Costa Rica vs. USA, 2014 World Cup qualifying: USMNT goes down 3-1

The USMNT were in pole position in the hex when they headed down to Costa Rica. But that was never going to be an easy game, and with key players unfit to start (ace midfielder Michael Bradley was a late scratch) the USA found themselves behind early and unable to recover, eventually suffering a 3-1 loss that sees the hosts leapfrog their guests to take the lead in the hex.

The rest of the half featured a slew of Ticos chances against a backdrop of terrified, lost-looking play from the USMNT. Bolanos wasted a chance to make it 3-0 when he was set free (he attempted a dive to make up for it, to no avail), while the USA had Howard to thank for stopping Campbell one on one.

Joel Campbell is fast. Matt Besler and Omar Gonzalez is not fast. Tim Howard might not be the keeper he used to be. This is a bad combination of things for the United States men’s national team.

Costa Rica now leads 3-1 late in the second half at home, and looks set to hold on to three points. The U.S. will be disappointed, but Mexico lost and Panama are drawing at home, so there’s nothing to be worried about if you’re an American supporter.

Navas’ foul was a pretty obvious one.

Despite all kinds of disastrous play, the U.S. are only down 2-1 at the half and have a chance to steal a point (or three) in San Jose, despite having no business doing so.

And then it got worse. Celso Borges made it 2-0 just eight minutes later with another brilliant header, this one coming from open play.

The United States looked incredibly unsettled before the first goal, looked worse after going down and now look even worse than that down 2-0. Welcome to San Jose, Jurgen Klinsmann.

Match date/time: Friday, 10 p.m. ET

Venue: Estadio Nacional, San Jose, Costa Rica