Klinsmann sets up Howard-Guzan battle

After a summer of incredible disappointment for the United States men’s national team – losing early in the Copa America and failing to beat Mexico to get a Confederations Cup spot – it’s time for the USMNT to reset and start their World Cup qualifying run.

While the US remains stuck in place, the rest of CONCACAF is improving at a startling rate.

“For us, this is the start of an important two years”, usa captain Michael Bradley said before the Americans trained at Busch Stadium on Thursday. The U.S.is a regional power, now ranked 33rd in FIFA’s rankings.

“If you don’t take those risks at a certain time, then you don’t get answers”, Klinsmann said.

The U.S.is 1-4-1 in its last six games, including two friendlies, with setbacks to Costa Rica, Mexico, Brazil and Jamaica. St. Vincent, on the other hand, has already navigated its way past two rounds, getting past Guyana 6-6 on away goals and then sneaking past Aruba 3-2 on aggregate thanks to a late goal from Tevin Slater. “With qualifying, its a new cycle and a chance to put things right. It all has to do with us and our confidence and execution. He said he hadn’t been told whether he’d be playing. It’s one versus one all over the pitch. Believe it or not, the games upcoming this week constitute the beginning of the fourth round of CONCACAF qualifying.

With the exception of Alan Gordon, all designated forwards called up for the matches against St. Vincent and Trinidad and Tobago are 26 years old or under. The most recent census pegged the country’s population at 103,000 according to the 2013 census. The economy remains agriculture-based, though tourism is on the up.

“It’s great to be back in the team”.

“Could have the Slaven Bilic/whufc effect…played there & liked by the fans…Yorkie are you camped outside Villa Park yet??” “If they can come to the US and get a result, it’s a huge opportunity for them”. In that year off, Guzan took over as the team’s starter and did an adequate job. His side has been described as having considerable speed, with an aim of keeping the ball on the deck. That might be a step too far at this point, but it’s a safe bet we see him play. “That’s our brand. Our brand is to play it on the ground and tick-tock”.

ST. VINCENT NORTH: The Americans may know little about St. Vincent & the Grenadines as a whole, but they won’t have to go far to learn about one of their top goalscorers. That has been foremost on the mind of SVG assistant Ezra Hendrickson, who holds the same role with the Seattle Sounders.

“You watch their previous games, you analyse their individual players as much as you can, but you don’t have that detailed picture that you have for teams like T&T [Trinidad and Tobago], who played in the Gold Cup, or the usual powerhouses in CONCACAF that you know pretty well”. “If you lose 5-0, probably not, it’s not going to happen. They’ll present a few challenges, but at the end of the day the way you qualify for a World Cup is winning your home games and that’s what we’ll be focused on doing”. “I think we can surprise a lot of people”. That kind of togetherness will be a critical component to any success St. Vincent will have on Friday. We have a lot of respect for them like we always have with our opponents, and we expect a lot of work against St. Vincent and the Grenadines.