FIFA Men's World Cup

World Cup Qualifying: USMNT entering must-win game vs. Honduras

Updated Feb. 2, 2022 8:14 p.m. ET

By Doug McIntyre
FOX Sports Soccer Writer

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The U.S. Men’s National Team’s World Cup qualifying match Wednesday against Honduras (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1 and the FOX Sports app) isn’t technically a must-win.

But as a practical matter, it most certainly is the USMNT’s most important match since that night in October 2017 in Couva, Trinidad and Tobago. U.S. fans might have tried to erase from memory the details of that fateful evening when the unthinkable happened.

Against an already-eliminated opponent, the Americans needed just a tie to advance to the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Instead, they succumbed to the pressure and some awful luck and lost to a team of third-stringers with nothing to fear, missing soccer’s showpiece event for the first time in more than three decades.

Like T&T then, Honduras is already out of the next World Cup. That’s part of what makes them dangerous for a U.S. team that desperately needs three points and some renewed momentum after being pushed around in a humbling 2-0 loss Sunday in Canada.

"You can make the argument that now they're playing free, they're relaxed because they're officially eliminated," U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said Tuesday of Honduras. "So they're going to be tricky, and for us, it's about how do we keep the tempo high? How do we wear them down and then score goals to win the game?"

Anything less than a victory in the Twin Cities would force Berhalter’s squad to triumph not just in their final home match in March against Panama — which sits one point behind the U.S. in the eight-team standings after 10 of the 14 games — but also probably in either Mexico or Costa Rica. That isn’t impossible, but it also isn’t likely: The Americans have never won a World Cup qualifier in either country, with a combined 0W-23L-3T record all time.

Pressure can be a funny thing. The defeat in Canada sapped whatever momentum the U.S. had following last week’s uncomfortably narrow but ultimately sufficient 1-0 win over El Salvador. And now there are also injuries to key players to contend with.

Tyler Adams, a steadying force and perhaps the most irreplaceable U.S. player, will miss Wednesday’s contest because of a hamstring injury. "The plays he makes defensively are unbelievable," Berhalter said of Adams, who will probably be replaced in the starting lineup by Kellyn Acosta. "We'll miss that for sure."

Chris Richards (ankle) is also out, and Richards’ fellow center back, Walker Zimmerman, was rested versus Canada because of his own hamstring aliment.

While Berhalter said that he expects Zimmerman to be available Wednesday, the weather conditions — it’s expected to be close to zero degrees at kickoff at Allianz Field, a potentially self-inflicted wound for U.S. Soccer — won’t help him or any other player dealing with the physical toll of playing in freezing temperatures three times in seven days.

Then there’s Christian Pulisic. The USMNT’s most gifted attacker is healthy, but he has been rendered almost entirely ineffective through the first two games of this window. Pulisic has been a shadow of his usual, high-octane self. Getting him going is imperative. In fact, getting to Qatar could hinge on it.

"He's still an important piece," midfielder Weston McKennie said of Pulisic. "He adds another type of danger and one-on-one ability in the final third [of the field]. Everyone's gonna say what they want to say, but the team here, the staff, we all have his back, and we all just want to put him in the best position to succeed."

Add it all up, and it’s not difficult to see why U.S. supporters might be worried.

While they know the USMNT are the overwhelming favorites to earn the much-needed dub on Wednesday, it’s not a foregone conclusion. U.S. fans have seen a World Cup berth evaporate in 90 minutes before.

"I mean, the pressure is there automatically," said McKennie, easily the sharpest U.S. player late last month. "But I think we don't really let it try and get to us because we're at our best when we have fun with the game and we enjoy it and we play the way that we know that we can."

Fun comes and goes. But one of the most damming things about the disaster in Couva was the utter lack of fight. Long a hallmark of a program that for decades punched above its weight on the global stage, the us-against-the-world culture of the national team eroded under former coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

Five years later, the new generation of young U.S. players is the most talented yet. Several of them star for some of the biggest clubs in Europe. They often talk about their mandate: to change the way the world looks at American soccer.

But as a historically young squad, they also remain almost completely unproven in qualifying. With one or two exceptions, these ebbs and flows are new to them. There have been promising signs, to be sure. The 3-2, comeback win over arch nemesis Mexico in the Nations League final in June showed that they can claw and scrap like their less heralded predecessors when they need to.

But that pugilistic spirit was lacking in their previous game. The hardscrabble Canadians bullied their younger foes from start to finish and thoroughly deserved their result, one that put the Americans' backs against the wall.

"You put the players at ease by working in a similar way," Berhalter said when asked how he’s trying mitigate the tension. "You take the emotion out of it."

Easier said than done.

We’re about to find out what this USMNT is made of.

One of the most prominent soccer journalists in North America, Doug McIntyre has covered United States men’s and women’s national teams in more than a dozen countries, including multiple FIFA World Cups. Before joining FOX Sports, the New York City native was a staff writer for Yahoo Sports and ESPN. Follow him on Twitter @ByDougMcIntyre.