Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City – 3/0)
FORWARDS (4 ): Jozy Altidore (AZ Alkmaar – 17/6), Clint Dempsey (Tottenham Hotspur – 26/10), Herculez Gomez (Santos – 6/2), Eddie Johnson (Seattle Sounders – 11/10)

Since it is on an official FIFA approved international fixture date, Klinsmann will bring in the varsity as opposed to the JV squad that had a scoreless draw with Canada last week (that's the last time I'll ever reference that worthless friendly). 17 of these players compete for clubs in Europe or Mexico and five of them have 50 or more CAPs.

The United States holds a 12-3-3 lifetime record against Honduras in a series that goes back to 1965. Both the United States and Honduras earned a place in the here by virtue of winning their respective semifinal round groups. The Catrachos qualified for the 2010 FIFA World Cup after only losing once at home in nine qualifiers throughout the cycle. That lone loss came against the United States.

The U.S. and Honduras are part of the six-team hexagonal along with Costa Rica, Jamaica, Mexico and Panama. The 10-game, round-robin format will take place from Feb. 6-Oct.10. The top three teams will automatically advance to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, while the fourth-place team will compete in a two-leg playoff against the champion from the Oceania Confederation.

It's important that the U.S. get off to a good start since this round means everything and only the best teams remain alive. Their next match won't be until March 22 when they host Costa Rica at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado. That's a long time to think about a loss so they at least need a draw to feel confident about themselves.

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