USA Vs. Antigua & Barbuda: USMNT Win 3-1

What followed was a long period of very inept play from the United States. In their defense, it’s pouring rain, but rain doesn’t cause you to forget how to make runs off the ball, or to forget that sometimes teams are supposed to kick the ball towards the goal. They were bad. Very, very bad.

So the U.S. is going to take three points from a World Cup qualifier, yes, but they haven’t scored against open play against Antigua. Everything that the United States have done in their last two and a half matches indicates that they’re going to have a tough time away to Guatemala on Tuesday.

Should we expect much from Antigua today? In a word, no. They did well just to get to this stage, and the US should absolutely wipe them out. So far they haven’t done much out-wiping, however - it’s been a pretty tentative start from both teams. It goes without saying that the surface is playing very quickly, something that should probably benefit the United States, but as of yet we’re yet to see any really fun, slick passing moves from Jurgen Klinnsman’s men. Give it some time, though.

Rain has hammered the Tampa, Florida area for two days now and has left the pitch at Raymond James Stadium looking like a swamp. The two teams had to cancel their training session at the stadium yesterday because of the sloppy pitch and they will not warm up on the field prior to the match either. Now the match has been delayed, too, and will not kick off until 7:27 p.m. ET because of the soaked pitch.

The sloppy field should hurt the U.S. and slow them down, but it shouldn’t change the outcome of the match. They are so much better than Antigua and Barbuda that the worst pitch in the world couldn’t slow them. Put them in a swamp or on dirt and the U.S. should cruise. It will make things uglier, though. And late.

“We always have left backs. Anybody can play left back,” Klinsmann said on Thursday.

Um, Jurgen, more than a decade of left back-less play from the Americans says otherwise. You can’t play Antigua and Barbuda forever.

Friday night will be the start of World Cup qualifying for the U.S., which assuming they qualify for the final round of qualifying, will stretch 16 matches. The good and bad of the friendlies is now irrelevant. It is all about results and booking a place in the 2014 World Cup.

The Americans’ scoreless draw against Canada on Sunday, like the rest of the friendlies, can be tossed out the windows, but there are still things to learn from it. That match made it pretty clear that Clarence Goodson will start at center back, but there are still other questions. Jozy Altidore’s fitness is still up in the air so he may not start and Jurgen Klinsmann will have to reconsider his midfield, namely Jose Francisco Torres over Maurice Edu, after the shoddy performance against the Canadians.

Will the U.S. get the job done, though? That’s the question at hand right now. They have played 11 friendlies in Jurgen Klinsmann’s 11 months in charge of the team and are coming off of three: a win over Scotland, a loss to Brazil and a draw with Canada.

What is there to take from those results? Which players need to step up in qualifying? How should the U.S. play? What would make the first two qualifiers a success? Kevin McCauley and I chatted about it all ahead of the Americans’ Friday qualifier against Antigua and Barbuda and Tuesday’s qualifier at Guatemala.

While the American public has long wondered who would play striker for the U.S. or who would be the first American superstar would be, even who would be the team’s next manager, the biggest question the U.S. has had to answer is where are they getting a center back from? It may not be the spotlight position or the sexy job, but it’s the one that has given the U.S. fits for almost five years now.

In the final round of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup the U.S. allowed 13 goals after allowing just six in the final round of 2006 World Cup qualifying. At the 2010 World Cup, while people were fretting over it being the second straight World Cup that an American striker had failed to score, the U.S. was busy allowing five goals in four matches. Even under Jurgen Klinsmann, the U.S. has registered just three clean sheets in 11 matches with their first team.