Losing to Guatemala in Friday's World Cup qualifier was not a deathblow for United States Soccer's chances to make the 2018 tournament, but it was a squarely landed haymaker. Now Team USA needs to do anything but lose when it plays Guatemala again on Tuesday.
The rematch will be played on U.S. soil in Columbus, Ohio, but that is not expected to ease the enormous pressure mounted on the team and coach Jurgen Klinsmann. Losing Tuesday would not eliminate the U.S. from the 2018 World Cup outright, but it would put the team at the bottom of a steep hill with a heavy backpack.
"It's about as close as you can come to all or nothing," Team USA aptain Michael Bradley said. "There's a real sense of understanding that now, given the way things have gone, and given the results, it's a game where we have to win."
Guatemala had not beaten the U.S. in 21 matches since 1988, and the Americans were rightly favored even playing in a foreign country. Klinsmann had added several veterans to the roster, including team captain Clint Dempsey and 2014 World Cup hero Tim Howard.
"It was a lack of focus, concentration and wrong decisions," Klinsmann said after the game. "On the first goal [off a corner kick] ... nobody covered the first post. And we can write everything on the whiteboard - it's in the locker room-if they have that kind of moment where they are not kind of remembering where their position is, then things like that can happen. But on this level obviously you get punished, and it shouldn't happen that way."
The loss has Team USA in third place of Group C, having beaten only St. Vincent, a team with a -10 goal differential. The U.S. is two points behind Guatemala in the group and three points behind first-place Trinidad and Tobago. After Tuesday's match with Guatemala, the team plays St. Vincent and Trinidad one more time each in the fourth round of the qualifiers.
Klinsmann added midfielders Graham Zusi and Christian Pulisic to his roster for Tuesday's match to replace Fabian Johnson and Matt Besler. Klinsmann has typically tried to develop younger American players by giving them international exposure, but his team has been dominated by veterans lately due to the importance of these matches.
"It is never easy," Bradley said. "No one on the inside expects it to be. For different people, they turn on the television every four years and watch World Cups and see us there and think we have a divine right to be there.
"Obviously anybody who is in it every day understands that is not the case. These nights are part of it. We will make sure the response is right, look at ourselves in the mirror in an honest way and know things were not good enough but be ready on Tuesday."
