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" Last evening, Honduras beat the United States men&amp;#039;s national soccer team in a World Cup qualifier. The U.S. lost because of this goal, which is embarrassing. But the result only adds import to the USMNT&amp;#039;s nine, possibly ten next games. America should be watching and cheering, if for no other reason than it&amp;#039;s America (though the American Outlaws and this goal, which gave the U.S. the lead last night, work, too). Here&amp;#039;s what&amp;#039;s going on. The Opposition Six teams: The United States. Mexico: As good as, and probably better than, America. Honduras: the next-best opponent. And then Jamaica, which got to the group stage in the only World Cup it qualified for, in &amp;#039;98. Costa Rica, which has played in the global competition three times, but only made it to the round of sixteen once. And the berth-less Panama. The Hexagonal It&amp;#039;s the final round of qualification. Call it the &amp;quot;Hex.&amp;quot; Everyone plays each other twice, with games scheduled through October. Three teams advance. The fourth-place team earns a play-in game against the best team from Oceania, which won the past two times. Three Big Matches 6/18 against Honduras Nothing can be done about last night. But it adds extra weight to beating a young, fast competitor at home. 6/7 at Jamaica The game that has haunted the USMNT was a loss in September against Jamaica, in Kingston. After half a minute, Clint Dempsey hit a rebound into the net. But two free kicks \u2014 one deflected, another placed into the inside of a post \u2014 meant their first ever loss to Jamaica. The Americans won their next game at home against the Reggae Boyz, but with Jamaica likely prowling on the edges of qualification and their fans believing, it&amp;#039;ll be important to recover. 3/26 at Mexico The home-turf battle against Mexico will carry enormous weight, too, especially since it comes in September, late in the schedule. But if the U.S. can take away points (one for tying, three for winning) at Mexico, it&amp;#039;ll be huge. The Americans have only won once at the Estadio Azteca. But it just so happens that historic victory happened in August, for which Team U.S.A. endured Mexican possession just long enough to score in the last ten minutes and have goalkeeper Tim Howard perform some heroics twice in the waning moments. State of the Union Coach Jurgen Klinsmann has introduced a more defensive style of play. Let&amp;#039;s get technical. (And for the nerds, here&amp;#039;s a smart historical take on America&amp;#039;s playing style.) Klinsmann often plays with three defensive midfielders ahead of fullback line that&amp;#039;s almost permanently in flux. The midfield setup means that the top trio need to spark almost all of the attack, if it&amp;#039;s not coming on the counter. In the past, that often fell to Landon Donovan. But he&amp;#039;s out of the team as he meditates on his future. Now it&amp;#039;s on Clint Dempsey&amp;#039;s shoulders, since his two main offensive partners last night, Eddie Johnson and Jozy Altidore, are respectively quick and strong, but not nearly as skilled of playmakers. Though, that all said, Dempsey&amp;#039;s goal last night came from a particularly inspired lob from midfielder Jermaine Jones. And Michael Bradley is quite the gifted passer and has proven more than once that he can cannon a volley; Bradley could very well end up as the team&amp;#039;s most important player. But the Americans really missed Donovan against Honduras. They&amp;#039;re going to need to find something new for everything that comes next. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/sports/a19097/us-soccers-world-cup-chances-15071644/?click=news>