Injuries, discipline and COVID disrupt US in qualifying

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras — Two starters are injured, another tested positive for COVID-19 and a fourth was sent home as punishment. The star is regaining fitness after a bout with coronavirus.

Less than a week into World Cup qualifying, much has gone wrong for the United States, which is back at another challenging Central American stadium. The Americans play Honduras on Wednesday night with intense pressure, key absences and a messy discipline issue following disappointing draws against El Salvador and Canada.

“If I’m a fan, I’m not happy with two points after two games, I’m not,” U.S. coach Gregg Berhalter said Tuesday evening at the team’s hotel. “And I can understand frustration. That’s completely normal. But you have to look at the big picture. This is a marathon. It’s not a sprint. You don’t qualify in one window. There’s a five separate windows that you get a chance to qualify for.”

Mexico (2-0) leads the final round of the North and Central American and Caribbean region with six points going into its game at second-place Panama (10-1), which has four. Canada (0-0-1) is third on total goals over Honduras and the U.S., with El Salvador farther back, Costa Rica (0-1-1) and Jamaica (0-2) lag.

“I think the group is ready to respond,” star attacker Christian Pulisic said. “We know that we’re a good enough team to go into tomorrow and to get three points.”

If the U.S. fails to win and has just two or three points from its first three games, it would mark the Americans’ worst start to the final round of qualifying since ending a 40-year absence by reaching the 1990 World Cup.

Even when the Americans failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, they followed an opening 2-1 loss at home to Mexico and a 4-0 defeat at Costa Rica with a 6-0 home rout of Honduras. The first two defeats led to Jurgen Klinsmann being fired and replaced by Bruce Arena.

“I can see it being just memories of the past, memories of last qualifying round coming back and people saying, oh, we’re in the same situation, I can understand that completely,” Berhalter explained. “What I’d say is this is a different group and we’re focused on winning games. We’re focused on getting points. And the thing is, we haven’t lost a game in qualifying. Sometimes you have to remind people.”

This isn’t a must-win game, not following the round’s expansion from 10 matches to 14 due to the pandemic.