U.S. World Cup hopes take another hit

HARRISON, N.J. — The United States put its hopes of an eighth straight World Cup berth in peril, giving up a pair of goals to Marco Urena in a 2-0 defeat to Costa Rica on Friday night that brought the Americans’ resurgence under coach Bruce Arena to a crashing thud.

Urena spun around defender Tim Ream, then caught Tim Howard leaning and beat the goalkeeper to the far post in the 31st minute. Urena, the lone forward in a 4-5-1 formation, doubled the lead in the 82nd with a shot from 18 yards after David Guzman intercepted a poor pass by Geoff Cameron.

The Americans have lost two home games in a World Cup cycle for the first time since 1957 and likely will need points on the road to reach next year’s tournament in Russia.

It was just their third home loss in qualifying since 1985 — and came 16 years to the day the U.S. and Arena lost 3-2 to Honduras at Washington’s RFK Stadium.

ELSEWHERE: In Geneva, Germany’s 2-1 win at the Czech Republic was the world champion’s seventh straight win in qualifying and helped it maintain a five-point lead over Northern Ireland atop Group C with three rounds left.

… In Group E, Denmark scored twice in each half in a 4-0 thumping of Poland.

Denmark stays in third place, level on points with Montenegro that earlier won 3-0 in Kazakhstan.

… In Group F, England did not impress before finally seeing off 190th-ranked Malta 4-0 on a warm evening on the Mediterranean island. All goals came in the second half. Scotland rose to third place above Slovenia by winning 3-0 in Lithuania.