Relive the Armchair Analyst's weekly Q&A ahead of this weekend's crucial World Cup & Olympic qualifiers!
Posted by Major League Soccer (MLS) on Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Welcome to the Wednesday Q&A series, where we focus on one particular topic – today's being the upcoming slate of World Cup qualifiers – and ask you to react, share, and discuss in the comments section. However, feel free to ask about anything game-related (MLS, USL, NASL, USMNT, CanMNT, etc.) over the next several hours.
Forty-eight hours from now, World Cup qualifying will have recommenced across the globe. There will be highs and lows, golazos and howlers, predictable domination and unfathomable upsets.
And for the US and Canada, there will be respective moments of truth. For the Yanks it's a trip down to Guatemala City (10 pm ET; beIN SPORTS, NBC Universo) to face Los Chapines in an always inhospitable environment that previous US teams have nonetheless manage to master, or at least ride out to the tune of a road point. A win or, quite honestly, another road draw probably does the deed for the US in all but assuring a sixth straight appearance in the Hexagonal.
They should achieve at least that. As unpleasant as Estadio Mateo Flores can be for visitors, it's been decades since the US lost there:
Doing so this time would continue the type of backsliding we saw in last summer's Gold Cup, when the US lost on home soil for the first time ever to Jamaica, and failed to win in either of their encounters against Panama.
The rise of the US team in CONCACAF over the last quarter century was built upon grinding out tough road points while holding serve at home. If the latter has already fallen to the wayside -- and who can argue it hasn't, after last year's showing? -- then the former becomes even more of a necessity.
North of the border, Canada are taking their quadrennial turn to stare into the abyss. Yes, they have four points from two games, but three of the final four left on the docket are killers: vs. Mexico (Friday, 10 pm ET; TSN in Canada, UniMás in the US) followed by a return trip to the Azteca next Tuesday; then, in September, a jaunt to the house of horrors that is Honduras before wrapping up by hosting El Salvador in the finale.
It is difficult to imagine Canada getting points out of either of those away dates, which means getting full points at home is crucial. The good news is that the house will be full:
However... it's Mexico. El Tri are prohibitive favorites, even on the road, and a Canada loss means the home team's qualifying effort is on the brink before it's even crossed the halfway mark of the round.
Ok folks, thanks for helping me kill another afternoon!
