Written Version: Landon, Wahl and Witty on Canada 2, USMNT 0

Winning Wednesday's Qualifier vs. Honduras Just Got Even More Important

The boys got back together for our instant reaction podcast that we do after every USMNT World Cup qualifier. The written version is below with the entirety available for paid subscribers. As always, the audio version is free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

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Grant Wahl:

Hey there. Welcome to Landon, Wahl and Witty on the Road to Qatar. I'm Grant Wahl. Thanks so much for joining me. We've got reaction from Landon Donovan, Chris Wittyngham and me to the U.S. men's national team's 2-0 loss at Canada on World Cup qualifying Matchday 10. Landon is back home in Diego. Witty is in South Florida. I'm in Burlington, Ontario, where I'm writing for my Substack newsletter, which you should sign up for, free or paid, at grantwahl.com to get my posts in your inbox. Guys, it's good to be with you. How are you?

Landon Donovan:

Do we have to answer that? [laughs]

Chris Wittyngham:

Grant, for me, the silver lining of the day was that you were able to get into Canada. When last I spoke to you, you were concerned about your ability to travel and be at the game. You promised your fine Substack subscribers you'd be at every game. And thus far you have delivered. Congratulations on getting into Canada and covering this game.

Grant Wahl:

Yeah I'm really glad I got to see that. 90% of life, boys, is showing up. Remember that. And so I did show up for this game. But it's the second U.S. loss in qualifying. It leaves them in 2nd place, four points now behind Canada, tied with Mexico, but better on goal difference. Mexico dropping points at home in the Azteca to Costa Rica in a 0-0 draw.

But the worrying aspect is that Panama did win. And so now the U.S. is just one point ahead of that 4th-place Panama spot, which as of right now, that's the playoff spot that the U.S. does not want to be in. You want to finish in the top 3 and get the automatic World Cup bid.

And this was a game where Canada gets the early goal and the U.S. has a ton of possession, not that many great chances, and then pushes forward. And right at the end, Canada gets the second on the break. Landon, initial thoughts?

Landon Donovan:

I have a lot of thoughts, so we can start with the game. It was almost exactly what I would've expected it to look like. Now, you're not expecting to give up a goal after seven minutes, hopefully. And that absolutely changed the complexion of the game. It allowed Canada to do exactly what they wanted. But my biggest takeaway, every time they cut to [Canada coach John] Herdman on the sideline, it was, "Be harder. Be aggressive. Get stuck in." This was not about soccer today.

Canada came into this game saying, "This is not about soccer." They played on turf, on a small field for a reason. And teams were pretty even as far as talent goes, but Canada just, honestly, I hate to say that they just seemed like they wanted it more. That's my overwhelming simple 30,000-foot view takeaway. They just felt like they wanted it more. They were nastier. The ref didn't help in that he let a lot go on. But that played into Canada's hands, and you have to give them credit. They deserve to win.

Chris Wittyngham:

And when you watch the games, which I have, I've covered a lot of Mexican football last couple years. The matches refereed by César Arturo Ramos look like that. They're very loose. There's a lot of heavy challenges. There's a lot of play on. And there were several situations where you're watching on television, you're going, "That's at least a foul, isn't it? There was a couple of yellow card offenses that weren't given as fouls."

And you're right, Landon. That helped play right into Canada's hands. And we should say before we break down every minute detail of the U.S. performance, what a significant moment it is for Canada to get a win against the U.S. It feels like the closing of the loop, where it begins with their win against the U.S. in the Nations League. And it closes with being top of the qualifying region by several points. They look almost certain to go to the World Cup now.

And it's an incredible story for them. But from a U.S. standpoint, my feeling was, "I thought the U.S. was going to get a goal. I thought the U.S. played pretty well." But the thing that sticks out from what you mentioned in your intro, Grant, is the U.S., they had a lot of the play, but they didn't create a lot of chances. And the thing that's frustrating to me is that the U.S. only have 13 goals from 10 World Cup qualifying games.

And I just thought this generation of U.S. talent would've created a lot more by now. We can probably compare it to previous rounds of the Hex and they would've had more than 13 goals in 10 games. It's not good enough from a goal-scoring standpoint. So whether it's system, whether it's players, it's just not enough going forward.

Landon Donovan:

Grant, did you feel like the U.S. were going to score, you said?

Grant Wahl:

I didn't feel like the U.S. had that many golden chances. There was basically one. Weston McKennie's header, off the Pulisic corner kick late in the first half. Really nice save by the sweatpants goalkeeper. And other than that, there really weren't any great chances for the U.S. And so it's one thing to say, as Gregg Berhalter did after the game, "We dominated. I've basically never seen a result or a game that we've dominated on the road that didn't get a result like this."

Grant Wahl:

And yet my response to that is, "That's partly due to the game state, right?" Canada got an early goal in this game and then retreated. And so they let the U.S. have possession. But in the final third, there really wasn't much created by this U.S. team in terms of chances. There were shots, there weren't many shots on goal. And so I get the whole idea of analyzing the performance more than the result and why we do that. But I actually don't know if the performance was that great or at least as great as Gregg Berhalter is making it sound.

Landon Donovan:

I think it was very good in certain aspects, right? I think they had Canada pinned for long stretches in their own half, which is good. I have no problem. And we talk about with San Diego Loyal all the time. Every Monday, when I come in, I talk about performance over the result. Now in a World Cup qualifying cycle, screw the performance. You need the result. So as long as you don't have it both ways. So we can't say, "The El Salvador performance was terrible, but we got the result. It's fine." And I'm not suggesting Gregg is saying that. If you're going to be consistent with performance is what matters then that's okay. Then performance is what matters. But don't just throw away the results part.

One thing that I think, tell me if you agree with this, guys, what separates Canada from the rest of CONCACAF is they have a few attacking pieces that are just difference-makers. And at our best, when Christian [Pulisic]'s at his best, we have that as well. But right now, Canada, between [Jonathan] David, [Cyle] Larin, [Ike] Ugbo... They didn't even put [Lucas] Cavallini on the field. There's another guy that... They're just different.

Mexico, Raúl Jiménez is good. Costa Rica, no. Honduras, no. El Salvador, no. Jamaica with Michail Antonio can pull off a play here and there. But they just have guys up front that can make special plays, and that's what's separating them.

Chris Wittyngham:

And they’re without a couple as well, without Alphonso Davies, even [Stephan] Eustaquio, he's not a great attacking player, but he helps them in build up. Yeah. And the reason why I'm disappointed overall in the U.S. attack, even though again, I like certain aspects of the performance, is Brenden Aaronson's out there. And we get all excited. Leeds are bidding $27 million for Brenden Aaronson, that's incredible. And yet I don't really think he made a difference on the game. And I don't think that a lot of the guys that played today that they turned to...

I actually thought the biggest difference-maker that came off the bench was Paul Arriola. Who's a player that a lot of the fans don't really like very much or don't want to see play very much. But is it Gio Reyna that's got to come back and add that attacking difference-maker? One of these strikers has got to come through because I didn't see in moments where all right, the U.S. is in good position, that they could take advantage of the situations that they were in. I don't know how the U.S. is going to score goals.

And I just ran the numbers. So in this qualifying cycle, they're on 13 goals. In 2018 when they didn't qualify, they were on 17 goals after 10 games. In 2014, they had 15 goals. In 2010, they had 19. In 2006, they had 16. And 2002 they had 11. So in theory, part of the project of U.S. Soccer is developing the style, creating more attacking chances, bringing through better players. They have not scored more goals as a result of it thus far in qualifying. And I don't know what the issue is there.

Grant Wahl:

I appreciate the statistical research there, Witty. It's useful stuff. I did some of my own. Actually, I'm going to give away a little bit of what I'm writing about in my story for Monday morning.But you remember back in October when Ricardo Pepi scored twice against Jamaica. And at that point had only played two games for the U.S.. And he had three goals. Those three goals and those two games are the only three goals that a U.S. center-forward has scored in these 10 World Cup qualifiers.

So I sort of broke down how many goals from the center-forward position, how many from wingers, how many from midfielders and how many from fullbacks. Interestingly, there's three goals from fullbacks, including Robinson, Jedi, the other night. Zero goals from center backs, which is reflective of the set-piece failures to score in this tournament so far.

And I just feel like not only are goals not coming from the center forward position, but the crossing hasn't been very good to put the center-forwards in a position to score. And there was a moment, you mentioned, Brenden Aaronson today. And I don't want to pick on him too much. Because I don't think he was the reason the U.S. lost. But transitions, this idea of if you win the ball in the opposing half, there was one moment in the second half when I'm flailing my arms in the press box saying, "Go, go, go. You're a Red Bull player. This should be second nature to you." And he sort of hit a back pass out of it.

Chris Wittyngham:

That happened several times.

Grant Wahl:

I was just really surprised. It didn't make any sense to me.

Landon Donovan:

Do you guys remember early on, I think it was the El Salvador game. We talked a lot about how you put teams under pressure. And if you don't have a striker or some attacking players who can do that, Christian in his best moments can. Weston [McKennie], who I think has been unequivocally the best U.S. player, club and country, for the last month and a half, can. But we don't have a striker that can take the ball on their own and score a goal.

And so how do you put teams under real pressure? Set-pieces can be one. The only chance I can remember n the second half was I think it was Weston who was really overloading the left side of the field in the second half. I think just clipped a ball and itt got headed through to Arriola who chests it and bikes it, and it almost goes in. But it's just because you put the ball in the box and you put them under pressure.

So having possession outside 30 yards from goal is great, but eventually you have to put them under pressure. And I watched the whole Mexico-Costa Rica game. It was the same thing with Mexico. Mexico had all the ball 35 yards from goal. And they never put Costa Rica under pressure with service in the box, putting bodies in front of goal, taking shots, creating chances that way. If you don’t do that and you don't have somebody who can score a special goal. And you don't have somebody who can just bulldoze through and make some chances, it's going to be really hard.

And it screams out. This is maybe the furthest thing from everyone's mind, but guys like Daryl Dike, maybe [Jordan] Pefok, guys like that who again, I don't have all the context because I'm not watching these guys every day, but a guy who just puts you under pressure with physicality or a moment of skill where you can pull off a special play really helps in games like this. And we just didn't have any of that the last couple games.

Chris Wittyngham:

We're also talking about potentially center-forward option number 5 and 6. Because Pefok did start a game in that first window, but we haven't seen Daryl Dike yet. And we're basically saying, "Let's just keep bringing a striker in until one works." And I think that might ignore something of a systemic issue because one of the things that Gregg Berhalter came into the U.S. men's national team job with the reputation of, is at Columbus, he had Ola Kamara and Gyasi Zardes and was able to get them goals. At least I would probably say 15, I'll look up the numbers here as we talk. But at least 15 goals on the basis of how they generated chances on pullbacks. And you know, Harrison Afful getting forward for Columbus. And Milton Valenzuela towards the end was a really good signing for them. Getting them forward and figuring out ways to score goals with the chances that they created.

And it's just a bit turgid right now. And you're right, Landon. I think we should stop here and mention Weston McKennie's tremendous play. Because there's a couple moments on the touchline where he's kind of got to balance. He's drawing two defenders, works his way around them, gets the header. Fair play to Milan Borjan for making a great save. But he's in that position. And you trust him in those positions. I was stunned when the ball didn't go in, when it was him rising to win the header. We've seen him score those goals for freaking Juventus week in and a week out. So why wouldn't he do it there?

But the goalkeeper makes a great save. It was right at him. But again, it's just there aren't enough Weston McKennies out there. And once Tyler Adams went out, then you had Chris Richards come off, and pretty devastating news to hear that it's a foot injury, that could potentially be a broken foot, affects his form at club level. And all of a sudden that's impacting the March window. And then the injury stuff starts to cascade from there. And you're left wondering, where are the options going to come from? But you're right. I think Dike might be the option. But that's the sixth striker that the U.S. will have used in this Octagonal.

Grant Wahl:

He's actually hurt right now.

Chris Wittyngham:

That's right. Yeah.

Grant Wahl:

So he won't be for a little while, unfortunately. Yeah. The U.S. has started five different players at center forward in these 10 games. And so that's certainly a position that they still haven't found exactly what they're looking for there, I don't think. A couple things I want to mention really quick. Being in the stadium. One, the cold weather wasn't an issue, I don't think. It was cold. I keep wearing 10 layers to these games like I did in Columbus the other night. And then I get to the press box. And it's like...

Landon Donovan:

Hot.

Grant Wahl:

It's heated. And so I end up pulling off eight layers. I'm a clown show at this point. But the atmosphere was very cool in the stadium. Just the Canadian fans, this is literally the best story, in my opinion, on the planet in World Cup qualifying. Canada is going to make the World Cup. They've only made one before in 1986. This was a team that 10 years ago went out of qualifying before even getting to the final round, losing 8-1 at Honduras, where they won the other night.

And so they didn't even have their best player, Alphonso Davies. That's incredible to me. I know Chris mentioned that. And they just handled this situation extremely well. Landon, I want to ask you about Christian Pulisic. We talked about sort of off the field stuff with him the other day with you. But in terms of on the field, what would you like to see him doing right now that in this game in particular, he wasn't doing enough of?

Landon Donovan:

This seems to me like the classic, you want to get your best players on the field, but sometimes the mix isn't right. And so your best 11 players doesn't always make your best team. And from my view, the challenge right now is, how do you get [Yunus] Musah and Christian on the field together with Weston and Tyler? And that to me is the biggest challenge in a meaningful way.

Christian, any way you slice it, he wants to be inside and central. And you want him there. Because you want him in front of the goal eventually. Because I think he's the best U.S. player in front of goal. So how do you do that in a way that you're not minimizing what Musah has been so good at the last two games with Tyler and Weston? And that's a challenge.

That's really challenging for coaches, I'm learning, is how do you try to get those best players on the field? Or do you play a guy who's not as talented, maybe an Arriola, who gives you more in a different way? And all those pieces have to match like a puzzle or else you get some flawed performances. And so I think that's the biggest challenge right now.

Christian's applying himself. He cares. He's trying. There was a point in the second half where I was like, "God, is Musah still in the field? I didn't even realize. Or Aaronson, I didn't even realize if they were on the field or not." And it's because there's a little bit of deferring to Christian when he is on the field, as should be the case, because he's so talented. You want to get him the ball. But those guys have seemed to fall into the shadows a little bit. And that's a challenge that Gregg and his staff have to figure out, is how do you get all those guys either on the field at the same time? Or how do you utilize one of them and bring the other off the bench and be successful that way?

Chris Wittyngham:

And Yunus has done a decent job of operating from deeper-lying areas. I agree. The one thing and for me, it's most symbolized in the fact that [Pulisic] is taking free kicks and corners when I don't necessarily think he is the best U.S. free-kick taker. And I don't think he is the best U.S. corner taker. They're trying to get him his touches as if this were basketball. Get his usage rate up. And it might be critical or it might be kind of derisive language, but I think just have him be a role player and have everyone be a role player. And Landon, what you're saying of, "Get him the ball more. And you want him on the ball more."

I think in some ways, Christian might be the one who sometimes even when he plays well goes 10 minutes without you noticing him. I think that might be because again, everyone is trying to elevate their role from where they are at club to where they are for country. And Christian is going from when he plays for Chelsea, he's just a guy on the field who's trying to execute a role. And now he's trying to be [Lionel] Messi, be whoever the star player of a team is. And I think that might be miscast.

I just don't know how you wind that down when he's kind of been the prodigy for four and five years now. He was playing at 17 in World Cup qualifiers and playing well, was important for those U.S. teams to wind that down and be like, "No, hey, trust Weston, trust Yunus Musah, trust whoever the striker is and just do your job." And I honestly think that job is more in wider areas. But we can debate where that job is. But I think the more that you get him his touches, the more you put that burden on him. The more that he feels like he's got to carry it. And I just don't think that the U.S. operate well when he's carrying it. I think the U.S. operates well when he's part of a team.

Landon Donovan:

Yeah. He also gets kicked a lot more when he's-

Chris Wittyngham:

That's true.

Landon Donovan:

...when he's got the ball a lot. He just gets destroyed. It's criminal sometimes.

Grant Wahl:

Landon, as a coach, would you consider sitting, benching Christian Pulisic?

Landon Donovan:

You have to have all the context. And I always use that word. But it's so relevant because Gregg and the staff are having conversations with him and others throughout the week. Physically, where's he at right now? He hadn't played a game in a few weeks. So now you play back to back with travel. Can you go again at a high level? And at 80% physically, is Christian Pulisic better than somebody else at a 100%. You have to weigh all that.

And then just emotionally where he's at, too mentally where he's at, you have to gauge all that. So of course you consider everything. The goal is to get to the World Cup. It's not about trying to get someone minutes or touches. It's about getting to the World Cup. So whatever that takes, you do. But there's obviously a lot of nuance in how you do that and how you phrase that.

There was a time I remember very vividly, Bob Bradley, I know he sat me, because I remember being on the bench. But I think Clint [Dempsey] too. I think we were both on the bench for one game for different reasons. But I wasn't playing well. And he just had to make the move. And I think it was in a Gold Cup, and he just said, "Sorry, this is the decision." And it was a good wake up call. And sometimes that helps a player too, to take some pressure off too.

Honduras, as we move ahead and think big-picture, if you can't beat Honduras at home, we do not deserve to go to a World Cup. That's not to put pressure on the team. It's just that's the reality. Everybody has beaten Honduras everywhere. So if you can't beat them at home, you shouldn't be going to a World Cup. So maybe it's a chance to just bring him in late in the game when Honduras are tired after a three-game week. And give him a chance to score a goal and get some confidence again.

Grant Wahl:

Chris, where are you on how fans should be looking at things right now? Because look, I'm on Twitter. There's certainly a section of the fan base that is extremely angry. Like, "Fire Gregg," and all that stuff after a loss like today. And this game is a big deal, even a bigger deal on Wednesday because the U.S. lost today. How concerned are you? How concerned should fans actually be?

Chris Wittyngham:

In some ways I feel a little bit bad almost about how patronizing I feel towards Canada. Because I should be really upset at how this rivalry is going to develop here. Because Canada, I don't want to say it was a smash-and-grab because they got the goal early. It felt like an executed game plan, as opposed to they just got a goal late or whatever. But Canada, we should treat them as legit, one.

And that I think is a little bit disrespectful. "We lost to Canada." No, Canada's awesome. They're a really good team that knows who they are and knows how they're going to win games. And actually, I think even if they get to the World Cup, have a better style against the top-level opposition that they will come up against. They're going to cause teams some problems if they execute their game plan in this way at the World Cup.

But I think that portion of the fan base is always ready to pounce, particularly on Berhalter and some of the players that he picks. What I've kind of been banging on about with this podcast is their inability to score goals. And I really thought that not that this would be easier, but that they would be able to at least score goals. And they actually might have problems defensively. 

I thought today, other than Miles Robinson slipping in the sixth minute, which the whole sequence is bad from Matt Turner's goal kick to Miles Robinson slipping. I thought the rest of the game they were good defensively. I specifically want to point out Sergiño Dest’s performance. I thought he was fantastic today from a defensive point of view. He faces up Tajon Buchanan 1v1.

And that's the nightmare scenario. Tajon Buchanan, I don't think he's usually a left-sided player. I think they specifically put him there to run at Sergiño Dest. And didn't really cause him that many problems today, I didn't think. But really for me, the overall feeling is, number one, in the attack they're just not good enough. And number two, the striker situation. And I know that's a very common U.S. thing. But my feeling is that [Ricardo] Pepi should start. And you give him a go and you trust him that he is going to work through whatever he is not working on right now.

And I just don't think that Gyasi Zardes is of this level. And we saw this today. We saw him play in a previous away game, and you feel bad saying that about somebody. And I actually came to appreciate him a little bit more when I saw him in person play for Columbus at Inter Miami and "Oh, I kind of get it." But I just don't think he's of this level. And I don't think that he should start a game for the U.S. And frankly, I don't think he should be in the U.S. squad. I think the U.S. have enough strikers where they can pick other players in that position. And you saw it today. What did he offer? I don't think he provided you very much. And fans get frustrated when you pick players that aren't difference-makers, particularly in those spots.

Grant Wahl:

The point I would make here with that is, I'm surprised that Pepi hasn't started either one of these games this window. And I'm also surprised that the guys who have started, [Jesús] Ferreira and Zardes, their teams didn't even make the playoffs in MLS. So these guys have not played club games in nearly three months. And I just have a very hard time believing that they are going to bring more to the table from the start than Pepi will. And Pepi's been playing regularly over the last month, or at least to some extent for his club. He should be in better form. I just don't get it.

Landon Donovan:

Yeah. I want to take a moment. A U.S. soccer appreciation moment here. We had a U.S. striker score two goals in the Premier League two weekends ago. And [Josh Sargent] is not even on the roster. And I'm not saying that should or shouldn't have happened. I'm just saying, think about how far we have come as a soccer country, that a guy that scored twice in the Premier League is not even on our World Cup qualifying roster. So that's pretty amazing.

Chris Wittyngham:

If he had scored that brace 10 days before the camp, he would've been called in.

Landon Donovan:

I think he would have been there.

Chris Wittyngham:

And he would've started against El Salvador. I'm 100% certain of that.

Landon Donovan:

And he's playing for a real top team in Norwich, right Grant?

Chris Wittyngham:

They play some beautiful stuff, don't they?

Landon Donovan:

Beautiful football [laughs]. Let's dive into the big picture. I remember after, not the previous window where the U.S. team, we played twice. The one before that, in Panama, we're starting to create separation with the other big three. Canada, us and Mexico. And that has seemed to continue. Now, I didn't know if Panama could keep that up. But there's starting to be some real separation. And now, Costa Rica, yeah, if they could close the gap...

Chris Wittyngham:

Yeah, they're at Jamaica on Wednesday.

Landon Donovan:

They're at Jamaica. So if they win that game, they really start to close the gap too. So we talk about games. And now you get to the point with four games left, where you're trying to figure out where are you getting the points from. And for us, it's absolutely have to have three here. Then you get at Mexico, home to Panama, who will very much be alive in any circumstance. And then at Costa Rica, who may still be alive as well. And so now it gets real tricky.

So this game on Wednesday, I cannot stress how vital it is. And I expect that we will win the game and get three points. But I think it's hard to come back if you don't win this game.

Grant Wahl:

A couple of things to think about, Honduras has been eliminated now from World Cup qualifying after losing at home to El Salvador. Honduras has yet to win a game. So not a lot to play for for Honduras. The third game of the window, the Central American countries have really struggled with these three-game windows, just with fitness and just being totally overloaded.

And I do want to ask you, Landon, because we actually didn't end up addressing it in the last podcast. The temperature in St. Paul, Minn., is predicted to be during the game 2 degrees. And that's not even getting into wind chills. This was a choice by U.S. Soccer, which could have put this game in Jacksonville or Nashville or Austin or wherever and chose to put it in St. Paul, Minn. What are your thoughts on that decision?

Landon Donovan:

I think it was the right decision. I know you disagree with me. But given everything at stake. So now what you do is you prepare the team. But the U.S. players prepared in Phoenix. They went to Columbus for a week. They are very used to the weather. They go to Canada, used to it, come to Minnesota, used to it. It will not be a shock. Honduras on the other hand, it'll be like walking into an ice bath. They will have no idea what that feels like and what that's like until they get here.

And the other piece that I think is crucial is the travel piece. And when you think about, look, the U.S. had Honduras the third game of a window when they played away in Honduras. And you remember the second half of that game. And Honduras absolutely just hit the wall. And the U.S. were very good, and we just kept going and going and pounding them until they broke. And that is a huge factor in this. 

So Honduras has a ton of travel. I'm guessing from Hamilton to Minnesota, it can't be more than an hour or so. And that makes a big difference. So I think it's the right move. Although playing on a nice, big field in warm weather right now is probably pretty enticing to Gregg and his staff against the tired Honduras team. But I still think that's a decision I probably would've made the same way.

Chris Wittyngham:

The thing is, we're talking about all these factors that are going to be going against Honduras, where they have lost two in a row. They have yet to win. They're going through a bad situation. They actually didn't start with Alberth Elis and Romell Quioto today. They brought them on at halftime. I don't know what they're saving legs for, considering that they were eliminated from the World Cup today. But do you guys think that this is going to be easy on Wednesday?

Because I can't foresee any U.S. game being easy. I just don't. I don't have the confidence in them. I feel like it's going to be 0-0 after 60 minutes. And they'll have a counterattacking chance that Matt Turner's going to have to make a save or not. And then they can maybe go on from there and win. But I just don't think is going to be easy.

Landon Donovan:

It's not about it being easy for us. It's qualifying. And yes, Honduras are eliminated. So I think you get a slight let-off there. But I don't know. There might be a bunch of Honduran fans who make their way to Minnesota. And they're proud. They are very proud. Not to mention if they play a sort of second-tier group against the U.S., this is essentially a World Cup final for a lot of those players who want to be seen by MLS clubs or USL clubs, by playing against us. And so there could absolutely be a scenario where they throw out eight or nine new players and it'll be a battle for us. That will not be easy.

Grant Wahl:

I will say this. I do think that, and this is extreme temperatures. So this isn't like 25 degrees, 30 degrees in Columbus the other night. Wind chill's well below zero. That's a completely different deal. And I do think that the more you muck up the conditions, there's less of a gap between the two teams. That's my personal feeling. The last two times these two teams played in World Cup qualifying in the U.S., the U.S. won 6-0. I don't think this game will be 6-0. I do think the U.S., especially in the second half, should have a significant stamina advantage, so they could pull away like they did down in Honduras on the third game of that window.

Landon Donovan:

Although, Grant, that depends on who starts for us and who starts for Honduras. It could be the opposite. If Gregg rolls out eight or nine of the same guys again, and Honduras have eight or nine guys who are fit with their club teams, but haven't played in five or six days, that could flip the script a little bit.

Grant Wahl:

And personnel wise, you've got potentially Tyler Adams' injury situation, strained hamstring was what Berhalter said after the game. He said they didn't know yet details on the foot situation of Chris Richards. [NOTE: Both Adams and Richards will miss Wednesday’s game.] And he also said that Walker Zimmerman they were to play but he had a hamstring situation. So we'll see how many guys are going to actually be available and if Berhalter will have to dip into his roster a little bit more than he has so far.

Chris Wittyngham:

Yeah. It could be [Kellyn] Acosta at midfield with Mark McKenzie at centerback. And that all of a sudden becomes a little bit of a different proposition. And yet I wouldn't be surprised. Maybe those guys with fresh legs are to play here, just to get numbers on the field. And you can have some more of that attacking and going forward and playing more direct play. I honestly don't know what the answer is. Just in terms of like, do you want those fresh legs? Should they be trying to play the ball with their feet more and keep it on the ground and play the beautiful game? Or should they be trying to, as Landon said, get numbers in the box, pump crosses in and just try and swarm a team? I just don't know what the answer is going forward. But those are big absences.

No Zimmerman, no Richards and no Tyler Adams. And all of a sudden, particularly your ability to put out fires if Honduras breaks, which is the only way that they can score goals, if they break on the counter, particularly with a player like Alberth Elis. You were going through, Landon, earlier the list of attackers. I think Elis is one of those guys who, if you give him space on the counter can take advantage and really make you pay.

But I don't feel great. I don't feel great heading into Wednesday. Now maybe they win. Mexico beats Panama. You've got that four-point gap restored. You head into the next window basically saying, if you beat Panama at home, you're automatically into the World Cup. And so it can flip just that quickly. But at the moment, you're on a knife's edge, and that's not where you wanted be after 10 games.

Landon Donovan:

Panama's away, right?

Grant Wahl:

Yeah, it's home in Orlando.

Landon Donovan:

Oh, I'm sorry. It's Mexico away. Then Panama home. Okay. Yeah, this is the point where you're starting to do the math now. And we'll have a much clearer picture on Wednesday. But you never want to leave this down to certainly not the last game. And ideally not the last two, as we saw last time in Trinidad.

Chris Wittyngham:

Away at Costa Rica has been a house of horrors for the U.S.. So you don't want anything out of that last day. Actually, I honestly think based off of previous history, the U.S. might be more likely to get something out of Azteca than they are to get something at Costa Rica. Which is ridiculous to say, but I think they can maybe sneak a point there. So I'm looking at seven points on the run-in here.

Grant Wahl:

There's one last thing I want to ask Landon about. Clint Dempsey, Hall of Fame announced today. He will be going in as a first-ballot Hall of Famer. What do you think about your old teammate?

Landon Donovan:

Fully deserved. Congrats to Hope Solo and Shannon Boxx as well. But you would have to be a moron not to have that guy as a first-ballot Hall of Famer. One of the best I ever played with.

Grant Wahl:

Awesome. Guys, always good to talk to you, even after a U.S. loss. And we'll see if they can turn it around on Wednesday. Thanks for coming on the show as always.

Landon Donovan:

Thanks guys.

Chris Wittyngham:

Thanks guys.