USA vs. Guatemala 2016, World Cup qualifying: USMNT embarrassed in loss

For the second cycle in a row, the United States men’s national team is struggling to get to the final round of World Cup qualifying. They were awful on Friday, losing 2-0 away to Guatemala. It’s their first loss to Guatemala in any competition since 1988 -- meaning their first of the professional era -- and their first ever loss to Guatemala in World Cup qualifying.

It only took seven minutes for the Guatemalans to find the back of the net. A bad back pass led to a corner, and Rafael Morales got his head to it, nodding the ball off the back of Mix Diskerud and past Tim Howard.

The USMNT, as Goodman points out, did show marked improvements leading up to the World Cup, and while the team’s aesthetics on the pitch may not have been to the liking of everyone, the results were for the most part. Since then, though, things have been stagnant at best most of the time, and that constant march of improvement that every team needs has been utterly absent.

Goodman goes on to make the argument that Klinsmann and the USMNT need to show marked and obvious improvement very soon, or for the good of the national team it should be time for U.S. Soccer to look at finding Klinsmann’s replacement. A year ago, that would have seemed premature, but right now it doesn’t seem so terribly unreasonable.

North America is in the throes of World Cup qualifying, with CONCACAF’s fourth round of action about to hit the halfway point. Group C is in action on Friday, and with it the United States men’s national team, who will be squaring off with Guatemala in Guatemala City with a chance to earn a commanding advantage in the qualifying chase.

That will be easier said than done, however -- Guatemala has done well in qualifying so far and are always tough to play in their home stadium. Their play style of compacting space and lashing out on the counter is a good foil to what the USMNT does on the pitch, and the U.S. can’t come into this match taking anything for granted. It’s going to be a tough match, and if the USMNT come away with the win, it will be three point well earned.